Most Famous Poems of All Time

One of the most famous surviving fragments from the ancient Greek poet Sappho, often called the greatest lyric poet.

"He seems to me equal to gods that man..."

The opening to Chaucer's masterwork, beginning with the famous 'April showers' passage.

"Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote..."

Perhaps the most famous love sonnet ever written.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate..."

Epic poem about the fall of man, opening with one of literature's greatest invocations.

"Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste..."

Burns' reflection on disturbing a mouse's nest while plowing, containing the famous line about 'best laid plans.'

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley..."

Blake's most famous poem questioning the nature of creation and evil.

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night..."

Supernatural ballad about a mariner who kills an albatross and faces supernatural consequences.

"It is an ancient Mariner, / And he stoppeth one of three..."

Dream-poem about the Mongol emperor's pleasure dome, allegedly written under opium influence.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree..."

Sonnet about the ruins of a once-mighty pharaoh's statue, commenting on the transience of power.

"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Keats' meditation on mortality, beauty, and the eternal song of the nightingale.

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense..."

Narrative poem about a man's descent into madness as he's visited by a talking raven.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary..."

Poe's haunting ballad about love that transcends death.

"It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea..."

Epic free-verse celebration of the self and American democracy.

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume..."

Dickinson's personification of Death as a courteous carriage driver.

"Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me..."

Poem of fatherly advice about maintaining integrity in the face of adversity.

"If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you..."

Powerful poem about the hidden pain behind the smiling faces of African Americans.

"We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes..."

WWI poem that became synonymous with remembrance of fallen soldiers.

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row..."

Modernist masterpiece about urban alienation and paralysis.

"Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky..."

Apocalyptic vision of civilization's collapse and renewal.

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."

Modernist epic about spiritual desolation in the post-WWI world.

"April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land..."

Minimalist poem about finding significance in everyday objects.

"so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow..."

Powerful meditation on deferred dreams and racial inequality.

"What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

Philosophical poem exploring perception and reality through thirteen perspectives.

"I was of three minds, / Like a tree / In which there are three blackbirds."

Villanelle urging resistance against death, written for his dying father.

"Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day..."

Beat Generation manifesto about social outcasts and spiritual seeking.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness..."

Powerful poem about young Black men and their choices.

"We real cool. We / Left school. We / Lurk late..."

Intense confessional poem about the poet's relationship with her father and husband.

"You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe..."

Villanelle about the art of losing and acceptance of loss.

"The art of losing isn't hard to master; / so many things seem filled with the intent / to be lost..."

Powerful poem about race, justice, and the murder of Clifford Glover.

"The difference between poetry and rhetoric / is being ready to kill yourself / instead of your children."

Triumphant anthem of resilience in the face of oppression.

"You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies..."

Viral poem that broke the internet with its unflinching examination of sexual assault.

"The rape joke is that you were nineteen."