1. Luck is not chance -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 5870 times on American Poems.

Luck is not chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned --
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned --(Read full poem)

Not probable -- The barest Chance --
A smile too few -- a word too much
And far from Heaven as the Rest --
The Soul so close on Paradise --

What if the Bird from journey far --
Confused by Sweets -- as Mortals -- are --
Forget the secret of His... (Read full poem)

3. Kore - written by Robert Creeley
Read 1264 times on American Poems.

As I was walking
  I came upon
chance walking
  the same road upon.

As I sat down
  by chance to move
later
  if and as I might,

light the wood was,
  light and green,
and what I saw
  before I had not seen.

It was a lady
  accompanied
by goat... (Read full poem)

. . . even in the house of Hades.

--Sappho

1

I envy you your chance of death,
how I envy you this.
I am more covetous of him
even than of your glance,
I wish more from his presence
though he torture me in a grasp,
terrible, intense.

Though he... (Read full poem)

5. Sonnet 06 - written by Alan Seeger
Read 400 times on American Poems.

Oh, you are more desirable to me 
Than all I staked in an impulsive hour, 
Making my youth the sport of chance, to be 
Blighted or torn in its most perfect flower; 
For I think less of what that chance may bring 
Than how, before returning into... (Read full poem)

I pick up the skirt,
I pick up the sparkling beads 
in black,
this thing that moved once
around flesh,
and I call God a liar,
I say anything that moved
like that
or knew
my name
could never die
in the common verity of dying,
and I pick 
up her... (Read full poem)

7. Thy Name - written by Brooks Haxton
From Uproar. Read 553 times on American Poems.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  
            I will declare thy name unto my brethren.…         Psalm 102

OK.  Let’s not call what ditched us God:
ghu, the root in Sanskrit, means not God,
but only the calling thereupon.  Let’s... (Read full poem)

It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back one day."(Read full poem)

9. Each Second is the last - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1663 times on American Poems.

Each Second is the last
Perhaps, recalls the Man
Just measuring unconsciousness
The Sea and Spar between.

To fail within a Chance --
How terribler a thing
Than perish from the Chance's list
Before the Perishing!(Read full poem)

I never saw any difference
Between playing cards for money
And selling real estate,
Practicing law, banking, or anything else.
For everything is chance.
Nevertheless
Seest thou a man diligent in business?
He shall stand before Kings! (Read full poem)

11. Too little way the House must lie - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1505 times on American Poems.

Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart
That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant --

Too narrow is the Right between --
Too imminent the chance --
Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once --(Read full poem)

Let another cross his way-
She's the one will do the weeping!
Little need I fear he'll stray
Since I have his heart in keeping-

Let another hail him dear-
Little chance that he'll forget me!
Only need I curse and fear
Her he loved before he met me.(Read full poem)

13. My Vision - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 622 times on American Poems.

Wherever my feet may wander 
Wherever I chance to be, 
There comes, with the coming of even' time 
A vision sweet to me. 
I see my mother sitting 
In the old familiar place, 
And she rocks to the tune her needles sing, 
And thinks of an... (Read full poem)

I know of people in the Grave
Who would be very glad
To know the news I know tonight
If they the chance had had.

'Tis this expands the least event
And swells the scantest deed --
My right to walk upon the Earth
If they this moment had.(Read full poem)

15. Rev. Abner Peet - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 326 times on American Poems.

I had no objection at all
To selling my household effects at auction
On the village square.
It gave my beloved flock the chance
To get something which had belonged to me
For a memorial.
But that trunk which was struck off
To Burchard, the... (Read full poem)

I read how Quixote in his random ride
Came to a crossing once, and lest he lose
The purity of chance, would not decide

Whither to fare, but wished his horse to choose.
For glory lay wherever turned the fable.
His head was light with pride,... (Read full poem)

17. Silet - written by Ezra Pound
Read 2713 times on American Poems.

When I behold how black, immortal ink
Drips from my deathless pen - ah, well-away!
Why should we stop at all for what I think?
There is enough in what I chance to say.

It is enough that we once came together;
What is the use of setting it to... (Read full poem)

We do not know the time we lose --
The awful moment is
And takes its fundamental place
Among the certainties --

A firm appearance still inflates
The card -- the chance -- the friend --
The spectre of solidities
Whose substances are sand --(Read full poem)

19. The Whole of it came not at once -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1412 times on American Poems.

The Whole of it came not at once --
'Twas Murder by degrees --
A Thrust -- and then for Life a chance --
The Bliss to cauterize --

The Cat reprieves the Mouse
She eases from her teeth
Just long enough for Hope to tease --
Then mashes it to death... (Read full poem)

Somehow myself survived the Night
And entered with the Day --
That it be saved the Saved suffice
Without the Formula.

Henceforth I take my living place
As one commuted led --
A Candidate for Morning Chance
But dated with the Dead.(Read full poem)

21. Power is a familiar growth -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1598 times on American Poems.

Power is a familiar growth --
Not foreign -- not to be --
Beside us like a bland Abyss
In every company --
Escape it -- there is but a chance --
When consciousness and clay
Lean forward for a final glance --
Disprove that and you may --(Read full poem)

I DON’T blame the kettle drums—they are hungry.
And the snare drums—I know what they want—they are empty too.
And the harring booming bass drums—they are hungriest of all..    .    .
The howling spears of the Northwest die... (Read full poem)

23. "It Might Have Been" - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 1208 times on American Poems.

We will be what we could be. Do not say,
"It might have been, had not this, or that, or this."
No fate can keep us from the chosen way;
He only might who is.

We will do what we could do. Do not dream
Chance leaves a hero, all uncrowned to... (Read full poem)

As I go and shop, sir!
If a car I stop, sir!
Where you chance to sit,
And you want to read, sir!
Never mind or heed, sir!
I’ll not care a bit.

For it’s now aesthetic
To be quite athletic.
That’s our fad, you know.
I can hold the strap,... (Read full poem)

25. Had I not This, or This, I said, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1204 times on American Poems.

Had I not This, or This, I said,
Appealing to Myself,
In moment of prosperity --
Inadequate -- were Life --

"Thou hast not Me, nor Me" -- it said,
In Moment of Reverse --
"And yet Thou art industrious --
No need -- hadst Thou -- of us"?

My need --... (Read full poem)