On World Poetry Day we pay tribute to some brilliant poets who penned poignant and lyrical lines of verse
Behold, our edit of lyrical lines penned by brilliant minds. From Sylvia Plath's longing dream reflections to Maya Angelou's empowered rally cry - these poignant verses are for reading out loud, reflecting on and committing to memory.
Hope Is The Thing With Feathers, Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,
Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
I Carry Your Heart With Me, EE Cummings here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Expect Nothing, Alice Walker Wish for nothing larger Than your own small heart Or greater than a star; Tame wild disappointment With caress unmoved and cold Make of it a parka For your soul.
Sylvia Plath
The Collected Poems, Sylvia Plath I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.)
Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes Nobody wanted your dance, Nobody wanted your strange glitter, your floundering Drowning life and your effort to save yourself, Treading water, dancing the dark turmoil, Looking for something to give.
If, Rudyard Kipling If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
How Do I Love Thee?, Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace.
Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Woman, Maya Angelou The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.
These I Can Promise, Mark Twain I can promise all my heart's devotion; A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow; A love that's true and ever growing; A hand to hold in your's through each tomorrow.
Late Fragment, Raymond Carver, And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.
Words, Wide Night, Carol Ann Duffy Somewhere on the other side of this wide night and the distance between us, I am thinking of you. The room is turning slowly away from the moon.
Margaret Atwood The Moment, Margaret Atwood The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this,
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Oh Yes, Charles Bukowski there are worse things than being alone but it often takes decades to realize this and most often when you do it’s too late and there’s nothing worse than too late.
The Complete Poems, Anne Sexton Watch out for intellect, because it knows so much it knows nothing and leaves you hanging upside down, mouthing knowledge as your heart falls out of your mouth.
Right, all we need to do now is find someone to quote this stuff to...