Sally’s Hair by John Koethe
‘Sally’s Hair’ by John Koethe is a short and effective poem in which the speaker looks back on someone he met thirty-seven years ago and wonders where she is now.
‘Sally’s Hair’ by John Koethe is a short and effective poem in which the speaker looks back on someone he met thirty-seven years ago and wonders where she is now.
‘The Vagabond’ by Robert Louis Stevenson is a poem about one speaker’s desire to live a life close to nature and far from the rules of contemporary society.
‘The Wedding’ by Moniza Alvi depicts a wedding ceremony and a bride’s apprehensive approach to her new home in England and her new English family.
‘Night Journey’ by Theodore Roethke is a thoughtful, fairly simple poem about the American countryside. He spends the lines admiring the landscapes one can see by train at night.
‘Northern Pike’ by James Wright is a beautiful poem written from the perspective of a man on a fishing trip.
‘Tavern’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a beautiful, short poem that speaks to one person’s desire to take care of others.
‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ by Craig Raine describes what Earth is like from the perspective of a Martian. It is a thoughtful and beautiful poem.
‘Traveling through the Dark’ by William Stafford is a powerful poem about life, death, and nature. The lines depict someone’s choices in regard to a dead, pregnant doe he finds on the side of the road.
‘Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota’ by James Wright describes a speaker’s new appreciation for the countryside. They find themselves so attached to it that they suggest they’ve wasted their life not living there.
‘Bobby Shafto’s Gone to Sea’ is a traditional English folk song and nursery rhyme. It describes a speaker’s longing for her love, Bobby Shafto, who is out on a sea voyage.
‘Echoes of Cloncurry’ by Juliette A. H. Cavendish is a thoughtful poem about Cloncurry, Australia, and its entrancing past and present.
‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ by Leontia Flynn describes the way the travel can impact the traveller and all those they meet.
‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare describes the actions of a Traveller who knocks at the door of a seemingly deserted home at night.
‘I Remember, I Remember’ by Philip Larkin contains a speaker’s thoughts about his home. He expresses what he thinks is an idealized childhood and how it doesn’t match up to it.
‘Nutting’ by William Wordsworth describes a speaker’s boyhood journey into the woods and the resulting pleasure and rage he experiences.
‘Monuments’ by Kamala Wijeratne describes the depressed state of a Sri Lankan community in the midst of the Civil War which lasted from 1983 to 2009.
‘In Your Mind’ by Carol Ann Duffy describes a detailed daydream in which the reader of the poem embarks on a strangely familiar trip.
‘Travel’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay speaks of one narrator’s unquenchable longing for the opportunity to escape from her everyday life.
‘Armistice’ by Sophie Jewett describes a brief moment of magic, contemplation, and peace that two travellers experience as they journey across the ocean.
‘Hitcher’ by Simon Armitage describes a brutal act of violence against a “free” hitchhiker committed by a speaker who is “under / the weather.”
‘Directive’ by Robert Frost is about the relationship between the past and the present. It is a very well regarded poem that has been described as “dismaying” and “gratifying.”
Yeats’ poems are continually referenced in popular culture, including the poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. Its first line, “That is no country for old men…” was used for the title of Cormac McCarthy’s popular novel, “No Country for Old Men,” later adapted for the big screen.