swap_horiz Thanatopsis Alternatives

1

The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” published in 1922, is a significant modernist poem exploring the disillusionment followin...

Lyric Modernist Classroom Poem

9.9 Brilliant

2

The Second Coming

W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” is a seminal modernist poem published in 1919. It explores themes of societal collapse a...

Lyric Modernist Classroom Poem

9.7 Brilliant

3

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is an expansive 1855 poem central to American literary history. It's notable for its inn...

Lyric Epic 19TH Century Poem

9.7 Brilliant

4

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” examines a speaker contemplating a choice between similar paths in a wood. Published...

Lyric Modernist Classroom Poem

9.6 Brilliant

5

Sailing to Byzantium

W.B. Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium” is a 1928 lyric poem examining themes of aging and artistic aspiration. The work cont...

Lyric Philosophical Modernist Poem

9.6 Brilliant

6

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is a deeply moving elegy written in 1865 to commemorate Abraha...

19TH Century Memorial Elegiac Poem

9.5 Brilliant

7

Because I could not stop for Death

Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” explores themes of mortality through a carefully constructed meta...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Dickinson

9.5 Brilliant

8

Hope is the thing with feathers

Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers” explores the enduring nature of optimism through a striking metaphor...

Inspirational Lyric 19TH Century Dickinson

9.2 Excellent

9

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam presents a sequence of fourteen rhyming couplets originally written by the 11th-century Per...

Lyric 19TH Century Philosophical Poem

9.2 Excellent

10

Kaddish

Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish is a powerful recitation of a traditional Jewish prayer offered for the deceased. Originally wr...

Lyric Elegiac Poem Beat Generation

9.1 Excellent

11

We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a poignant 1895 poem exploring the hidden pain experienced by African Ameri...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Poem

9.1 Excellent

12

O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” is a poignant 19th-century poem written in response to Abraham Lincoln's assassi...

19TH Century Patriotic Elegiac Poem

9.1 Excellent

13

The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy’s “The Convergence of the Twain” explores the sinking of the Titanic through a lens of geological time. The...

Lyric Elegiac Edwardian Poem

9.1 Excellent

14

Sympathy

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy,” published in 1899, employs the powerful image of a caged bird to represent suffering...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Poem

9.0 Excellent

15

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” explores the idea that profound truths are best conveyed indire...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Dickinson

9.0 Excellent

16

The Day Lady Died

Frank O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died” is a 1964 poem reflecting on Billie Holiday's passing. Notable for its spontaneous, c...

Lyric Contemporary Elegiac Poem

8.9 Great

17

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” explores themes of obscurity and identity. The poem, written in 1861, is no...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Dickinson

8.9 Great

18

Break, Break, Break

A lyric elegy by Alfred, Lord Tennyson published in 1835, written in response to the death of his close friend Arthur He...

Lyric Victorian Elegiac Poem

8.7 Great

19

The Village Blacksmith

The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1840) is an American poem celebrating an honest laborer as a moral...

Lyric 19TH Century Classroom Poem

8.1 Great

20

Evangeline

Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847) is a narrative poem following an Acadian woman's lifelong search for her...

Narrative 19TH Century Elegiac Poem

7.5 Good