Every great poem, side-by-side with a plain English translation. Discover the ones that stay with you. Share them with people who get it.
Emma Lazarus · USA · 1883
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
e.e. cummings · 1952
“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)”
e.e. cummings · 1952
“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)”
Why read this?
cummings' lowercase style and unusual punctuation were deeply intentional — he believed breaking grammatical r…
George Gordon, Lord Byron · 1814
“She walks in Beauty, like the night”
George Gordon, Lord Byron · 1814
“She walks in Beauty, like the night”
William Shakespeare · 1609
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
★★★★★William Shakespeare · 1609
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
on In this short Life by Emily Dickinson
The brevity here belies the gravity. To be simple, lyrical and weighty all at once in as few words as possible is a rare talent. While this one is simple, not all Dickinson verses generally are. Mary Oliver’s poem has that distinction of being simple and profound. But like Shakespeare, and unlike say a Wallace Stevens or a T.S. Eliot, Dickinson is quite dechiperable.
on Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
The language is amazingly easy to understand once you pause and unravel it slowly. The archaic sentence construction is half the challenge here.
