What follows is a listing of the appearance of recognizable, often canonical, poems, or excerpts from poems. The catalog is necessarily incomplete; readers are invited to submit new entries to the page at [email protected]. The filmography will be revised and updated regularly.


Addison, Joseph

"The Campaign"
My Darling Clementine, 1946

Apollinaire, Guillaume

"L'amour"
Peau d'ane, 1970

Arnold, Matthew

"Dover Beach"
Without Love, 1945
The Anniversary Party
, 2001

Auden, W. H.

"Night Mail"
Night Mail, 1936

"Funeral Blues"
Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994

"As I Walked Out One Evening"
Before Sunrise, 1995

Baudelaire, Charles

"The Albatross"
A Very Long Engagement, 2004

"The Jewels"
La Letrice [The Reader], 1988

Biermann, Wolf

"The Girl from Stuttgart"
Germany in Autumn, 1978

Bishop, Elizabeth

"One Art"
In Her Shoes, 2005

Blake, William

"The Tyger"
The End of the Affair, 1955
The Horse's Mouth, 1958
Blade Runner, 1982
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, 2002

"America: A Prophecy"
"The Fly"
Blade Runner, 1982

From "Milton; ["And did those feet in ancient time"]
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, 1962
Privilege, 1967
Chariots of Fire, 1981
Calendar Girls, 2003

"The Sick Rose"
Educating Rita, 1983

"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
Bull Durham, 1988

"The Everlasting Gospel" ["The vision of Christ that thou dost see . . ."]
"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
Dead Man, 1995

"Auguries of Innocence"
Dead Man, 1995
In the Bedroom, 2001
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2001

"The Little Black Boy"
The Horse's Mouth, 1958

Bradstreet, Anne

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"
Le Divorce, 2003

Brecht, Bertolt

"Germany Pale Mother"
Germany Pale Mother, 1980

"Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"
Quiz Show, 1994

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

"Aurora Leigh," ii
Take the High Ground, 1953

"A Child's Grave at Florence"
Tea with Mussolini, 1999

Browning, Robert

"Sordello"
The Barretts of Wimpole Street, 1934

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
The Sweet Hereafter, 1997

Bukowski, Charles

"2 p.m. Beer"
"Old Man, Dead in a Room"
Barfly, 1987

Burns, Robert

"A Red, Red Rose"
Side Street, 1950

"Afton Water" ["Flow gently, sweet Afton . . ."]
Pride and Prejudice, 1940

Byron, Lord George Gordon

"She Walks in Beauty"
Blockade, 1938
Jamaica Inn, 1939

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, IV.178 ["There is a pleasure in the pathless woods"]
The Bridges of Madison County, 1995

Don Juan
Don Juan de Marco, 1995

Carroll, Lewis

"The Walrus and the Carpenter"
Today We Live, 1933
The Clairvoyant, 1934

Chaucer, Geoffrey

"Prologue"
"Wife of Bath's Tale" ["the woe that is in marriage"]
Sylvia, 2003

Clough, Arthur Hugh

"Dipsychus"
The Quiet American, 2002

Cocteau, Jean

"Les Muses"
Peau d'ane, 1970

Coleridge, Hartley

"Sonnet VII" ["Is love a fancy or a feeling"]
Sense and Sensibility, 1995

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

"Kubla Khan"
Citizen Kane, 1941
Pandaemonium, 2000

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner "
Out of Africa, 1985

Congreve, William

from The Mourning Bride, Act iii, Scene 8 ["Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned..."]
Adam's Rib, 1949

Corso, Gregory

"Marriage"
Reality Bites, 1994

Cowper, William

"The Castaway"
Sense and Sensibility, 1995

Cummings, E. E.

"i carry your heart with me"
In Her Shoes, 2005

"somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond"
Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986

"she being brand"
Plain Clothes, 1988

Dante Alighieri

"Vita Nuova, III"
Hannibal, 2001

Dickinson, Emily

"Ample make this Bed"
Sophie's Choice, 1982

"Because I could not stop for Death"
Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989
Sophie's Choice, 1982

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers"
Quiz Show, 1994
Autumn in New York, 2000

"Two Butterflies went out at Noon"
Autumn in New York, 2000

"We never know how high we are"
Seabiscuit, 2003

Donne, John

"Holy Sonnet X" ["Death Be Not Proud"]
The Exorcist III, 1990
W;t, 2001

Douglas, Lord Alfred

"In Summer"
"Two Loves"
Wilde, 1997

Dowson, Ernest

"Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam"
Days of Wine and Roses, 1962

Dryden, John

translation from Horace, Book 3, Ode 29 ["Happy the man, and happy he alone..."]
Tom Jones, 1963

Eliot, T. S.

"East Coker"
Butley, 1974

"The Hollow Men"
Apocalypse Now, 1979

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Love and Death, 1975
Apocalypse Now, 1979
Till Human Voices Wake Us, 2002
The Fog of War, 2003

"Little Gidding" ["We shall not cease from exploration"]
The Fog of War, 2003

"Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"
Logan's Run, 1976

"The Waste Land" ["April is the cruelest month..."]
Without Love, 1945

Éluard, Paul

"Nudité de la vérité"
Alphaville, 1965

Field, Eugene

"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod"
Dennis the Menace, 1993

Frost, Robert

"Death of the Hired Man"
Frenzy, 1972

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Telefon, 1977
Dreamcatcher, 2003

"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
The Outsiders, 1983

"The Road Not Taken" [in Italian]
Down by Law, 1986

Garcia Lorca, Federico

"Ballad of a Sleepwalker"
Revenge, 1990

"Backwaters"
In the Cut, 2003

Ginsberg, Allen

"Howl"
Hairspray, 1988

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

"Erlkonig"
Burning Secret, 1988

Gray, Thomas

"Elegy (Written in a Country Churchyard)"
Bull Durham, 1988

Gregory, [Isabella Augusta] Lady

"Donal Óg"
The Dead, 1987

Gresham, Joy

"Snow in Madrid"
Shadowlands, 1993

Hardy, Thomas

"Drummer Hodge"
The History Boys, 2006

Hayes, J. Milton

"The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God"
St. Martin's Lane, 1938

Heber, Reginald

"Hymns" ["Where every prospect pleases / And only man is vile"]
Born to Kill, 1947

Henley, William Ernest

"Invictus"
Invictus, 2009

Herrick, Robert

"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" ["Gather ye Rose-Buds while ye may"]
A Prarie Home Companion, 2006

"Upon Julia's Clothes"
Julia, 1977

Hood, Thomas

"Silence"
The Piano, 1993

Hopkins, Gerard Manley

"Spring and Fall"
Vision Quest, 1985

Housman, A. E.

From A Shropshire Lad (XL) ["Into my heart an air that kills"]
Walkabout, 1971

"To an Athlete Dying Young"
Out of Africa, 1985

From A Shropshire Lad (XIII) ["When I was one-and-twenty"]
Stage Struck, 1958

Hughes, Langston

"Montage of a Dream Deferred"
A Raisin in the Sun, 1961

Jonson, Ben

"Song to Celia" ["Drink to me only with thine eyes"]
Ghosts on the Loose,1943

Keats, John

from Endymion ["A thing of beauty is a joy forever"]
Portrait of Jenny, 1948
White Men Can't Jump, 1992

"To Autumn"
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969
Bridget Jones's Diary, 2001

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
In the Cut, 2003

"When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be"
Brief Encounter, 1945

Kenyon, Jane

"Let Evening Come"
In Her Shoes, 2005

Key, Francis Scott

"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Since You Went Away, 1944

Khayyam, Omar

The Rubaiyat, 7 ["The Bird of Time has but a little way . . ."]
Morning Glory, 1933
Unfaithful, 2002

The Rubaiyat, 46 ["O threats of hell and hopes of Paradise..."]
Duel in the Sun, 1946

Kipling, Rudyard

"Gunga Din"
Gunga Din, 1939
Two-Way Stretch, 1959
Sylvia, 2003

"The Conundrum of the Workshops"
F for Fake, 1974

"Tomlinson" ["the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one"]
Lifeboat, 1944

"If—"
St. Martin's Lane, 1938

Larkin, Philip

"Ignorance"
Holy Smoke, 1999

Lawrence, D. H.

"Self-Pity"
G.I. Jane, 1997

Lazarus, Emma

"The New Colossus"
Saboteur, 1942
Since You Went Away, 1944

Levertov, Denise

"At David's Grave"
Any Mother's Son, 1997

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

"The Song of Hiawatha"
Here We Go Again, 1942
Desk Set, 1957
Spider Man 2, 2004

"My Lost Youth"
In the Bedroom, 2001

Lorca, Federico Garcia

"Poem of the Solea;
Little Ashes, 2009

Lowell, James Russell

"The Present Crisis" ["Once to every man and nation..."]
Kid Glove Killer, 1942

Marlowe, Christopher

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, 1939
Come Live with Me, 1941
Richard III, 1995

"Hero and Leander" ["Whoever loved that loved not at first sight"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, V, 100 ["...make me immortal with a kiss"]
The Ruling Class, 1972

Marvell, Andrew

"To His Coy Mistress"
A Farewell to Arms, 1932
A Matter of Life and Death, 1946
The 25th Hour, 2002

"The Definition of Love"
The Daytrippers, 1996

McCrae, John

"In Flanders Fields"
Mr. Holland's Opus, 1995

Merriam, Eve

"Coward"
Home of the Brave, 1949

Millay, Edna St. Vincent

"Sonnet: Love Is Not All"
Take the High Ground, 1953

"First Fig"
A River Runs through It, 1992

"God's World"
"To a Young Poet"
Autumn in New York, 2000

"Elaine"
Without Love, 1945

Miller, Alice Duer

"The White Cliffs"
The White Cliffs of Dover, 1944

Milton, John

"Lycidas" ["Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new"]
The Horse's Mouth, 1958

from Paradise Lost IV. 846 ["Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful
goodness is"]
The Crow, 1994

from "Comus" [Sabrina fair..."]
Sabrina, 1995

Montejo, Eugenio

"The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer"
21 Grams, 2003

Neruda, Pablo

"The Dead Woman"
Truly Madly Deeply, 1991

"The Enigmas"
Mindwalk, 1991

"Sonnet 17"
Patch Adams, 1998

Various poems
Il Postino, 1994

Owen, Wilfred

"The Parable of the Old Man and the Young"
"Dulce et Decorum Est"
"Greater Love"
Regeneration, 1997

Olds, Sharon

"I Go Back To May"
Into the Wild, 2008

Parker, Dorothy

"Resume"
Girl, Interrupted, 1999

"Midnight"
Autumn in New York, 2000

Poe, Edgar Allan

"The Raven"
The Raven, 1935
Young Guns, 1988
The Crow, 1994

"Ulalume"
Lolita, 1962
The Ladykillers, 2004

"El Dorado"
El Dorado, 1967

"Alone"
The Krays, 1990

"Annabel Lee"
Stage Struck, 1958
Play Misty for Me, 1971
Holes, 2003

"To Helen"
The Ladykillers, 2004

Pope, Alexander

"Eloisa to Abelard"
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004

Pudney, John

"For Johnny"
"Missing"
Way to the Stars, 1945

Raleigh, Sir Walter

"His Pilgrimage"
A Matter of Life and Death, 1946

"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd"
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, 1939
Richard III, 1995

Rilke, Rainer Maria

"The Panther,"
Another Woman, 1988
Awakenings, 1990

"Archaic Torso of Apollo"
Another Woman, 1988

Rossetti, Christina

"Remember"
Kiss Me Deadly, 1955

Sassoon, Siegfried

"Base Details"
Regeneration, 1997

Scott, Sir Walter

Marmion VI.30 ["O woman! in our hours of ease"]
The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937

Marmion VI.532-3 ["O what a tangled web we weave"]
The Perfect Man, 2005

"Love as a Theme of Poets"
A Matter of Life and Death, 1946

"Patriotism"
Groundhog Day, 1993

Seeger, Alan

"I Have a Rendezvous with Death"
Cast a Giant Shadow, 1966

Shakespeare, William

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2 ["How weary, stale, flat, and uprofitable..."]
Lola Montes, 1955

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1 ["To be or not to be"]
Morning Glory, 1933
My Darling Clementine, 1946
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991

Henry IV, Part 1
My Own Private Idaho, 1991

Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1
Too Much, Too Soon, 1958

Henry V [St. Crispin's Day speech]
Too Much, Too Soon, 1958
Renaissance Man, 1994

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2 ["The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003
Good Night and Good Luck, 2005

Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2 ["Cowards die many times before their deaths"]
The Human Stain, 2003

Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2
Pinero, 2001

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5 ["Tomorrow and tomorrow...]
Smoke, 1995

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene 2 ["Jack shall have Jill"]
The Anniversary Party, 2001

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3 ["Oh, curse of marriage..."]
The Unfaithful, 1947

Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1
The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1934

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 ["O Romeo, Romeo..."]
Morning Glory, 1933
This Land is Mine, 1943
Tea with Mussolini, 1999

Romeo and Juliet, various passages
Stage Struck, 1958
Tumbleweeds, 1999

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2 ["The isle is full of noises..."]
The Four Feathers, 1939

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5 ["Some are born great..."]
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, 1944

"Sonnet 29" ["When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes"]
In a Lonely Place, 1950

"Sonnet 94" ["They that have power to hurt and will do none"]
A Map of the World, 1999

"Sonnet 116" ["Let me not to the marriage of true minds"]
The Trouble with Harry, 1955
Sense and Sensibility, 1995

"Venus and Adonis" ["Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

"Adonais" 40 ["He has outsoared the shadow of our night"]
The Thin Man Goes Home, 1944

"Love's Philosophy"
In & Out, 1997

Siegel, Eli

"Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana"
Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana, 2005

Smith, Charlie

"The Meaning of Birds"
Blue Car, 2002

Sorley, Charles Hamilton

"The Song of the Ungirt Runners"
Clockwork Mice, 1995

Spenser, Edmund

The Faerie Queene V, ii, 39 ["For whatsoever from one place doth fall..."]
Sense and Sensibility, 1995

Stickney, Trumbull

"Song"
The Good Shepherd, 2006

Stevenson, Robert Louis

"Requiem"
They Were Expendable, 1945
The Horse's Mouth, 1958

"My House, I Say"
Undercurrent, 1946

"My Wife"
Tender Comrade, 1943

Tennyson, [Alfred] Lord

"The Charge of the Light Brigade"
The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1936
The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957
The Falcon and the Snowman, 1985

"Maud" III. 23-5
The Thin Man Goes Home, 1944

"Crossing the Bar"
Finding Graceland, 1998

"The Lady of Shalott"
The Mirror Crack'd, 1980

"Tithonus"
Shadow of the Vampire, 2000

Thomas, Dylan

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Back to School, 1986
Dangerous Minds, 1995

"And Death Shall Have No Dominion"
The Weight of Water, 2000
Solaris, 2002

Valéry, Paul

"Le Cimetiere Marin"
The Victors, 1963

Verlaine, Paul

"Song of Autumn"
The Longest Day

Whitman, Walt

"The Untold Want"
Now, Voyager, 1942
Love and Death on Long Island, 1997

"I Sing the Body Electric"
Bull Durham, 1988

"Song of Myself"
Beautiful Dreamers, 1990

"Oh Captain! My Captain!"
Dead Poets Society, 1989

"Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking"
Intolerance, 1916
L.I.E., 2001

"Spontaneous Me"
The Notebook, 2004

"So Long"
The Notebook, 2004

"Passage to India" ["Sail forth, steer for the deep waters only"]
Street Scene, 1931

Wilde, Oscar

"The Sphinx"
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol"
Wilde, 1997

Williamson, Marianne

"A Return to Love"
Coach Carter, 2005

Wordsworth, William

"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
Splendor in the Grass, 1961
Alice in Wonderland, 1966
A River Runs Through It, 1992

"Tintern Abbey"
Pandaemonium, 2000

Wylie, Elinor

"The Eagle and the Mole"
American Splendor, 2003

Yeats, W. B.

"An Irish Airman Forsees his Death"
Memphis Belle, 1990

"The Young Man's Song" ["Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny..."]
Must Love Dogs, 2005

"When You are Old"
Peggy Sue Got Married, 1986

"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven"
84 Charing Cross Road, 1987

"The Song of Wandering Aengus"
Bridges of Madison County, 1995

"The Stolen Child"
A. I.: Artificial Intelligence, 2001

"The Stolen Child"
A. I.: Artificial Intelligence, 2001
Blue Car, 2002

"The Sorrow of Love"
Sylvia, 2003

"The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
Million Dollar Baby, 2004


This list first appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review (Volume XLIII, Issue 2, Spring 2004).