Poetry Appendix

Poetry Flood

40 Suggested Poems to use with the “Poetry Flood” activity

Introduction: The following titles have been selected with an eye to providing a
diversity of voices and poetic styles for students to encounter. They are generally
both short and quite understandable on an initial read. Finally, they are also easy to
find – all of them are contained in The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry, (Ed. Jay
Parini), recently acquired by Portland Public Schools as part of its 2007 Language
Arts adoption.

Author Title of Poem/Year written Pg

1. Wallace Stevens “The Emperor of Ice Cream” /1923 157

2. Seamus Heaney “Mid-Term Break”/ 1966 176

3. Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” / 1951 222

4. Wole Soyinka “Telephone Conversation” / 1962 236

5. Edward Lear “The Owl and the Pusseycat” / 1871 318

6. Dudley Randall “Ballad of Birmingham” / 1969 328

7. Ch’u Ch’uang “A Mountain Spring” / 8th Century 375

(tr. Kenneth Rexroth)

8. William Blake “The Lamb” / 1789 387

9. William Wordsworth “My Heart Leaps Up” / 1807 389

10. E. A. Robinson “Richard Cory” / 1897 395

11. Gary Soto “Field Poem” / 1977 425

12. Sara Teasdale “There will Come Soft Rain” / 1920 451

13. Elizabeth Bishop “One Art” / 1976 493

14. Dylan Thomas “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night” 493
/ 1952
15. James Wright “Autumn Begins in Matins Ferry, Ohio” 580
/ 1963
16. Theodore Roethke “My Papa’s Waltz” 600

17. Sharon Olds “I Go Back to May 1937” / 1997 608

Poetry Appendix
Poetry Flood

18. Robert Herrick “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” 634
/1648
19. Robert Burns “A Red, Red Rose” / 1796 638

20. Elizabeth Barrett “Sonnet 43” / 1846 639

Browning

21. Emily Dickinson “Wild Nights – Wild Nights” / 1861 640

22. Lucille Clifton “Homage to My Hips” / 1980 659

23. Claude McKay “America” / 1921 723

24. Marge Piercy “Barbie Doll” / 1971 739

25. Charles Simic “Sunday Papers” / 2001 742

26. William Stafford “Traveling through the Dark” / 1960 770

27. A.E. Housman “Loveliest of Trees the Cherry Now” / 1896 799

28. Carl Sandburg “Fog” / 1916 801

29. e.e. cummings “in Just-” / 1922 802

30. Galway Kinnell “Blackberry Eating” / 1980 806

31. Walt Whitman “A Noiseless Patient Spider” / 1868 834

32. Gerald Manley Hopkins “The Windhover” / 1918 837

33. Charles Bukowski “The Mockingbird” / 1972 849

34. Gregory Corso “The Mad Yak” / 1958 853

35. Mary Oliver “The Hermit Crab” / 1990 856

36. William Carlos Williams “The Red Wheelbarrow” / 1923 889

37. Denise Levertov “The Dog of Art” / 1959 898

38. Nikki Giovanni “Poetry” / 1979 906

39. Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool” / 1960 928

40. Anonymous “Western Wind” / 16th Century 958