Explore Classic Poems
As well as new recordings by contemporary poets the Poetry Archive also contains selections of classic poems recorded by contemporary voices.
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Poet
Amy Levy
B. 1861 D. 1889
Dear Friend, you must not deem me light if, as I lie and muse to-night, I give a smile and not a sigh to thoughts of our Philosophy. - Amy Levy, 'Philosophy'
Poet
Robert Bridges
B. 1844 D. 1930
When men were all asleep the snow came flying, in large white flakes falling on the city brown. - Robert Bridges 'London Snow'
Poet
E. Nesbit
B. 1858 D. 1924
O God, you made me like to know, you kept the things straight in my head, please God, if you can make it so, let me know something when I'm dead. - E. Nesbit 'The Things That Matter'
Poet
Oscar Wilde
B. 1854 D. 1900
He looked upon the garish day with such a wistful eye; the man had killed the thing he loved, and so he had to die. - Oscar Wilde 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'
Poet
Paul Laurence Dunbar
B. 1872 D. 1906
Come when the year's first blossom blows, come when the summer gleams and glows, come with the winter's drifting snows, and you are welcome, welcome.
Poet
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
B. 1861 D. 1907
I have walked a great while over the snow, and I am not tall nor strong. My clothes are wet, and my teeth are set, and the way was hard and long. - Mary Elizabeth Coleridge 'The Witch'
Poet
Robert Louis Stevenson
B. 1850 D. 1894
All that was good, all that was fair, all that was me is gone. - Robert Louis Stevenson 'Sing Me A Song of A Lad That Is Gone'
Poet
W. E. B. DuBois
B. 1868 D. 1963
I am the Smoke King. I am black! I am swinging in the sky, I am wringing worlds awry. - W. E. B. DuBois - 'The Song of The Smoke'
Poet
C. P. Cavafy
B. 1863 D. 1933
As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. - C.P. Cavafy 'The God Abandons Antony'
Poet
Frederick Tuckerman
B. 1821 D. 1873
Nor can I drop my lids, nor shade my brows, but there he stands beside the lifted sash. - Frederick Tuckerman 'An Upper Chamber In A Darkened House'
Poet
G. K. Chesterton
B. 1874 D. 1936
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road. - G.K. Chesterton 'The Rolling English Road'
Poet
Adelaide Anne Procter
B. 1825 D. 1864
While he is at rest, I am cursed still to live:- even Death loved him the best. - Adelaide Anne Procter 'Envy'