“

Now reading

What I can do - I will-

What I can do—I will,
Though it be little as a
Daffodil.
What I cannot, must be
Unknown to possibility.

41,493

poems

4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

Browse the collection

Explore the archive →
01

By feeling

Grief, desire, revolt, wonder. Start where the poem meets your life.

Emotions →
02

By form

Follow the sonnet, ghazal, villanelle, ode, and every shape in between.

The glossary →
03

By constellation

Move between a poet, their influences, peers, translations, and afterlives.

Poets →

Selected

Poems worth returning to

The professor stabbed his chest with his hands curled like forks …

Lucia Perillo

there’s nothing in my face. There is nothing in yours. What we have are called heads. They are nothing unless we kiss. Lips are wonderful. They are full of mechanoreceptors. In the Old World we all used to kiss and kiss. It was then that we did have faces. We had noses and cheeks and foreheads and soft, downy hair. In the New World we stopped kissing. Those who were already here stopped. Those who came stopped. Now there are only four people who have heads that are also faces. They are an artist and three children for whom I have a face other than my hands. …

John Lee Clark

I …

Dorothea Lasky

These chimes blowing in faintly now …

Carl Dennis

But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd, …

Alexander Pope

keeps a different time. Across the street, Lake Michigan folds …

Albert Goldbarth

Patulla the shipping boy is a shark at pool. …

William Torgownik

I …

Charles Reznikoff

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

Explore the glossary→
Accentual verseAccentual-syllabic verseAcmeismAlcaicAlexandrineAmbiguity