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Famous Poems

 

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary..." Do you recognize these famous lines? Most likely you do, even if you do not know where you first heard them. ...

Short Poems

 

What do William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Emily Dickinson, Sara Teasdale, and Carl Sandburg all have in common? If you guessed that they were all famous poets, then you are half-correct; while they were indeed all poets, they were also poets who often expressed their ideas in short poems - poems that ...

Funny Poems

 

"Funny" isn't often the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of poetry. Rather, most consider poetry to be dry and academic. Poetry, however, encompasses more than just sonnets, odes, and epics that are enjoyed only by scholars. Funny poems abound in the canon of poetry. Some of the funniest poems are ...

Love Poems

 

Love poetry dates back as far as recorded time; man's - and woman's - need to express his amorous side has spurred on poetry for thousands of years. The Bible contains one of the oldest examples of love poetry. The book "The Song of Solomon," is, in fact, and entire chapter of the Bible devoted to love ...

James Montgomery biography

 

Born November 4, 1771, James Montgomery was a Scots poet and hymnist who enjoyed popularity during his time and made a mark on British literature in the early to mid-1800s. He was born at Irvine in Ayrshire, where his father was a Moravian preacher, but left there when his father was relocated to Ireland by his church. Montgomery was no more than ...

Wang Wei biography

 

One of the most well-known poets of the Tang dynasty, Wang Wei was born in 699 in Shenshi. His parents were both well-educated, and Wei followed in their footsteps, sitting for and passing the shin-shih at the age of 23. His success in those exams ensured him entry into the literary circles of the city. Wang was appointed the ...

Nizar Qabbani biography

 

Born in 1923 to a prestigious Syrian family, Nizar Qabbani was to become one of the most loved and revered poets in the Arab world. Qabbani was a diplomat, poet and publisher whose work approached the sensitive subjects of eroticism, feminism, Arab nationalism, love and religion. Qabbani (sometimes spelled as Kabbani), was born into a wealthy and well-known family in ...

Dame Mary Gilmore biography

 

Mary Gilmore, born Mary Jean Cameron on August 16, 1865, is one of Australia's best known and most loved poets. From the first publication of her work in 1910 till her death in 1962, her poetry was widely published and much-loved, despite the opinions of critics who felt that much of it was 'doggerel and propaganda'. So well-known ...

Bernard de Ventadorn biography

 

Among the most romantic figures of the medieval era were the French troubadours, poets who wrote of romantic love in delicate and beautiful verse that survives to this day. Perhaps the most famous of the troubadours was Bernard de Ventador, also known as Bernard de Ventadorn, the son of a Boulanger - a servant whose job it was to ...

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky biography

 

More commonly known as Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich was one of the foremost poets of the Russian revolution. Born in 1893 in Bagdadi, Georgia, he was of Russian, Cossack and Ukrainian descent. His childhood was marred by the death of his father in 1906, when the boy was thirteen years old. Vladimirovich attended the gymnasium at Kutai, and ...