Poetry Quotes
Poems are read, violets are blue.
ALL QUOTES POPULAR BROWSE BY AUTHOR BROWSE BY SOURCE BROWSE BY TOPIC BROWSE BY SUBJECTPoetry Quotes
Looking for the perfect quote for your yearbook? Need a loving line to woo your new gentleman friend? There's nothing like a little poetry to set the mood. Click on any quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who wrote it, when they wrote it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to write it.
For more poetry quotes, head on over to our Poetry section, choose a poem, and click Quotes in the navigation.
"All her hairSource: Porphyria's Lover | Author: Robert Browning
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around"
"and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw"Source: A Smile to Remember | Author: Charles Bukowski
"Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."Source: Digging | Author: Seamus Heaney
"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise."Source: Still I Rise | Author: Maya Angelou
"But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out."Source: Casey at the Bat | Author: Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it—"Source: Lady Lazarus | Author: Sylvia Plath
"He tells you when you've got on too much lipstick"Source: The Perfect Husband | Author: Ogden Nash
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."Source: How do I love Thee (Sonnet 43) | Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"I love you only because it's you the one I love"Source: I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You | Author: Pablo Neruda
"I might love the people upstairs more If only they lived on another floor."Source: The People Upstairs | Author: Ogden Nash
"If suddenlySource: If You Forget Me | Author: Pablo Neruda
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you."
"Long walks at night—that's what good for the soul"Source: And the Moon and the Stars and the World | Author: Charles Bukowski
"O my Luve's like a Red, Red Rose That's newly sprung in June"Source: A Red, Red Rose | Author: Robert Burns
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light"Source: Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night | Author: Dylan Thomas
"so much depends upon a red wheel barrow"Source: The Red Wheelbarrow | Author: William Carlos Williams
"That's my last Duchess painted on the wallSource: My Last Duchess | Author: Robert Browning
Looking as if she were alive."
"The neighbors' dog will not stop barking."Source: Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House | Author: Billy Collins
"The trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry."Source: The Trouble with Poetry | Author: Billy Collins
"There is a place where the sidewalk ends."Source: Where the Sidewalk Ends | Author: Shel Silverstein
"there's a bluebird in my heart that/ wants to get out/ but I'm too tough for him"Source: Bluebird | Author: Charles Bukowski
"Tonight I can write the saddest lines"Source: Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines | Author: Pablo Neruda
"Whenever you're wrong, admit it Whenever you're right, shut up."Source: A Word to Husbands | Author: Ogden Nash
"You must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."Source: Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer | Author: Ogden Nash