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100 Most Famous Poems

The following is a list of the top 100 most famous poems of all time in the English language. There's always room for debate when creating a "top 100" list, and let's face it, fame is a pretty fickle thing. It changes over time. But that said, we did our best to use available objective data in putting together this ranked list of the 100 most widely recognized and enduring poems ever written. To create this list, the following criteria was used: 1) Only poems that have "stood the test of time" were considered. Therefore, modern poetry of the last century was not included. 2) Each poem's ranking is based on its relative fame within the English language. 3) In order to create more even ground for comparison, we have not included in this list nursery rhymes, or poems whose fame was primarily gained from being set to music.

More Lists of Famous Poems


  1. The Raven
    by Edgar Allan Poe
    Once upon a midnight dreary,
    While I pondered, weak and weary,
  2. Ozymandias
    by Percy Bysshe Shelley
    I met a traveler from an antique land
    Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
  3. The Road Not Taken
    by Robert Frost
    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
  4. Annabel Lee
    by Edgar Allan Poe
    It was many and many a year ago,
    In a kingdom by the sea,
  5. Invictus
    by William Ernest Henley
    Out of the night that covers me,
    Black as the pit from pole to pole,
  6. Nothing Gold Can Stay
    by Robert Frost
    Nature's first green is gold,
    Her hardest hue to hold.
  7. Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day
    by William Shakespeare
    Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
  8. O Captain! My Captain!
    by Walt Whitman
    O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
    The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
  9. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
    by Robert Frost
    Whose woods these are I think I know.
    His house is in the village though;
  10. No Man is an Island
    by John Donne
    No man is an island,
    Entire of itself,
  11. Casey at the Bat
    by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
    The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
    The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play
  12. Because I could not stop for Death
    by Emily Dickinson
    Because I could not stop for Death,
    He kindly stopped for me;
  13. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
    by T. S. Eliot
    Let us go then, you and I,
    When the evening is spread out against the sky
  14. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
    by William Wordsworth
    I wandered lonely as a cloud
    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
  15. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
    by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    It is an ancient Mariner,
    And he stoppeth one of three.
  16. Paul Revere's Ride
    by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    Listen, my children, and you shall hear
    Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
  17. If—
    by Rudyard Kipling
    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
  18. Kubla Khan
    by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
    A stately pleasure-dome decree:”
  19. In Flanders Fields
    by John McCrae
    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
  20. Hope is the thing with feathers
    by Emily Dickinson
    Hope is the thing with feathers
    That perches in the soul,
  21. Endymion
    by John Keats
    A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
    Its loveliness increases; it will never
  22. Old Ironsides
    by Oliver Wendell Holmes
    Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
    Long has it waved on high,
  23. Sonnet 43: How Do I Love Thee?
    by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
    How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
  24. She Walks in Beauty
    by George Gordon, Lord Byron
    She walks in beauty, like the night
    Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
  25. Dover Beach
    by Matthew Arnold
    The sea is calm tonight.
    The tide is full, the moon lies fair
  26. The Charge of the Light Brigade
    by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
    Half a league, half a league,
    Half a league onward,
  27. Thanatopsis
    by William Cullen Bryant
    To him who in the love of nature holds
    Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
  28. Ode on a Grecian Urn
    by John Keats
    Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
    Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
  29. Fire and Ice
    by Robert Frost
    Some say the world will end in fire,
    Some say in ice.
  30. The Lady of Shalott
    by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
    On either side the river lie
    Long fields of barley and of rye,
  31. John Barleycorn
    by Robert Burns
    There was three kings into the east,
    Three kings both great and high,
  32. The Highwayman
    by Alfred Noyes
    The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.
    The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.
  33. The New Colossus
    by Emma Lazarus
    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
  34. The World is Too Much With Us
    by William Wordsworth
    The world is too much with us; late and soon,
    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
  35. Mending Wall
    by Robert Frost
    Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
    That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
  36. The Sun Rising
    by John Donne
    Busy old fool, unruly sun,
    Why dost thou thus,
  37. Ode to a Nightingale
    by John Keats
    My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
    My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
  38. We Wear the Mask
    by Paul Laurence Dunbar
    We wear the mask that grins and lies,
    It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
  39. A Dream Within a Dream
    by Edgar Allan Poe
    Take this kiss upon the brow!
    And, in parting from you now,
  40. The Tyger
    by William Blake
    Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
    In the forests of the night;
  41. See It Through
    by Edgar Albert Guest
    When you’re up against a trouble,
    Meet it squarely, face to face;
  42. I heard a Fly buzz when I died
    by Emily Dickinson
    I heard a Fly buzz when I died;
    The stillness round my form
  43. Ode to the West Wind
    by Percy Bysshe Shelley
    O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
    Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
  44. The Wreck of the Hesperus
    by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    It was the schooner Hesperus,
    That sailed the wintry sea;
  45. The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
    by Christopher Marlowe
    Come live with me and be my love,
    And we will all the pleasures prove,
  46. Song: to Celia
    by Ben Jonson
    Drink to me only with thine eyes,
    And I will pledge with mine;
  47. The Cremation of Sam McGee
    by Robert Service
    There are strange things done in the midnight sun
    By the men who moil for gold;
  48. Acquainted with the Night
    by Robert Frost
    I have been one acquainted with the night.
    I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
  49. To My Dear and Loving Husband
    by Anne Bradstreet
    If ever two were one, then surely we.
    If ever man were loved by wife, than thee;
  50. Crossing the Bar
    by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
    Sunset and evening star,
    And one clear call for me!
  51. I felt a funeral in my brain
    by Emily Dickinson
    I felt a funeral in my brain
    And mourners, to and fro,
  52. A Noiseless Patient Spider
    by Walt Whitman
    A noiseless patient spider,
    I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
  53. When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
    by John Keats
    When I have fears that I may cease to be
    Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
  54. Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
    by William Shakespeare
    When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
    I all alone beweep my outcast state,
  55. A Psalm of Life
    by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
    Life is but an empty dream!
  56. The Soldier
    by Rupert Brooke
    If I should die, think only this of me:
    That there’s some corner of a foreign field
  57. Sympathy
    by Paul Laurence Dunbar
    I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
    When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
  58. Holy Sonnet 10: Death, be not proud
    by John Donne
    Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
    Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
  59. Ulysses
    by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
    It little profits that an idle king,
    By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
  60. A Red, Red Rose
    by Robert Burns
    O my Luve is like a red, red rose
    That’s newly sprung in June;
  61. Much madness is divinest sense
    by Emily Dickinson
    Much Madness is divinest Sense
    To a discerning eye;
  62. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
    by Thomas Gray
    The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
    The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea,
  63. A Poison Tree
    by William Blake
    I was angry with my friend;
    I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
  64. To a Mouse
    by Robert Burns
    Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
    O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
  65. Success is counted sweetest
    by Emily Dickinson
    Success is counted sweetest
    By those who ne'er succeed.
  66. Birches
    by Robert Frost
    When I see birches bend to left and right
    Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
  67. Love and Friendship
    by Emily Brontë
    Love is like the wild rose-briar,
    Friendship like the holly-tree—
  68. Love’s Philosophy
    by Percy Bysshe Shelley
    The fountains mingle with the river
    And the rivers with the ocean,
  69. When I consider how my light is spent
    by John Milton
    When I consider how my light is spent,
    Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
  70. Snow-Bound
    by John Greenleaf Whittier
    The sun that brief December day
    Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
  71. A Valentine
    by Edgar Allan Poe
    For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
    Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda,
  72. My life had stood — a loaded gun
    by Emily Dickinson
    My life had stood — a loaded gun —
    In Corners — till a Day
  73. To Autumn
    by John Keats
    Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
  74. I Have a Rendezvous with Death
    by Alan Seeger
    I have a rendezvous with Death
    At some disputed barricade
  75. Auguries of Innocence
    by William Blake
    To see a world in a grain of sand,
    And a heaven in a wild flower,
  76. Love’s Secret
    by Percy William Blake
    Never seek to tell thy love,
    Love that never told can be;
  77. Horatius at the Bridge
    by Thomas Babington Macaulay
    Lars Porsena of Clusium,
    By the Nine Gods he swore
  78. Abou Ben Adhem
    by Leigh Hunt
    Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
    Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
  79. Tell all the truth but tell it slant
    by Emily Dickinson
    Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
    Success in Circuit lies
  80. The Village Blacksmith
    by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    Under a spreading chestnut-tree
    The village smithy stands;
  81. Good Timber
    by Douglas Malloch
    The tree that never had to fight
    For sun and sky and air and light,
  82. My Heart Leaps Up
    by William Wordsworth
    My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky:
  83. The Destruction of Sennacherib
    by Lord Byron
    The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
    And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
  84. Trees
    by Joyce Kilmer
    I think that I shall never see
    A poem lovely as a tree.
  85. The Hayloft
    by Robert Louis Stevenson
    Through all the pleasant meadow-side
    The grass grew shoulder-high,
  86. Who Has Seen the Wind?
    by Christina Rossetti
    Who has seen the wind?
    Neither I nor you;
  87. Frost at Midnight
    by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    The frost performs its secret ministry,
    Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry
  88. All the world's a stage
    by William Shakespeare
    All the world’s a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players;
  89. A bird came down the walk
    by Emily Dickinson
    A bird came down the walk:
    He did not know I saw;
  90. Pioneers! O Pioneers!
    by Walt Whitman
    Come, my tan-faced children,
    Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
  91. Alone
    by Edgar Allan Poe
    From childhood’s hour I have not been
    As others were—I have not seen
  92. I'm nobody! Who are you?
    by Emily Dickinson
    I'm nobody! Who are you?
    Are you nobody, too?
  93. The Chambered Nautilus
    by Oliver Wendell Holmes
    This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
    Sails the unshadowed main,—
  94. Concord Hymn
    by Ralph Waldo Emerson
    By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
    Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
  95. Remember
    by Christina Rossetti
    Remember me when I am gone away,
    Gone far away into the silent land;
  96. Sea Fever
    by John Masefield
    I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
    And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
  97. Fog
    by Carl Sandburg
    The fog comes
    on little cat feet.
  98. When We Two Parted
    by George Gordon, Lord Byron
    When we two parted
    In silence and tears,
  99. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
    by Francis William Bourdillon
    The night has a thousand eyes,
    And the day but one;
  100. Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
    by Thomas Moore
    Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
    Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,

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