Couplets are two-line stanzas that usually rhyme and have a consistent meter. They are one of the simplest and most common forms of poetry.
Couplets can stand alone as a complete poem or be used in longer poetic works. The rhyming scheme can vary, with AA, BB, or ABAB common patterns. Couplets are versatile and can be used for various purposes, from lighthearted humor to profound reflections.
Due to their succinct nature, couplets are effective for delivering witty punchlines or encapsulating profound truths. They are often found in traditional nursery rhymes, epigrams, and heroic couplets in longer narrative poems or satirical works.
‘Portrait of Zimri’ by John Dryden is a political satire that showcases how people in power can be consumed by hollow and pretentious self interest.
Some of their chiefs were princes of the land:
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand:
A man so various, that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome.
‘Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog’ is a humorous, playful, and extremely concise poem that presents the dog’s feelings of superiority.
I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
‘Corinna’s Going A-Maying’ is a carpe diem (Latin for “seize the day”) poem in which the speaker urges his beloved, Corinna, to arise from bed and join him in the festivities of May Day already in progress.
Get up, get up for shame, the Blooming Morne
Upon her wings presents the god unshorne.
See how Aurora throwes her faire
Fresh-quilted colours through the aire:
‘The Quilting’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a very short love poem that reveals the speaker’s growing affection for a woman named Dolly.
Dolly sits a–quilting by her mother, stitch by stitch,
Gracious, how my pulses throb, how my fingers itch,
‘No Man Without Money’ by Robert Herrick is a short poem that lucidly voices the belief that people only succeed because of chance and circumstance.
No man such rare parts hath, that he can swim,
If favour or occasion help not him.
In ‘Teddy Bear,’ the titular stuffed bear frets about his chubby body. A chance encounter with a plump passerby helps Teddy realize that fat men can still be held in high esteem, giving him newfound confidence about his appearance.
A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at;
‘The Badger’ by John Clare is a narrative poem that portrays the cruelty and danger that animals face in the natural world.
When midnight comes a host of dogs and men
Go out and track the badger to his den,
And put a sack within the hole, and lie
Till the old grunting badger passes by.
‘Dreams’ by John Henry Dryden presents a vivid illustration of the ways in which dreams are steeped in paradox and irrationality.
Dreams are but interludes which Fancy makes;
When monarch Reason sleeps, this mimic wakes:
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A mob of cobblers, and a court of kings:
‘The Wound’ by Ruth Stone describes with unflinching detail the harmful ways in which some words can inflict lasting hurt.
The shock comes slowly
as an afterthought.
First you hear the words
and they are like all other words,
‘Fatigue’ uses humor in order to subvert the readers’ expectations of a poet and their ambitions by seeming to value money over love and art.
I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
‘Bunnies’ by Ena Hawken is a light-hearted poem zooming in on one natural trait of rabbits. The poem caters to children with its short retainable stanzas, rhyme, and meter akin to that of a nursery rhyme. By its nature of telling of bunnies, the poem is also regarded as an Easter poem.
Every little bunny
Has a habit that is funny.
‘Ravenna’ by Oscar Wilde is the poet’s recollection of a trip to the culturally and historically important Italian city of Ravenna.
A year ago I breathed the Italian air,
And yet, methinks this northern Spring is fair,
These fields made golden with the flower of March,
The throstle singing on the feathered larch,
‘Somebody’s Mother’ by Mary Dow Brine is a heartbreaking and heartwarming poem about caring for strangers.
The woman was old and ragged and gray
And bent with the chill of the Winter's day.
The street was wet with a recent snow
And the woman's feet were aged and slow.
‘The Measures Taken’ by Erich Fried is a powerful piece about war and loss. The reader is asked to consider their concepts of good, evil, and who deserves to live throughout the poem.
The lazy are slaughtered
the world grows industrious
The ugly are slaughtered
the world grows beautiful
‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’ is a light poem about a homesick traveler sentimentally remembering his former home in the English town of Grantchester. The poem takes a gently satirical tone to its subject matter.
Just now the lilac is in bloom,
All before my little room;
And in my flower-beds, I think,
Smile the carnation and the pink;
‘Maud Muller’ by John Greenleaf Whittier is a classic narrative ballad that recounts how the poor peasant, Maud, and an urban judge fantasize about getting married and living together. However, neither of them ever takes action, which fills their lives with regret.
God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
‘To a Highland Girl’ by Wordsworth celebrates the beauty and innocence of the girl, her harmonious connection to nature.
Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower
Of beauty is thy earthly dower!
Twice seven consenting years have shed
Their utmost bounty on thy head:
‘A Child’s Garden’ by Rudyard Kipling is written from the perspective of a young sick boy who is dreaming of escaping his confining and frightening life by taking to the sky in an airplane.
Now there is nothing wrong with me
Except -- I think it's called T.B.
And that is why I have to lay
Out in the garden all the day.
‘Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep’ by Mary Frye was written out of heartfelt compassion, and it has resonated with millions of people experiencing loss and grief.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
‘The Changeling’ by Charlotte Mew is a unique poem told from the perspective of a child who thinks she’s a fairy and longs to return to the fairy world.
Toll no bell for me, dear Father, dear Mother,
Waste no sighs;
There are my sisters, there is my little brother
Who plays in the place called Paradise,
‘Easter Hymn’ by A. E. Houseman unearths the contradictions between religious teachings and their implementation. The poet is juxtaposing biblical moments of violence with modern ones to highlight the incomplete nature of Christ’s promise to save humanity from itself.
If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
‘I Was Made Erect and Lone’ by Henry David Thoreau is a poem about trusting in your own individual autonomy.
I was made erect and lone,
And within me is the bone;
Still my vision will be clear,
Still my life will not be drear,
‘Before She Died’ by Karen Chase is a poem about how someone’s death, or impending death, changes the way that one understands the world.
When I look at the sky now, I look at it for you.
As if with enough attention, I could take it in for you.
With all the leaves gone almost from
the trees, I did not walk briskly through the field.
‘Slavery’ by Hannah More is a pro-abolitionist poem. It attempts to inspire Britain at the peak of slave trade to condemn the very act. The poem makes a case for the abolition of slavery by exposing Britain’s immorality and appealing to the public’s humanity.
Let Malice strip them of each other plea,
They still are men, and men should still be free.
Insulted Reason loathes the inverted trade —
Loathes, as she views the human purchase made;
‘The Barefoot Boy’ by John Greenleaf Whittier is a highly relatable poem that speaks on universal themes of aging and the beauty and joy of youth. The poem celebrates a young boy’s freedom and mourns the coming of age.
Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
‘Before the Birth of One of Her Children’ by Anne Bradstreet is a moving poem about a woman’s opinion on death. Inspired by her pregnancy, the speaker pens this epistolary to her husband.
‘Elegy V’ by John Donne is addressed to the poet’s lover. He asks her to accept him when he returns, despite the fact that he’s going to look and act differently.
Here take my picture; though I bid farewell
Thine, in my heart, where my soul dwells, shall dwell.
'Tis like me now, but I dead, 'twill be more
When we are shadows both, than 'twas before.
‘How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix’ by Robert Browning depicts three riders’ attempting to gallop from Ghent to Aix. The speaker makes it there, delivering a critical, although unknown, piece of news.
I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
‘Good speed!'’ cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
‘Speed!’ echoed the wall to us galloping through;
‘Love Among the Ruins’ by Robert Browning is a Victorian, dramatic poem that uses the metaphor of a destroyed city to speak on love and nature.
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles,
Miles and miles
On the solitary pastures where our sheep
Half-asleep
Philip Larkin’s poem, ‘Money,’ is a powerful critique of the consumerist culture inherent in modern society through the personification of money itself.
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