Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
FROST AT MIDNIGHT by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at...
Category: E4-Resources
Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
DEJECTION: AN ODE by Samuel Taylor Coleridge WRITTEN APRIL 4, 1802 “Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon, With the old Moon in her arms; And I fear, I fear, my Master dear!...
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. 5 So twice...
To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley
TO A SKYLARK by Percy Bysshe Shelley Composed at Leghorn, 1820, and published with “Prometheus Unbound” in the same year. There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird...
Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
ODE TO THE WEST WIND by Percy Bysshe Shelley (This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose...
Mont Blanc by Percy Bysshe Shelley
MONT BLANC by Percy Bysshe Shelley LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI [Composed in Switzerland, July, 1816 (see date below). Printed at the end of the “History of a Six Weeks’ Tour” published...
Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN by John Keats 1. Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than...
Ode on Melancholy by John Keats
ODE ON MELANCHOLY by John Keats 1. No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss’d By nightshade, ruby grape of...
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE by John Keats 1. My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One...
Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning
The text below comes from the poetry collection, Men and Women, by Robert Browning. The helpful introductory and line notes (make sure you don’t miss those — they’re located at the end of the poem)...
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church Rome, 15 – by Robert Browning
“The Bishop Orders His Tomb” by Robert Browning is considered to be the first blank verse dramatic monologue poem in English. In it, a (fictional) dying bishop speaks to his sons and contemplates his...
The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a legend in which a piper, hired as a rat-catcher, wreaks a clever revenge when the townspeople refuse to pay for his services. Here is Robert Browning’s poetic...
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
THE SECOND COMING by William Butler Yeats [This is the 1920 edition, as printed in Michael Robartes and the Dancer.] Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things...
Charlotte’s Introduction to Wuthering Heights
This introduction to Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë explains why she, Emily, and Anne had initially published under a pseudonym, and touchingly relates the story of her sisters’ brief lives.
Robert Browning Poetry
Robert Browning Poetry Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet, known for his dramatic verse. Considered one of the foremost poets of the Victorian era, Browning was born the same year as Charles Dickens....
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Poetry
Here are few selections from Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of 44 love sonnets by English Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She was well appreciated during her lifetime, and her work inspired other writers, including Emily...
John Keats Poetry
Although poet John Keats wrote only 54 poems before he died at the age of 25, he is remembered as one of the outstanding English Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe...
Percy Bysshe Shelley Poems
Index of Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was a Romantic poet whose contemporaries included Keats and Byron. Although famous for his long work Prometheus Unbound, his genius also shines in...
Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a Romantic poet and writer in the Gothic literary tradition. He was a friend of William Wordsworth Coleridge also wrote about philosophy, literature, theology, and science. You...
William Wordsworth Poems
Poems by William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English Romantic poet whose work celebrated the connection between man and nature. He was friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and became poet laureate in 1843....
John Milton Poems
Poems by John Milton John Milton (1608–1674) was an English writer of prose and poetry, as well as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He is best known for...
George Herbert Poetry
Poems by George Herbert (1593–1633) George Herbert was a 17th-century British poet, now recognized as one of the best devotional poets in the English language. You may read two of his poems available from...
To the Lighthouse Study Guide
Study Guide for To the Lighthouse © by Cathy Decker, 1998 In this study guide by Dr. Cathy Decker, a professor from Chaffey College (CA), you’ll find questions you might want to consider when you read...
Emily Brontë: A Biographical Sketch
Emily Jane Brontë 1818-1848 A Biographical Sketch by Sara Selby Emily Jane Brontë’s life, though short and tragic, had an overwhelming influence on her work. Marked by violent emotional upheavals, her childhood on the...
Poetry by Shakespeare’s Contemporaries
In Shakespeare’s time, the fields of art and science were blossoming. Here are a few poems by Shakespeare contemporaries, including Sidney and Marlowe.
Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh by Edmund Spenser
LETTER TO SIR WALTER RALEIGH (an introduction to The Faerie Queene) A LETTER of the Authors expounding his whole intention in the course of this worke;(1) which, for that it giveth great light to...
King Lear: As Told in Tales from Shakespeare
King Lear by William Shakespeare Adapted by Charles and Mary Lamb in Tales From Shakespeare Other works by Charles Lamb [Note: I offer this rather Victorian-style retelling of King Lear by the Lambs to...
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey
The 16th Century that shaped Shakespeare’s writing wasn’t all poetry, art, and music. It was also an era that saw the execution of many for their faith. This brief excerpt from John Foxe’s Book...
Why Read Beowulf? by Robert F. Yeager
Why Read Beowulf? By Robert F. Yeager Beowulf, the rousing Old English poem of man and monster, has been a classroom classic for generations. Its own survival as a text is nearly as epic...
A Short History of England by G.K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s A Short History of England is an inviting introduction to British history through the end of the nineteenth century. You may listen to it in the audio player below, or read it...
