The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
THE WASTE LAND By T. S. Eliot Contents I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD II. A GAME OF CHESS III. THE FIRE SERMON IV. DEATH BY WATER V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID “Nam Sibyllam...
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by EILeditor · Published July 16, 2024 · Last modified January 15, 2024
THE WASTE LAND By T. S. Eliot Contents I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD II. A GAME OF CHESS III. THE FIRE SERMON IV. DEATH BY WATER V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID “Nam Sibyllam...
Audio / Video / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published June 12, 2024
The Language of Poetry Written by Carol Dwankowski The poet’s choice of words is extremely important because a lot needs to be said with few words. Language is the personal or private choice of...
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), English poet, was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, on the 6th of August 1809. He was the fourth of the twelve children of the Reverend George Clayton Tennyson (1778–1831) and...
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by EILeditor · Published April 23, 2024 · Last modified January 15, 2024
The Poet’s Calendar, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow JANUARY Janus am I; oldest of potentates; Forward I look, and backward, and below I count, as god of avenues and gates, The years that through my portals come and go. I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow; I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen; My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow, My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men. FEBRUARY I am lustration, and the sea is mine! I wash the sands and headlands with my tide; My brow is crowned with branches of the pine; Before my chariot-wheels the fishes glide. By me all things unclean are purified, By me the souls of men washed white again; E’en the unlovely tombs of those who died Without a dirge, I cleanse from every stain. MARCH I Martius am! Once first, and now the third! To lead the Year was my appointed place; A mortal dispossessed me by a word, And set there Janus with the double face. Hence I make war on all the human race; I shake the cities with my hurricanes; I flood the rivers and their banks efface, And drown the farms and hamlets with my rains....
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by EILeditor · Published April 2, 2024 · Last modified January 15, 2024
A Calendar of Sonnets, by Helen Hunt Jackson January O winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire, What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn...
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by EILeditor · Published March 1, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
Enjoy these poems with themes about a particular month of the year: January February March April May June July August September October November December *** New Year’s Poems *** More on Poetry: How to...
Memorizing it has become a lost art in the age of the iPhone, but it can still awaken us to a deeper understanding of our world. *** It’s Time to Rediscover the Power of...
E3-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published January 30, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness,...
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by EILeditor · Published January 23, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
by William Cullen Bryant To a Waterfowl Whither, ‘midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the...
Stanzas by Mary Shelley Oh, come to me in dreams, my love! I will not ask a dearer bliss; Come with the starry beams, my love, And press mine eyelids with thy kiss. ’Twas...
January can be a very cold month in the northern hemisphere, and many poets have reflected upon this! A Calendar of Sonnets: January by Helen Hunt Jackson O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,...
E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published December 30, 2023 · Last modified January 9, 2024
From “In Memoriam” by Alfred Lord Tennyson Ring Out, Wild Bells Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out,...
DECEMBER by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Riding upon the Goat, with snow-white hair, I come, the last of all. This crown of mine Is of the holly; in my hand I bear The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine. I celebrate the birth of the Divine, And the return of the Saturnian reign;– My songs are carols sung at every shrine. Proclaiming “Peace on earth, good will to men.” *** A Calendar of Sonnets: December by Helen Hunt Jackson The lakes of ice gleam bluer than the lakes Of water...
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by EILeditor · Published November 27, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
In this lovely poem by English poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld, an expectant mother speaks to her unborn baby, that “little invisible being” soon expected. To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become...
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by EILeditor · Published November 20, 2023 · Last modified November 27, 2023
Poem by Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld, 1743-1825. London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1791. Epistle To William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade...
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by EILeditor · Published November 13, 2023 · Last modified November 27, 2023
In this imaginative farewell poem from Roman poet Ovid to his wife, English poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld writes of aging. OVID to his WIFE: Imitated from different Parts of his Tristia. Jam mea cygneas...
He Said He Had Been a Soldier by Dorothy Wordsworth He said he had been a soldier, That his wife and children Had died in Jamaica. He had a begger’s wallet over his shoulders,...
E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published November 4, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a flutter’d bird, came flying from far away. ‘Spanish ships...
NOVEMBER by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Centaur, Sagittarius, am I,Born of Ixion’s and the cloud’s embrace;With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly,A steed Thessalian with a human face.Sharp winds the arrows are with which I chaseThe leaves, half dead already with affright;I shroud myself in gloom; and to the raceOf mortals bring nor comfort nor delight. *** A Calendar of Sonnets: November by Helen Hunt Jackson This is the treacherous month when autumn daysWith summer’s voice come bearing summer’s gifts.Beguiled, the pale down-trodden aster liftsHer...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published October 23, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (? 1340–1400), English poet, is most famous for his great work “The Canterbury Tales.” His own age delighted in stories, and he gave it the stories it demanded invested with a humanity,...
The crisp chill of autumn has inspired more than just pumpkin spice — it has inspired poets through the centuries to capture it in all its leaf-bright glory. Here are a few October poems...
Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published September 1, 2023 · Last modified October 6, 2023
One of my favorite September poems is a story by Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. Barbara Frietchie by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September...
Poetry / Resources for Teaching
by Janice Campbell · Published July 5, 2022 · Last modified October 6, 2023
We in the northern hemisphere may be melting in the July heat, but there are compensations. July poems from poets such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Amy Lowell, and Lewis Carroll remind us...
The earliest Roman poetry (actually Latin poetry) dates back to the second century B. C. It is often understood as an adaptation of models originally designed by the Greeks. One of the most spectacular and...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 10, 2021 · Last modified February 8, 2021
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (gaol is the British spelling of jail) narrates the story of an execution that occurred while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in the late 1890s. It does not attempt to...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 9, 2021 · Last modified February 6, 2021
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796), a Scottish poet and lyricist is not only the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, but he has long been considered the national...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 8, 2021 · Last modified February 6, 2021
Much of Sir Walter Scott’s poetry reflects the stories and themes of courage, justice, and romance found in his novels. Here are three of his shorter poems, “Lochinvar,” “Breathes There the Man,” and “Old...
Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812 – 1848) was an American poet and member of the Transcendental Club, and widely regarded as one of the most gifted among the New England Transcendentalist poets. She and her...
“A Poison Tree,” which explores the dangers of anger and revenge, was first published in Blake’s Songs of Experience in 1794. It has been set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Ten Blake...
Louisa May Alcott, best known for her novel Little Women, admired her Transcendentalist neighbors, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. During Louisa’s elementary school years, Thoreau was her teacher, and in Moods, one...
Here’s the Everyday Educator — our annual newsletter handout. It has book lists and helpful articles about homeschooling topics. We’d rather be sharing it in person, but for now, you can download the Everyday Educator here. I hope you enjoy it!
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