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Great Poems to Teach

Compiled by the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, this list contains 341 poems submitted by teachers who participated in a workshop organized by TWC. Selected for participation by C. K. Williams, teachers applying to the workshop were asked to supply a list of poems which they had successfully taught in high school English and Language Arts classrooms.
Poems on Poets.org

Maya Angelou

Matthew Arnold

W. H. Auden

Elizabeth Bishop

William Blake

David Bottoms

Anne Bradstreet

Joseph Brodsky

Gwendolyn Brooks

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Robert Browning

Lewis Carroll

Lucille Clifton

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Emily Dickinson

Denise Duhamel

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Robert Frost

Tess Gallagher

John Haines

Thomas Hardy

George Herbert

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Langston Hughes

James Weldon Johnson

Etheridge Knight

Robert Lowell

Andrew Marvell

Edgar Lee Masters

Claude McKay

John Milton

Edgar Allan Poe

Ezra Pound

Edwin Arlington Robinson

William Shakespeare

Stevie Smith

May Swenson

Lord Alfred Tennyson

César Vallejo

Walt Whitman

William Wordsworth

W. B. Yeats

From the Poetry Store

Support this resource by shopping in our Poetry Store.

New Voices: University and College Prizes, 1989-1998 New Voices: University and College Prizes, 1989-1998

A collection of winners of the Academy's University & College Prizes.

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The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript

The Hand of the Poet draws the reader into the real world of the poet by presenting a range of working drafts, letters, diary entries, photographs and memorabilia.

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Great Poets Coffee Mug Great Poets Coffee Mug

Ideal for coffee, tea, or any other hot beverage, the mugs feature artistic portraits of some of the greatest poets in the English language.

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Poetry Speaks, Expanded Edition Poetry Speaks, Expanded Edition

A definitive anthology featuring text and recordings from nearly fifty historic poets. Includes three bound-in audio CDs of poets reading their own work.

$50.00 | Order Now



Rules for the Dance Rules for the Dance
By Mary Oliver

For both readers and writers of poetry, here is a concise and engaging introduction to sound, rhyme, meter, and scansion - and why they matter.

$13.00 | Order Now



Poet's Choice Poet's Choice
By Robert Hass

A collection of the poems selected by Robert Hass during his two years as the U.S. Poet Laureate for a nationally syndicated news column.

$23.00 | Order Now



Modern American Poetry Modern American Poetry

Edited by seasoned high school teachers and published poets, this anthology is an ideal way to introduce yourself or a loved one to some of the best American poets.

$26.00 | Order Now

Teach with Audio

The Academy’s Poetry Audio Archive contains hundreds of unique live recordings made since 1963, when the Academy hosted its first public reading. Use audio in your classroom.

All Three Audio Archive Anthologies All Three Audio Archive Anthologies

For a Limited Time: Get all three Anthologies from the Academy of American Poets' Audio Archive for the reduced price of $30.

$30.00 | Order Now

Browse our Audio Archive for more selections >


Poems Available Elsewhere

Maya Angelou

  • "On the Pulse of Morning"
  • "Phenomenal Woman"

Anonymous

  • "Darkness Song"
    Iroquois
  • "Edward, Edward"
  • "The Glove and the Lion"
  • "Healing Song and Love Charm"
  • "I Have Found My Lover"
  • "Ich Am Of Irlaunde"
  • "My Love Has Departed"
  • "Nightmare"
  • "Sacred Formulas Concerning Living Humanity"
  • "Sea Lullaby"
  • "Spring Song"
  • "Why Should I Be Jealous"
    Chippewa

Angie Argabrite

  • "Elvis is sighted at the 7-11"

W. H. Auden

  • "Musee des Beaux Arts"

Toni Cade Bambera

  • "Gorilla, My Love"
  • "Super Fly Pants"

Hilaire Belloc

  • "Tarantella"

Stephen Vincent Benét

  • "You took a carriage to that battlefield (from John Brown's Body)"

Elizabeth Bishop

  • "The Fish"
  • "Geography"

Robert Bly

  • "All the Fruit is Ripe"

Philip Booth

  • "One Man's Wife"

Joseph Brodsky

  • "Bosnia Tune"
  • "Upon the Burning of Our House"

Rupert Brooke

  • "1 + 20"

Gwendolyn Brooks

  • "A song in the front yard"

Dina Cae

  • "My Sister of the Horses"

William Carpenter

  • "Rain"

Lucille Clifton

  • "in white america"

Countee Cullen

  • "Any Human to Another"
  • "Incident"
  • "Tableau"

E. E. Cummings

  • "love is more thicker"

Roque Dalton

  • "Yo Como Tu"

Jessica Davidson

  • "I never will learn to read English aloud"

Emily Dickinson

  • "Some Keep the Sabbath"

David Diop

  • "Africa"

Paul Laurence Dunbar

  • "Life"

Richard Eberhart

  • "Horse Chestnut Tree"

Russell Edson

  • "The Broken Daughter"

T. S. Eliot

  • "Hollow Men"
  • "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
  • "Preludes"

Mari Evans

  • "When in Rome"

Elanor Farjeon

  • "Poetry"

Pavel Friedmann

  • "The Butterfly"

Robert Frost

  • "Acquainted with the Night"
  • "After Apple-Picking"
  • "The Death of the Hired Man"
  • "The Draft Horse"
  • "Fire and Ice"
  • "It Bids Pretty Fair"
  • "Out, Out-"
  • "The Silken Tent"
  • "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Allen Ginsberg

  • "Howl (sec. III)"

Nikki Giovanni

  • "Africa"
  • "Because"
  • "Ego Tripping"
  • "Knoxville, Tennessee"
  • "Luxury"
  • "Night"
  • "Nikki-Rosa"

Sarah Goosens

  • "Politics"

Nicholas Guillen

  • "Problemas del Subdesarrollo Que Color?"

Robert Hayden

  • "Frederick Douglass"
  • "Runagate Runagate"
  • "Those Winter Sundays"

Frank Horne

  • "Mama"
  • "To James"

A. E. Housman

  • "O, When I Was in Love with You"
  • "Terrence, This Is Stupid Stuff"
  • "To an Athlete Dying Young"

Langston Hughes

  • "Africa"
  • "As I Grew Older"
  • "Consider Me"
  • "Harlem"
  • "Harlem Sweeties"
  • "I Dream a World"
  • "Justice"
  • "Mother to Son"
  • "My People"
  • "Negro Weeps"
  • "Refugee in America"
  • "To Paint a Water Lily"
  • "Too Blue"

Ted Hughes

  • "Big Poppy"

Robinson Jeffers

  • "Boats in a Fog"

Brooks Jenkins

  • "Loneliness"

Greg Johnson

  • "Love and Aid"

X. J. Kennedy

  • "In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day"

Galway Kinnell

  • "Rapture"

Rudyard Kipling

  • "Danny Deever"

Etheridge Knight

  • "Selected Haikus"

Naoshi Koriyama

  • "Unfolding Bud"

Kush

  • "A Message to Langston"

Philip Larkin

  • "Church Going"
  • "Coming"
  • "This Be the Verse"
  • "Wedding-Wind"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  • "The Wreck of the Hesperus"

Audre Lorde

  • "Coal"

Amy Lowell

  • "A Decade"
  • "Meeting House Hill"
  • "Patterns"

Don Marquis

  • "the lesson of the moth"

Luis Palés Matos

  • "Black Dance"

Phyllis McGinley

  • "First Lesson"
  • "Portrait of a Girl With a Comic Book"

Leda Mesen

  • "Dog"

Edna St. Vincent Millay

  • "Love Is Not All"
  • "Recuerdo"

Susan Mitchell

  • "I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman"

Thomas Moore

  • "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms"

Howard Nemerov

  • "To David About His Education"

Pablo Neruda

  • "Ode to a Tomato"
  • "Ode to Salt"
  • "Walking Around"

Frank O'Hara

  • "Why I Am Not a Painter"

Mary O'Neill

  • "Feelings About Words"
  • "What is Black?"

Sharon Olds

  • "Glass"
  • "On the Subway"
  • "Rite of Passage"
  • "The Victims"

Mary Oliver

  • "The Sea"

Wilfred Owen

  • "Disabled"
  • "Dulce et Decorum Est"

Bonnie Parker

  • "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde"

Octavio Paz

  • "The Street"

George Peele

  • "Whenas the Rye"

Marge Piercy

  • "Barbie Doll"

Pedro Pietri

  • "Broken English Dreams"
  • "Puerto Rican Obituary"

Sylvia Plath

  • "Cut"
  • "Metaphors"
  • "Mirror"
  • "Mother"
  • "Point Shirley"
  • "Poppies in October"

Adelia Prado

  • "Pieces for a Stained-Glass Window"

Dudley Randall

  • "Ballad of Birmingham"

John Crowe Ransom

  • "Parting, Without a Sequel"

Jonathan Revere

  • "Gull Skeleton"

P. J. Ricatto

  • "New York is the A Train"

Theodore Roethke

  • "Meadow Mouse"
  • "My Papa's Waltz"

Tom Romano

  • "The Teacher"

Muriel Rukeyser

  • "Effort at Speech Between Two People"

Carl Sandburg

  • "33"

May Sarton

  • "Mud Season"

Siegfried Sassoon

  • "Wild Rue"

Anne Sexton

  • "The Dead Heart"
  • "Welcome Morning"

William Shakespeare

  • "Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds"
  • "Out, Out Brief Candle"
  • "When I Do Count the Clock That Tells the Time"
  • "Winter"

Eleni Sikelianos

  • "Listening to The Grownups Quarreling"

Shel Silverstein

  • "A Black Child"
  • "Smart"
  • "Tired"

Charles Simic

  • "Everything's Forseeable"
  • "My Secret Identity"

William Jay Smith

  • "Fog"

Gary Snyder

  • "Changing Diapers"

Sophocles

  • "The Theban Plays"

Stephen Spender

  • "Amoretti (selections)"
  • "My Parents Kept Me From Children Who Were Rough"

Robert Louis Stevenson

  • "My Shadow"

Wallace Stevens

  • "Poetry Is a Destructive Force"

Mark Strand

  • "The Babies"
  • "Elegy for My Father"

May Swenson

  • "The Hippopotamus"
  • "The Pigeon"
  • "The Road"

Sara Teasdale

  • "Barter"

John Tobias

  • "Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle"

Quincy Troupe

  • "Poem for Magic Johnson"

John Updike

  • "Flick Webb Ex-basketball Player"

Judith Viorst

  • "If I were in charge of the world"

Derek Walcott

  • "Omeros"

Alice Walker

  • "Expect Nothing"
  • "He Said"
  • "I Wrote an Omelet"
  • "Medicine"
  • "Poem at 39"

Robert Wallace

  • "The Double-Play"

James L. Weil

  • "A Coney Island Life"

Walt Whitman

  • "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
  • "The Open Road"

Richard Wilbur

  • "Boy at the Window"
  • "The Groundhog"
  • "The Pardon"

William Carlos Williams

  • "The Yachts"

William Wordsworth

  • "The Daffodils"

James Wright

  • "A Blessing"
  • "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota"

Kit Wright

  • "The Magic Box"

W. B. Yeats

  • "No Second Troy"

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

  • "Mother"
  • "People"

Al Young

  • "Lonesome in the Country"

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