‘Holy Thursday’ by William Blake depicts the poor children of London attending church on Holy Thursday. Specifically, Blake describes their songs, appearance, and how their existence challenges the message the church is trying to convey.
‘Gathering Leaves’ is a profound poem that delves into the themes of man versus nature, productivity, and change.
In ‘3 November 1984,’ Indian-English poet Sujata Bhatt shows how history plays a vital role in the process of writing poetry, and their interconnectedness.
‘First March,’ written by one of the lesser known First World War poets, Ivor Bertie Gurney, is about a soldier’s emotional state while returning to his home.
Gillian Clarke’s free-verse poem ‘Advent’ depicts a lifeless winter landscape where everything is frozen to a state that instills despair and hopelessness in the speaker’s heart.
‘Crow Sickened’ is a brilliant example of Hughes’ playful style, in which Crow attempts to work out the cause of his misery.
The poem ‘Sheep In Fog’ describes Sylvia Plath’s feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and depression.
‘She rose to His Requirement – dropt’ by Emily Dickinson speaks to the lack of freedom and respect women had in Dickinson’s time. It emphasizes the confining nature of marriage and society’s expectations for a married woman.
‘Contusion’ by Sylvia Plath is a memorable, short poem about death and a loss of passion or meaning in one’s life. It is a dramatic monologue written 12 days before the poet’s death.
In ‘The Triple Fool’, Donne deals with unrequited love. Heartbroken, he writes poetry to alleviate the pain.
‘The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean’ by Robinson Jeffers is a complex poem that suggests that the speaker’s contemporary world is falling apart and is only going to get worse before it gets better.
‘Hard Rock Returns to Prison’ is an allegory of oppression and forced submission of Black inmates in America.
‘The Spring’ by Thomas Carew is a poem about unrequited love in spring. The poet mourns the fact that no matter the season, his beloved does not love him.
‘Description of Spring’ by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey uses spring to emphasize the speaker’s sorrow. Despite the uplifting season, the speaker’s depression only worsens.
‘Quid Pro Quo’ by Paul Mariani is a confessional poem that narrates a speaker’s anger and frustration at God subsequent to his wife’s second miscarriage.
Published in Robert Bly’s award-winning collection, The Light Around the Body (1967), ‘The Great Society’ satirizes the set of domestic programs launched by Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964-65 by presenting contrasting imagery from contemporary American society.
‘Two Women’ by Marcus Wilcox is a thoughtful and complex poem about identity. The speaker spends the text discussing the lives of two different women.
‘Middle Passage’ by Robert Hayden is a narrative poem written in the 1940s. It describes the happenings of the Atlantic Slave Trade, as told from the perspective of several white narrators.
‘Sonnet 150,’ also known as ‘O! from what power hast thou this powerful might,’ explores the ways the Dark Lady controls Shakespeare’s speaker. She makes him love her even though she’s cruel to him
‘Don’t kill yourself today’ by Hannah Dains is a thoughtful and powerful poem about suicide. The poet explores all the reasons someone has to stay alive and expresses her love for those struggling with depression.
‘I Am!’ by John Clare is a powerful poem about a speaker’s struggle with depression, loneliness, and a desire to find peace in Heaven.
‘Standing Female Nude’ by ‘Carol Ann Duffy’ speaks on the roll of the artist model in the studio of a unfeeling painter who sees her only as a means to an end.
‘No worst, there is none’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins describes the nature of a speaker’s depression and its highs and lows.
‘Unprofitableness’ by Henry Vaughan is an extended conceit presenting a speaker’s unsuccessful efforts to thank God for his fresh and rejuvenating visits.
‘After Reading Antony and Cleopatra’ by Robert Louis Stevenson describes humankind’s unquenchable desire for “hopeless things” that stem from the past.
‘I cannot live with You’ by Emily Dickinson is a poem about marriage. The speaker spends the lines declaring why she can’t “live with you” and her various related concerns.