A thread of stanzas from some of my favorite poets' works:

'Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token-

'And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—
Merely this and nothing more'
--The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Alone by the mad genius Edgar Allan Poe. Couldn't choose a stanza.
He's probably my all-time fav American writer/poet. His writings are all beautiful with eery vibes, and even his life is so interesting to read about. If there's one American writer I'd wanna meet, it's him.

'But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. '

--Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day by William Shakespeare
Honestly, and although this will sound heretical to most lovers of poetry, I generally do not fancy Shakespeare, except for his plays jsjsjs

'Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?——

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me-

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.'
--Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
I'd say she's the female, more modern version of Poe
She's crazy in an intriguing way, and I can just feel her ferocity through her works. Love her.

'When everything that ticked - has stopped -
And space stares - all around -
Or Grisly frosts - first Autumn morns,
Repeal the Beating Ground -

But most, like Chaos - Stopless - cool -
Without a Chance, or spar -
Or even a Report of Land -
To justify - Despair.'

--It Was Not Death, for I Stood Up by Emily Dickinson
This poet is the opposite of Plath and Poe--she gives off a more calm, snetimental energy (while Poe and Plath have writings where they kill themselves/others LOL)

'The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.'
-The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I first read this poem many years ago, but its message of the simple fact that life goes on, even if it seems to stop to you, is just beautiful. Perhaps one of the few I know by heart.

'The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.'

--Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

This woman. If I start talking I will NOT SHUT UP. Her writings are so powerful, yet so simple I genuinely CANNOT fathom how someone can be this talented. She's written abt the struggle of black ppl (such as in this one), abt women, her mother, and other topics.

THE ENTIRE POEM HONESTLY JSJSJS but my fav line is the iconic
'Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' by Dylan Thomas
FAM lemme tell you when I heard it being recited in Interstellar I was SCREAMING SJSJJS I LOVE THIS POEM SO MUCH

'I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze-

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.'
--I wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

Leave it poems of Romanticism to make everything sound beautiful. If you want to learn to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of everything around you, read works of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth.

'What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?-

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?'
-Harlem by Langston Hughes
My god I love all of this man's works. Heartfelt. No pretentiousness. Slap in the right way.
I wanted to add more poems but I've reached this thread's limit