Random Poem Generator

One press gives one whole short poem, with its poet and the book it comes from.

Random Poem Generator

  1. CompensationI should be glad of loneliness / And hours that go on broken wings, / A thirsty body, a tired heart / And the unchanging ache of things, / If I could make a single song / As lovely and as full of light, / As hushed and brief as a falling star / On a winter night. (Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow)
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How it works

Press the button for a random poem: one whole short poem of eight lines or fewer, under its title or first line, with its poet and book. The list holds 122, all in the public domain, and a slash marks each line break.

Read the full guide

Choose a poet, or keep it short

After your first press, the chips narrow the draw. Emily Dickinson has 34 poems, Christina Rossetti 24 nursery rhymes, Edward Lear 16 limericks, Sara Teasdale 15, Adelaide Crapsey 14, mostly her five-line cinquains, and Robert Louis Stevenson 10. Four lines or fewer holds 36 poems short enough to learn by heart in a few minutes.

Where the random poems come from

Every poem was copied by script from a Project Gutenberg book and is printed whole, word for word. Nothing here is written by a machine, and no poem by a living poet is in the list. The card is headed by the poem's title or, where the book gives none, its first line, and the poet and book follow the last line.

Tips
  • Read it aloud and pause at each slash. Most of these were written for the ear.
  • Set the count to 3 to put a limerick beside a Dickinson poem and compare how each one sounds.

Questions and answers

Can I use this as a poem randomizer for class?

Yes. Every poem is in the public domain in the United States, so it can be copied onto a board or a handout. Pick Christina Rossetti or Robert Louis Stevenson for young children, and Edward Lear for a limerick lesson.

Why is there no long random poetry here?

The card shows one poem at a glance, so the list stops at eight lines. For longer poems, the Project Gutenberg books these come from are free to read in full.

Are these poems random or chosen?

Both. We chose the list by hand, and the button draws from it so that every poem passing the chips has the same chance.

What is a cinquain?

A five-line verse form that Adelaide Crapsey made up and named herself, as the preface to her book Verse says. November Night and Snow are two of hers in this list.

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All 122 poems

Emily Dickinson 34

  • A Syllable Could mortal lip divine / The undeveloped freight / Of a delivered syllable, / 'Twould crumble with the weight. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • A Word A word is dead / When it is said, / Some say. / I say it just / Begins to live / That day. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Alter? When the hills do Alter? When the hills do. / Falter? When the sun / Question if his glory / Be the perfect one. / Surfeit? When the daffodil / Doth of the dew: / Even as herself, O friend! / I will of you! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Angels in the early morning Angels in the early morning / May be seen the dews among, / Stooping, plucking, smiling, flying: / Do the buds to them belong? / Angels when the sun is hottest / May be seen the sands among, / Stooping, plucking, sighing, flying; / Parched the flowers they bear along. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Autumn The morns are meeker than they were, / The nuts are getting brown; / The berry's cheek is plumper, / The rose is out of town. / The maple wears a gayer scarf, / The field a scarlet gown. / Lest I should be old-fashioned, / I'll put a trinket on. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
Show all 122 poems (117 more)

Emily Dickinson, continued

  • Beclouded The sky is low, the clouds are mean, / A travelling flake of snow / Across a barn or through a rut / Debates if it will go. / A narrow wind complains all day / How some one treated him; / Nature, like us, is sometimes caught / Without her diadem. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • The butterfly's assumption-gown The butterfly's assumption-gown, / In chrysoprase apartments hung, / This afternoon put on. / How condescending to descend, / And be of buttercups the friend / In a New England town! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Deed A deed knocks first at thought, / And then it knocks at will. / That is the manufacturing spot, / And will at home and well. / It then goes out an act, / Or is entombed so still / That only to the ear of God / Its doom is audible. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Disenchantment It dropped so low in my regard / I heard it hit the ground, / And go to pieces on the stones / At bottom of my mind; / Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less / Than I reviled myself / For entertaining plated wares / Upon my silver shelf. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Dreams Let me not mar that perfect dream / By an auroral stain, / But so adjust my daily night / That it will come again. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Faith is a fine invention Faith is a fine invention / For gentlemen who see; / But microscopes are prudent / In an emergency! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Forbidden Fruit Forbidden fruit a flavor has / That lawful orchards mocks; / How luscious lies the pea within / The pod that Duty locks! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • How still the bells in steeples stand How still the bells in steeples stand, / Till, swollen with the sky, / They leap upon their silver feet / In frantic melody! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • I never saw a moor I never saw a moor, / I never saw the sea; / Yet know I how the heather looks, / And what a wave must be. / I never spoke with God, / Nor visited in heaven; / Yet certain am I of the spot / As if the chart were given. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Look back on time with kindly eyes Look back on time with kindly eyes, / He doubtless did his best; / How softly sinks his trembling sun / In human nature's west! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Lost I lost a world the other day. / Has anybody found? / You'll know it by the row of stars / Around its forehead bound. / A rich man might not notice it; / Yet to my frugal eye / Of more esteem than ducats. / Oh, find it, sir, for me! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Love Love is anterior to life, / Posterior to death, / Initial of creation, and / The exponent of breath. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Morning is the place for dew Morning is the place for dew, / Corn is made at noon, / After dinner light for flowers, / Dukes for setting sun! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • The Mountain The mountain sat upon the plain / In his eternal chair, / His observation omnifold, / His inquest everywhere. / The seasons prayed around his knees, / Like children round a sire: / Grandfather of the days is he, / Of dawn the ancestor. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Not knowing when the dawn will come Not knowing when the dawn will come / I open every door; / Or has it feathers like a bird, / Or billows like a shore? (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • The Past The past is such a curious creature, / To look her in the face / A transport may reward us, / Or a disgrace. / Unarmed if any meet her, / I charge him, fly! / Her rusty ammunition / Might yet reply! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Portraits are to daily faces Portraits are to daily faces / As an evening west / To a fine, pedantic sunshine / In a satin vest. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn / Indicative that suns go down; / The notice to the startled grass / That darkness is about to pass. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Real Riches 'Tis little I could care for pearls / Who own the ample sea; / Or brooches, when the Emperor / With rubies pelteth me; / Or gold, who am the Prince of Mines; / Or diamonds, when I see / A diadem to fit a dome / Continual crowning me. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • The Sea An everywhere of silver, / With ropes of sand / To keep it from effacing / The track called land. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • The Sea of Sunset This is the land the sunset washes, / These are the banks of the Yellow Sea; / Where it rose, or whither it rushes, / These are the western mystery! / Night after night her purple traffic / Strews the landing with opal bales; / Merchantmen poise upon horizons, / Dip, and vanish with fairy sails. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Sunset A sloop of amber slips away / Upon an ether sea, / And wrecks in peace a purple tar, / The son of ecstasy. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • To my quick ear the leaves conferred To my quick ear the leaves conferred; / The bushes they were bells; / I could not find a privacy / From Nature's sentinels. / In cave if I presumed to hide, / The walls began to tell; / Creation seemed a mighty crack / To make me visible. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Water is taught by thirst Water is taught by thirst; / Land, by the oceans passed; / Transport, by throe; / Peace, by its battles told; / Love, by memorial mould; / Birds, by the snow. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • We outgrow love like other things We outgrow love like other things / And put it in the drawer, / Till it an antique fashion shows / Like costumes grandsires wore. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • When night is almost done When night is almost done, / And sunrise grows so near / That we can touch the spaces, / It's time to smooth the hair / And get the dimples ready, / And wonder we could care / For that old faded midnight / That frightened but an hour. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Who has not found the heaven below Who has not found the heaven below / Will fail of it above. / God's residence is next to mine, / His furniture is love. (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • Who? My friend must be a bird, / Because it flies! / Mortal my friend must be, / Because it dies! / Barbs has it, like a bee. / Ah, curious friend, / Thou puzzlest me! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)
  • With Flowers South winds jostle them, / Bumblebees come, / Hover, hesitate, / Drink, and are gone. / Butterflies pause / On their passage Cashmere; / I, softly plucking, / Present them here! (Emily Dickinson, Poems)

Christina Rossetti 24

  • An emerald is as green as grass An emerald is as green as grass; / A ruby red as blood; / A sapphire shines as blue as heaven; / A flint lies in the mud. / A diamond is a brilliant stone, / To catch the world’s desire; / An opal holds a fiery spark; / But a flint holds fire. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Currants on a bush Currants on a bush, / And figs upon a stem, / And cherries on a bending bough, / And Ned to gather them. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Fly away, fly away over the sea Fly away, fly away over the sea, / Sun-loving swallow, for summer is done; / Come again, come again, come back to me, / Bringing the summer and bringing the sun. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth. / Love is like a rose the joy of all the earth; / Faith is like a lily lifted high and white, / Love is like a lovely rose the world’s delight; / Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth, / But the rose with all its thorns excels them both. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • The horses of the sea The horses of the sea / Rear a foaming crest, / But the horses of the land / Serve us the best. / The horses of the land / Munch corn and clover, / While the foaming sea-horses / Toss and turn over. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Hurt no living thing Hurt no living thing: / Ladybird, nor butterfly, / Nor moth with dusty wing, / Nor cricket chirping cheerily, / Nor grasshopper so light of leap, / Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat, / Nor harmless worms that creep. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • If all were rain and never sun If all were rain and never sun, / No bow could span the hill; / If all were sun and never rain, / There’d be no rainbow still. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • If I were a Queen If I were a Queen, / What would I do? / I’d make you King, / And I’d wait on you. / If I were a King, / What would I do? / I’d make you Queen, / For I’d marry you. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • If stars dropped out of heaven If stars dropped out of heaven, / And if flowers took their place, / The sky would still look very fair, / And fair earth’s face. / Winged angels might fly down to us / To pluck the stars, / But we could only long for flowers / Beyond the cloudy bars. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Is the moon tired? she looks so pale Is the moon tired? she looks so pale / Within her misty veil: / She scales the sky from east to west, / And takes no rest. / Before the coming of the night / The moon shows papery white; / Before the dawning of the day / She fades away. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east: / Shine, be increased; / O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the west: / Wane, be at rest. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • O wind, where have you been O wind, where have you been, / That you blow so sweet? / Among the violets / Which blossom at your feet. / The honeysuckle waits / For Summer and for heat. / But violets in the chilly Spring / Make the turf so sweet. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • On the grassy banks On the grassy banks / Lambkins at their pranks; / Woolly sisters, woolly brothers / Jumping off their feet / While their woolly mothers / Watch by them and bleat. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • The peacock has a score of eyes The peacock has a score of eyes, / With which he cannot see; / The cod-fish has a silent sound, / However that may be; / No dandelions tell the time, / Although they turn to clocks; / Cat’s-cradle does not hold the cat. / Nor foxglove fit the fox. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Pussy has a whiskered face Pussy has a whiskered face, / Kitty has such pretty ways; / Doggie scampers when I call, / And has a heart to love us all. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • The rose with such a bonny blush The rose with such a bonny blush, / What has the rose to blush about? / If it’s the sun that makes her flush, / What’s in the sun to flush about? (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Rushes in a watery place Rushes in a watery place, / And reeds in a hollow; / A soaring skylark in the sky, / A darting swallow; / And where pale blossom used to hang / Ripe fruit to follow. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • The summer nights are short The summer nights are short / Where northern days are long: / For hours and hours lark after lark / Trills out his song. / The summer days are short / Where southern nights are long: / Yet short the night when nightingales / Trill out their song. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Swift and sure the swallow Swift and sure the swallow, / Slow and sure the snail: / Slow and sure may miss his way, / Swift and sure may fail. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow: / What are brief? to-day and to-morrow: / What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth / What are deep? the ocean and truth. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • What do the stars do What do the stars do / Up in the sky, / Higher than the wind can blow, / Or the clouds can fly? / Each star in its own glory / Circles, circles still; / As it was lit to shine and set, / And do its Maker’s will. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • When fishes set umbrellas up When fishes set umbrellas up / If the rain-drops run, / Lizards will want their parasols / To shade them from the sun. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • When the cows come home the milk is coming When the cows come home the milk is coming, / Honey’s made while the bees are humming; / Duck and drake on the rushy lake, / And the deer live safe in the breezy brake; / And timid, funny, brisk little bunny, / Winks his nose and sits all sunny. (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)
  • Wrens and robins in the hedge Wrens and robins in the hedge, / Wrens and robins here and there; / Building, perching, pecking, fluttering, / Everywhere! (Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song)

Edward Lear limericks 16

  • There was a Young Lady of Bute There was a Young Lady of Bute, / Who played on a silver-gilt flute; / She played several jigs, / To her uncle's white pigs, / That amusing Young Lady of Bute. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young lady of Portugal There was a Young lady of Portugal, / Whose ideas were excessively nautical; / She climbed up a tree, / To examine the sea, / But declared she would never leave Portugal. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady of Ryde There was a Young Lady of Ryde, / Whose shoe-strings were seldom untied; / She purchased some clogs, / And some small spotty dogs, / And frequently walked about Ryde. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady of Sweden There was a Young Lady of Sweden, / Who went by the slow train to Weedon; / When they cried, "Weedon Station!" / She made no observation, / But thought she should go back to Sweden. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady of Tyre There was a Young Lady of Tyre, / Who swept the loud chords of a lyre; / At the sound of each sweep, / She enraptured the deep, / And enchanted the city of Tyre. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady of Wales There was a Young Lady of Wales, / Who caught a large fish without scales; / When she lifted her hook, / She exclaimed, "Only look!" / That ecstatic Young Lady of Wales. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady of Welling There was a Young Lady of Welling, / Whose praise all the world was a-telling; / She played on the harp, / And caught several carp, / That accomplished Young Lady of Welling. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was a Young Lady whose bonnet There was a Young Lady whose bonnet, / Came untied when the birds sate upon it; / But she said, "I don't care! / All the birds in the air / Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!" (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man of Kilkenny There was an Old Man of Kilkenny, / Who never had more than a penny; / He spent all that money, / In onions and honey, / That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man of the Coast There was an Old Man of the Coast, / Who placidly sat on a post; / But when it was cold, / He relinquished his hold, / And called for some hot buttered toast. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man of the Hague There was an Old Man of the Hague, / Whose ideas were excessively vague; / He built a balloon, / To examine the moon, / That deluded Old Man of the Hague. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man of the Isles There was an Old Man of the Isles, / Whose face was pervaded with smiles; / He sung high dum diddle, / And played on the fiddle, / That amiable Man of the Isles. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man on a hill There was an Old Man on a hill, / Who seldom, if ever, stood still; / He ran up and down, / In his Grandmother's gown, / Which adorned that Old Man on a hill. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Man, on whose nose There was an Old Man, on whose nose, / Most birds of the air could repose; / But they all flew away, / At the closing of day, / Which relieved that Old Man and his nose. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Person of Ischia There was an Old Person of Ischia, / Whose conduct grew friskier and friskier; / He danced hornpipes and jigs, / And ate thousands of figs, / That lively Old Person of Ischia. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)
  • There was an Old Person of Tring There was an Old Person of Tring, / Who embellished his nose with a ring; / He gazed at the moon, / Every evening in June, / That ecstatic Old Person of Tring. (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense)

Sara Teasdale 15

  • Alchemy I lift my heart as spring lifts up / A yellow daisy to the rain; / My heart will be a lovely cup / Altho' it holds but pain. / For I shall learn from flower and leaf / That color every drop they hold, / To change the lifeless wine of grief / To living gold. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Arcturus Arcturus brings the spring back / As surely now as when / He rose on eastern islands / For Grecian girls and men; / The twilight is as clear a blue, / The star as shaken and as bright, / And the same thought he gave to them / He gives to me to-night. (Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow)
  • But Not to Me The April night is still and sweet / With flowers on every tree; / Peace comes to them on quiet feet, / But not to me. / My peace is hidden in his breast / Where I shall never be; / Love comes to-night to all the rest, / But not to me. (Sara Teasdale, Love Songs)
  • Chance How many times we must have met / Here on the street as strangers do, / Children of chance we were, who passed / The door of heaven and never knew. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Compensation I should be glad of loneliness / And hours that go on broken wings, / A thirsty body, a tired heart / And the unchanging ache of things, / If I could make a single song / As lovely and as full of light, / As hushed and brief as a falling star / On a winter night. (Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow)
  • In the Train Fields beneath a quilt of snow / From which the rocks and stubble peep, / And in the west a shy white star / That shivers as it wakes from sleep. / The restless rumble of the train, / The drowsy people in the car, / Steel blue twilight in the world, / And in my heart a timid star. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Joy I am wild, I will sing to the trees, / I will sing to the stars in the sky, / I love, I am loved, he is mine, / Now at last I can die! / I am sandaled with wind and with flame, / I have heart-fire and singing to give, / I can tread on the grass or the stars, / Now at last I can live! (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Morning I went out on an April morning / All alone, for my heart was high, / I was a child of the shining meadow, / I was a sister of the sky. / There in the windy flood of morning / Longing lifted its weight from me, / Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering, / Swept as a sea-bird out to sea. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Morning Song A diamond of a morning / Waked me an hour too soon; / Dawn had taken in the stars / And left the faint white moon. / O white moon, you are lonely, / It is the same with me, / But we have the world to roam over, / Only the lonely are free. (Sara Teasdale, Flame and Shadow)
  • Riches I have no riches but my thoughts, / Yet these are wealth enough for me; / My thoughts of you are golden coins / Stamped in the mint of memory; / And I must spend them all in song, / For thoughts, as well as gold, must be / Left on the hither side of death / To gain their immortality. (Sara Teasdale, Love Songs)
  • Stresa The moon grows out of the hills / A yellow flower, / The lake is a dreamy bride / Who waits her hour. / Beauty has filled my heart, / It can hold no more, / It is full, as the lake is full, / From shore to shore. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • Thoughts When I can make my thoughts come forth / To walk like ladies up and down, / Each one puts on before the glass / Her most becoming hat and gown. / But oh, the shy and eager thoughts / That hide and will not get them dressed, / Why is it that they always seem / So much more lovely than the rest? (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • To-night The moon is a curving flower of gold, / The sky is still and blue; / The moon was made for the sky to hold, / And I for you. / The moon is a flower without a stem, / The sky is luminous; / Eternity was made for them, / To-night for us. (Sara Teasdale, Love Songs)
  • Twilight The stately tragedy of dusk / Drew to its perfect close, / The virginal white evening star / Sank, and the red moon rose. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)
  • While I May Wind and hail and veering rain, / Driven mist that veils the day, / Soul's distress and body's pain, / I would bear you while I may. / I would love you if I might, / For so soon my life will be / Buried in a lasting night, / Even pain denied to me. (Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea)

Adelaide Crapsey 14

  • Adventure Sun and wind and beat of sea, / Great lands stretching endlessly. . . . / Where be bonds to bind the free? / All the world was made for me! (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Arbutus Not Spring's / Thou art, but her's, / Most cool, most virginal, / Winter's, with thy faint breath, thy snows / Rose-tinged. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Blue Hyacinths In your / Curled petals what ghosts / Of blue headlands and seas, / What perfumed immortal breath sighing / Of Greece. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • The Elgin Marbles The clustered Gods, the marching lads, / The mighty-limbed, deep-bosomed Three, / The shimmering grey-gold London fog. . . . / I wish that Phidias could see! (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • The Grand Canyon By Zeus! / Shout word of this / To the eldest dead! Titans, / Gods, Heroes, come who have once more / A home! (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Laurel in the Berkshires Sea-foam / And coral! Oh, I'll / Climb the great pasture rocks / And dream me mermaid in the sun's / Gold flood. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Night Winds The old / Old winds that blew / When chaos was, what do / They tell the clattered trees that I / Should weep? (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • November Night Listen . . . / With faint dry sound, / Like steps of passing ghosts, / The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees / And fall. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • On Seeing Weather-beaten Trees Is it as plainly in our living shown, / By slant and twist, which way the wind hath blown? (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Roma Aeterna The sun / Is warm to-day, / O Romulus, and on / Thine olden Palatine the birds / Still sing. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Shadow A-sway, / On red rose, / A golden butterfly . . . / And on my heart a butterfly / Night-wing'd. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • Snow Look up . . . / From bleakening hills / Blows down the light, first breath / Of wintry wind . . . look up, and scent / The snow! (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • The Sun-dial Every day, / Every day, / Tell the hours / By their shadows, / By their shadows. (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)
  • The Warning Just now, / Out of the strange / Still dusk . . . as strange, as still . . . / A white moth flew. Why am I grown / So cold? (Adelaide Crapsey, Verse)

Robert Louis Stevenson 10

  • A Camp The bed was made, the room was fit, / By punctual eve the stars were lit; / The air was still, the water ran, / No need was there for maid or man, / When we put up, my ass and I, / At God’s green caravanserai. (Robert Louis Stevenson, Underwoods)
  • At the Sea-Side When I was down beside the sea / A wooden spade they gave to me / To dig the sandy shore. / My holes were empty like a cup. / In every hole the sea came up, / Till it could come no more. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Auntie's Skirts Whenever Auntie moves around, / Her dresses make a curious sound, / They trail behind her up the floor, / And trundle after through the door. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Envoy Go, little book, and wish to all / Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, / A bin of wine, a spice of wit, / A house with lawns enclosing it, / A living river by the door, / A nightingale in the sycamore! (Robert Louis Stevenson, Underwoods)
  • Fairy Bread Come up here, O dusty feet! / Here is fairy bread to eat. / Here in my retiring room, / Children, you may dine / On the golden smell of broom / And the shade of pine; / And when you have eaten well, / Fairy stories hear and tell. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Looking Forward When I am grown to man's estate / I shall be very proud and great, / And tell the other girls and boys / Not to meddle with my toys. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Rain The rain is falling all around, / It falls on field and tree, / It rains on the umbrellas here, / And on the ships at sea. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Singing Of speckled eggs the birdie sings / And nests among the trees; / The sailor sings of ropes and things / In ships upon the seas. / The children sing in far Japan, / The children sing in Spain; / The organ with the organ man / Is singing in the rain. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Time to Rise A birdie with a yellow bill / Hopped upon my window sill, / Cocked his shining eye and said: / "Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!" (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)
  • Whole Duty of Children A child should always say what's true / And speak when he is spoken to, / And behave mannerly at table; / At least as far as he is able. (Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses)

Blake, Crane and Housman 9

  • A man said to the universe A man said to the universe: / "Sir, I exist!" / "However," replied the universe, / "The fact has not created in me / "A sense of obligation." (Stephen Crane, War Is Kind)
  • Into my heart an air that kills Into my heart an air that kills / From yon far country blows: / What are those blue remembered hills, / What spires, what farms are those? / That is the land of lost content, / I see it shining plain, / The happy highways where I went / And cannot come again. (A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad)
  • The Lily The modest Rose puts forth a thorn, / The humble sheep a threat’ning horn: / While the Lily white shall in love delight, / Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright. (William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience)
  • My Pretty Rose Tree A flower was offered to me, / Such a flower as May never bore; / But I said, ‘I’ve a pretty rose tree,’ / And I passed the sweet flower o’er. / Then I went to my pretty rose tree, / To tend her by day and by night; / But my rose turned away with jealousy, / And her thorns were my only delight. (William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience)
  • Oh, when I was in love with you Oh, when I was in love with you, / Then I was clean and brave, / And miles around the wonder grew / How well did I behave. / And now the fancy passes by, / And nothing will remain, / And miles around they'll say that I / Am quite myself again. (A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad)
  • On the horizon the peaks assembled On the horizon the peaks assembled; / And as I looked, / The march of the mountains began. / As they marched, they sang, / "Aye! We come! We come!" (Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines)
  • The Sick Rose O rose, thou art sick! / The invisible worm, / That flies in the night, / In the howling storm, / Has found out thy bed / Of crimson joy, / And his dark secret love / Does thy life destroy. (William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience)
  • "Think as I think," said a man "Think as I think," said a man, / "Or you are abominably wicked; / "You are a toad." / And after I had thought of it, / I said, "I will, then, be a toad." (Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines)
  • With rue my heart is laden With rue my heart is laden / For golden friends I had, / For many a rose-lipt maiden / And many a lightfoot lad. / By brooks too broad for leaping / The lightfoot boys are laid; / The rose-lipt girls are sleeping / In fields where roses fade. (A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad)

How this list was compiled: All 122 poems are whole poems of eight lines or fewer, copied by script on 2026-09-30 from the plain text of thirteen Project Gutenberg books, fetched that day from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/<number>/pg<number>.txt: Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete (12242); Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song (76703); Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense (982); Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses (136) and Underwoods (438); Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea (596), Flame and Shadow (591) and Love Songs (442); Adelaide Crapsey, Verse (63010); William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1934); Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines (40786) and War Is Kind (9870); A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (5720). The address of the book is saved with each poem in x.src. Project Gutenberg's catalog page for each book marks it public domain in the USA and gives the poet's dates: Blake died in 1827, Dickinson in 1886, Lear in 1888, Rossetti and Stevenson in 1894, Crane in 1900, Crapsey in 1914, Teasdale in 1933 and Housman in 1936 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/<number>, read 2026-09-30). A poem whose opening lines are already on this site's quote page was left out. Wording, spelling and punctuation follow the Gutenberg text. Four things are set differently: a slash marks a line break; the spaced apostrophes of the Dickinson edition are closed up (It 's becomes It's, 'T is becomes 'Tis); a first word printed in capitals is set in ordinary type; and extra spaces are removed. Poems whose Gutenberg text holds a long dash were passed over, because this site prints none and the text may not be changed. The card is headed with the title the book prints (Dickinson's were given by her first editors) or, where the book prints none or the title is used twice, with the first line. Which poems are here is our own choice. The attribution lines are our own. Licence: Public-domain poems (Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html); the selection, chips and attribution lines are own work.