Poems to Carry in the Blood

Sonnet 116 “Let me not to the marriage” by William Shakespeare - from

Nancy Slavin

Rosa Gilbert

Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes” by William Shakespeare - from

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley - from

“When I consider how my light is spent” by John Milton - from Elijah Blumov, Host of Versecraft podcast (Thanks

“When I have fears that I may cease to be” by John Keats - from Elijah Blumov, Host of Versecraft podcast (Thanks

“I thank you God for most this amazing day” by E. E. Cummings (scroll down the link to hear Cummings read it in 1953) - suggested by

Kimberly Warner

Offered as a gratitude prompt by
Suleika Jaouad
in her COVID-era
The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad
, Nov. 22, 2020.

Other short poems, 16 lines or less

Metrical

“Triolet” by G. K. Chesterton - suggested by

Stephen Sepaniak

“Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field - suggested by

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost - suggested by

“Unsaid” by Dana Gioia (text) - suggested by

“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley - suggested by

“Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins - suggested by

“Sea-Fever” (“I must go down to the sea again”) by John Masefield - suggested by

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke - suggested by Sherman Alexie

“Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto 6 [My Native Land] by Sir Walter Scott - suggested by

[More about the full ballad here]

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” from Macbeth by William Shakespeare - suggested by

Good Humor by CK Steefel

“Portia’s Speech” from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare - suggested by

“Restatement of Romance” by Wallace Stevens - suggested by

Celia Cain, PhD

“Requiem” by Robert Louis Stevenson - suggested by

“Travel” by Edna St. Vincent Millay - suggested by

Tara Connor

“Crossing the Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - suggested by

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats - suggested by

For more short, metrical suggestions, scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the suggestions of

Catherine Oliver

— added after this post was originally published.

Free Verse

“The Diameter of the Bomb” by Yehuda Amichai - suggested by Dan Ehrenkrantz of

Not So Random Thoughts

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks - suggested by

“Prayer” by Joseph Bruchac - suggested by

“Late Fragment” by Raymond Carver - suggested by

Jennifer Louden

“My Dream about Time” by Lucille Clifton - suggested by

Jacqueline McCormick

Poems by Billy Collins - suggested by

Tara Connor

“Introduction to Poetry” ; “Oh My God” ; “Carry” (poet reading) ; “A Dog, on His Master”

“Memory Sack” by Joy Harjo - suggested by

“Annunciation” and “Prayer” by Marie Howe - suggested by

“Widening Circles” by Rainer Maria Rilke - suggested by

“The Way It Is” by William Stafford - suggested by

“Lost” by David Wagoner - suggested by

Is it okay to adorn the video with fancy old editions? Sure. This crowd can appreciate your collection. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.

Metrical Stanzas over 16 lines

Rhymed:

“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou - suggested by

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop - suggested by

“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll - suggested by

“Bilingual / Bilingüe,” by Rhina P. Espaillat (English & Spanish) - from

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost - suggested by

Melisa Capistrant

“Love (III)” by George Herbert - suggested by Rona Maynard

“To Autumn” by John Keats - suggested by

“The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear - suggested by

“Calico Pie” by Edward Lear - suggested by

Jeffrey Streeter

“The Village Blacksmith” or “The Children’s Hour” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - suggested by

“A Short Story of Falling” by Alice Oswald - suggested by

Michela Griffith

“Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath - suggested by

seamus gilkey

“A Christmas Carol” (“In the bleak midwinter”) by Christina Rossetti - suggested by

Jill Swenson

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - from

Jeffrey Streeter

Blank verse:

“An Old Man’s Winter Night” by Robert Frost - suggested by

Prince Hal’s “I Know You All” speech from Henry IV, Part I, by William Shakespeare - suggested by

Peter Shull

Troubadour clip art - Man with stringed instrument in tunic and leggings — This is the vibe we’re going for on October 25th. Dig the shoes? Really dig those clean medieval teeth!

Free Verse Poems over 16 Lines

“Everything that Happens Can Be Called Aging” by Carl Adamshick - suggested by

Jacqueline McCormick

“Guerilla Garden Writing Poem” by Inua Ellams - suggested by

“I Know the Way You Can Get” by Hafiz - suggested by

“Praise the Rain” by Joy Harjo - suggested by

“Undivided Attention” by Taylor Mali - suggested by Tara Connor

“To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy - suggested by

Jo Paoletti

“I am Vertical” by Sylvia Plath - suggested by

“Myth Dispelled” by Adam Possner - suggested by

Tara Connor

“Say Yes Quickly” by Rumi - suggested by

Andreea Still-Dreams-of-Trees

“Be Nobody’s Darling” by Alice Walker - suggested by

“The End and the Beginning” by Wisława Szymborska - suggested by

Jeff Rich

[If you have never read the 1996 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, please check out this poem!]

“Mockingbirds” by Mary Oliver - suggested by

Danielle LeCourt

, who highlighted the last 3 stanzas:

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Wherever it was
I was supposed to be
this morning—
whatever it was I said

I would be doing—
I was standing
at the edge of the field—
I was hurrying

through my own soul,
opening its dark doors—
I was leaning out;
I was listening.

Also two of Mary Oliver’s best-known poems, suggested by

“The Summer Day” (with its famous last lines, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
“Wild Geese” (read by Mary Oliver
On Being
)

Poems and Excerpts Offered in Full

“The Singing Bowl” by Malcolm Guite (from the book of the same name) - suggested by

Jody L. Collins

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Begin the song exactly where you are,
Remain within the world of which you’re made.
Call nothing common in the earth or air,
Accept it all and let it be for good.
Start with the very breath you breathe in now,
This moment’s pulse, this rhythm in your blood
And listen to it, ringing soft and low.
Stay with the music, words will come in time.
Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.
Become an open singing-bowl, whose chime
Is richness rising out of emptiness,
And timelessness resounding into time.
And when the heart is full of quietness
Begin the song exactly where you are.

*

Excerpt from “The Cure at Troy” by Seamus Heaney - suggested by

26th Avenue Poet

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History says, don’t hope
on this side of the grave; 
but then, once in a lifetime,
the longed-for tidal wave
of justice can rise up
and hope and history rhyme.

*

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene ii, Enobarbus's speech - from

Jeffrey Streeter

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I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,
O'erpicturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

*

More poems that stay with us

Because of their length, these might not be the first candidates for memorization, but some of us carry around a few immortal lines of them, and that’s enough. You can find all of these easily online except the one I linked:

“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - from

“A Poem about My Rights” by June Jordan - from

Jacqueline McCormick

“Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - from

Leslie Rasmussen

Satan’s “Better to reign in Hell” speech, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Book I - suggested by

“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe - from

“The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service - from

Holly Starley

“The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens - from

David Rosenblum

[David says, “I own a little company that makes loudspeakers, and we have a mural on the front of our building that includes a line from it. ‘But it was she and not the sea we heard.’ I take it as something of a reminder every day to remember the voice itself, and not just the medium.” How cool is that?]

In Case You Read Greek

Eight poems worth learning

suggested these classic texts in Greek, though you may also enjoy translations:

The Iliad by Homer, I.1-7

The Odyssey by Homer, I.1-10

John 1 (It reads like a poem) - [I’ve linked the Bible Gateway version. This resource lets you see the same text in dozens of versions using the popup menu in the top right corner.]

New Additions added after the original post (some from comments below)

No surprise - more poems are rolling in after publication. I’ll harvest at least the first ones and add them to the post. (It’s easier to read them up here in the main text.)

“Ithaka” by C. P. Cavafy - suggested by

Priya Iyer

[Free verse, 5 stanzas]

“somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond” by E. E. Cummings - suggested by

Adam Nathan

[Free verse, 5 stanzas]

For families and homeschoolers

Catherine Oliver

published this list of “Eight poems worth learning” for families with children, and there are good suggestions here that would also work for my class of college students:

How We Homeschool

London children who love Tolkien…

5 months ago · 118 likes · 48 comments · Catherine Oliver

Your Turn

Hit the Heart/Like button at the top or bottom of this post if you appreciate these suggestions or are a fan of memorizing poetry.
In the comments, have we missed a poem that you are glad to carry in your blood? (Links are welcome.)
Join the community writing project!

Poems to Carry in the Blood - How to Participate

Make a video or audio post featuring yourself reciting from memory or reading aloud a poem you are glad to have in your blood.
Publish it in your Substack newsletter on October 25th in any time zone.
Tag me (@TaraPenry) and mention this project so that I will see your post.
Please provide in written and spoken text:
1. Name of the poem
2. Name of the author (yourself or someone else)
3. Date of the poem’s publication or composition if you know it
4. Transcript or link to a written version of the poem if possible
5. Name of a book that we could check out or purchase to find that poem and more by the same author, if possible.
Options:
1. Feel free to provide any little story about the poem that you think would interest us.
2. If the poem is a long one, it’s possible to read an excerpt or the full poem. Let us know if you’re sharing just an excerpt, and provide a link to the full poem somewhere.
3. Copy the troubadour picture above or the poetry wall picture below into your post if you’d like to connect posts visually.

Hand painting the word "Poetry" on a wall — Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

Thank you to all who suggested poems! Wow. Thanks also to

Dr. Claire Honeycutt🕊️❤️

and

Nelly Bryce

for sharing the original Note.

Here’s the full text of Sonnet 29 from the Poetry Foundation. In case you haven’t studied the poem in school, “bootless” means ineffectual, useless.

Dana Gioia’s “Planting a Sequoia” is a poem about a father planting a tree for his stillborn son. https://danagioia.com/planting-a-sequoia/

Thank you to