The English Department wants to recommend our students the reading of parts of some very good poems. Some of them are easy to understand and, best of all, they are
LITERATURE.
An easy one:
This Is Just To Say - William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
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If - Ruyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;...
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The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;...
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My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands...
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The Waste Land - T.S. Elliot
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain...
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How do I love thee? - Elizabeth Barrett BrowningHow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day´s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
(...) I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
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Song- Christina RossettiWhen I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
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I carry your heart with me- e.e.Cummings
I carry your heart with me ( I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
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La Belle Dame Sans Merci- John KeatsI met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a fairy´s child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
(...) And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream´d-Ah! Woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream´d
On the cold hill´s side.
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Do you want to recommend any more? Please, let us know.
