101 Great American Poems Quotes

“The Arrow and the Song I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song? Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“But at his smile I smiled in turn, And into my soul there came a ray: In trying to soothe another’s woes Mine own had passed away.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show Strengthens and supports the rest.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“To My Dear and Loving Husband If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.”
― Carl Sandburg, 101 Great American Poems

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost, 101 Great American Poems

“The Leaden-Eyed Let not young souls be smothered out before
They do quaint deeds and fully flaunt their pride.
It is the world’s one crime its babes grow dull,
Its poor are oxlike, limp and leaden-eyed.
Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly;
Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap;
Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve;”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“I’m nobody! Who are you?’ I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“আমি তো হয়েই গেছি একজন নিশিরাত সাথী।
হেঁটেছি বৃষ্টিতে ভিজে– বৃষ্টিতেই ফিরেও এসেছি।
পার হয়ে গেছি আমি শহরের দূরতম বাতি।

সর্বাধিক দুঃখক্লিষ্ট গলি আমি স্বচক্ষে দেখেছি
দায়িত্বপালনকারী দারোয়ানে কাটিয়েছি পাশে।
চোখের দু’পাতা ফেলে, ব্যাখ্যা সব গোপন রেখেছি।

থমকে দাঁড়িয়ে গেছি পদশব্দ যদি কিছু নাশে
কান্নার শব্দের তুল্য– কোনো কান্না দূর থেকে হয়,
পাশের সড়ক থেকে বাড়ির উপর দিয়ে আসে,

কিন্তু কেউ ডাকেনি তো, বিদায় বচনটিও নয়;
আরো দূরে, বহু দূরে অপার্থিব কোনো উচ্চতায়,
আলোকিত ঘড়ি এক আকাশের উল্টো থেকে কয়

না-শুভ বা না-অশুভ এই কাল আজিকার বাতি।
আমি তো রয়েই গেছি একজন নিশিরাত সাথী।”
― Robert Frost, 101 Great American Poems

“I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Alone From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone.
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go. They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air. The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled; Our todays and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems

“All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme.”
― The American Poetry and Literacy Project, 101 Great American Poems