Hello again dear reader. In a
previous discussion, we pontificated on how one can go about building the
character of a soldier to inspire confidence and carry them to their daily
lives. And although there is nothing wrong with building your soldierly
character dear reader, I realized shortly after completing that particular
conversation that the character of a soldier is not necessarily inclusive to
all of humanity. And so I began to pontificate on other ways and methods that
could be used to help identify and develop the necessary character traits that
a well-rounded citizen of the world such as you, dear reader, should strive
for. As I am a big fan of literature dear reader, I began to think of some of
my favorite stories that inspired courage and character named me. And then I
began to think about the people that wrote those stories. And what inspired
them. People like Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and many others, and it
turns out they were all huge advocates of poetry, which according to some is
the "crown of literature." So I began to think of poetry and poems
(or at least their titles) that I felt inspired confidence, character development
or any other character trait I felt was important to a well-rounded citizen of the
world. The poems listed here dear reader are just 20 struck a certain chord
with me. Your choice of course may be entirely different from mine, and that is
perfectly acceptable, because even the same poem can mean something entirely
different to another person. And as always, dear reader, please keep in mind
that I tend to view the world through a somewhat masculine lens. This however
does not mean I am not in touch with my feminine side. It simply means that a
masculine perspective is my default setting. And while there is nothing wrong
with this perspective (as long as you realize this is how you are viewing the
world and moderate your bias when necessary). I do not want anyone to feel
excluded, because my poetry choices appear to be too masculine. The message
each of these poems contains can be appreciated by every member of the human
race and holds a very distinctive value.
Matthew Arnold, a Victorian poet,
once claimed, “The crown of literature is poetry,” and if our neglect of poetry
is any indication, the crown is rusting. While books sales fluctuate from year
to year, fewer and fewer publishing houses are printing volumes of poetry. The
demand for poets and their poems has ebbed.
However, we do ourselves a great
disservice when we neglect the reading of poetry. John Adams, one of the
founding fathers of the United States, commended poetry to his son John Quincy.
Both Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt committed their favorite poems to
memory. Ancient kings were expected to produce poetry while also being versed
in warfare and statecraft. That poetry has fallen out of favor among men in the
21st century is a recent trend rather than the norm.
To help remedy this, we have compiled
a list of 20 classic poems that everyone should read. Spanning the past two
thousand years, the poems on this list represent some of the best works of
poetry ever composed. But don’t worry—they were selected for both their brevity
and ease of application. Some are about striving to overcome, others about
romantic love, and still others about patriotism. Whether you’ve been reading
poetry for years or haven’t read a single line since high school, these poems
are sure to inspire and delight you.
1.
“Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Tennyson, poet emeritus of England
during the latter half of the 19th century, has composed a number of classic
poems that deserve careful reading. “Ulysses,” possibly his most anthologized
poem, begins at the end of Odysseus’ life after the events of Homer’s Odyssey.
Tennyson depicts the desire of a man wanting to set out on new adventures and
see new sights, even as his life is passing into twilight. Ulysses’ memorable
phrases will encourage even the most settled soul to strike out and start
something new.
2.
“If–” by Rudyard Kipling
Literature is filled with examples
of fathers passing their wisdom down to their sons, from the biblical Book of
Proverbs to Ta Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me.
While not everyone had a father to teach them life lessons, Kipling’s most read
poem provides an education in living that anyone can benefit from. Soldiers and
athletes have drawn from its wisdom, and boys (and men!) have committed its lines to
memory for over a century. A celebration of the British “stiff upper lip,” this
Victorian classic is worth meditating on every so often as a reminder of the
virtues and actions that make up a life well-lived.
3.
“Sailing to Byzantium” by W. B. Yeats
Socrates, speaking to a friend, once
asked, “Is life harder at the end?” W.B. Yeats’ meditation on adolescence and
what it means to grow old is a salve for world-weary souls. Writing near the
end of his life, Yeats confesses that, although his body wastes away, his
desire for what is good will not cease. Yeats’ vision for what is “true, good,
and beautiful” reminds us that youth and vitality are ultimately about how one
sees the world and not about age. Filled with beautiful imagery, “Sailing to
Byzantium” offers a corrective to our modern obsession with chasing the phantom
of eternal youth.
4.
Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare
No list of poems is complete without
the Bard himself. Known primarily for his plays, universally accepted as some
of the best works in world literature, Shakespeare was also a poet, composing
over 150 sonnets in his lifetime. Sonnet 29 is a lamentation on the loss of
fame and fortune but ends with a meditation on the love that he has for his
beloved. Works such as It’s a Wonderful Life echo the themes in
Shakespeare’s Sonnet, showing us that the company of loved ones far outweighs
all the riches that the world offers.
5.
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
We’re not promised a life absent
trials and suffering. While horrific events have sidelined many men, William
Ernest Henley refused to be crushed on account of hardship. As a young man he
contracted tuberculosis of the bone, which resulted in the
amputation of the lower part of one of his legs. The disease flared up
again in Henley’s twenties, compromising his other good leg,
which doctors also wished to amputate. Henley successfully fought to save the leg,
and while enduring a three-year hospitalization, he wrote “Invictus” — a
stirring charge to remember that we are not merely given over to our
fates. While life can be “nasty, brutish, and short,” we cannot sit idle while
waves crash against us. A product of Victorian stoicism, and lived struggle,
Henley’s poem is a clarion call to resist and persevere through the hardest of
trials.
6.
“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
Robert Frost once told John F.
Kennedy that “Poetry and power is the formula for another Augustan Age.” If
that is the case, then Frost brought both to bear in this poem about two
neighbors rebuilding a fence between their property during a cold winter in New
England. A story told in blank verse, Frost critiques the phrase that he
attributes to the other man in the story, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Dedicated to neighborliness and good will towards others, Frost’s work is a
helpful tonic against 21st century individualism and selfishness.
7.
“Pioneers! O Pioneers!” by Walt Whitman
The West has captivated the
imaginations of America’s greatest writers, from James Fenimore Cooper to
Cormac McCarthy. Walt Whitman’s “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” mixes adventure and a
summons to tread out on new paths. Published at the end of the Civil War and
the start of the great migration west, Whitman is rightly considered to be one
of the earliest poets to distill America down to its essence. “Pioneers! O
Pioneers!” still moves the spirit to chart a new course and serves as both a
reminder of where we have come from and where we can go.
8.
“Horatius” by Thomas Babington
While serving the English government
in India during the 1830s, politician, poet, and historian Thomas Babington
Macaulay spun semi-mythical ancient Roman tales into memorable ballads or
“lays.” His most famous lay was “Horatius,” a ballad that recounted the
legendary courage of an ancient Roman army officer, Publius Horatius Cocles,
who was lauded for making a stand with two comrades, and then alone,
against a horde of advancing enemy Etruscans. Macaulay’s homage to the
honor of Horatius has proved an inspiration to many men, including
Winston Churchill, who is said to have memorized all seventy stanzas of the
poem as a boy.
9.
“On the Stork Tower” by Wang Zhihuan
The shortest poem on this list (the
entirety of its text is contained on the image above), Zhihaun’s meditation on
nature also serves as an epigram, a short motivational work meant to encourage
seeking out new and better prospects. While the poem is only four lines long,
it works as a meditative focus point, something to ponder whether sitting alone
outside or during a crisis as a reminder that there is a solution to be found
no matter the problem. Combining Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian religious
ideas, Zhihuan’s only surviving poem provides food for thought dressed in the
language of nature.
10.
“The Builders” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
While we often think of builders as
limited to those who work with their hands, the ethos of the craftsman is something
everyone should strive to emulate and cultivate. Life is a
craft in and of itself — one that needs to be learned and attended to with the
same kind of patience, care, and integrity that go into shaping tangible
materials. All of us, Longfellow argues in this poem, are architects; all
of our days are building blocks that contribute to the structure of our
existence; and all of our actions and decisions (even those no one else sees)
determine the strength, and thus the height, that the edifices of our lives can
reach.
11.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
Hughes penned this poem when he was
just 17 years old. Written on his way to visit his father, the work both
summarizes the experience of the young, black writer and encapsulates the
struggle of African Americans across the span of time. Hughes uses famous
locations of African civilizations as a reminder of the proud history of black
people in America. Exasperated but not undone, Hughes’ poem is a tribute to
those who have come before and an unspoken pledge to transcend time and
circumstances.
12.
“The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke
“War is hell” quipped William
Tecumseh Sherman, and no generation understood this better than the boys thrown
into the grinder of World War I. While Wilfred Owen’s “Dolce Et Decorum Est”
also makes for necessary reading, Rupert Brooke’s poem about loss and
remembrance in wartime marries youthful vigor with a cautious patriotism.
Meditating on his own death and what he hopes it means for others, Brooke
reminds us that countries aren’t composed of flags and anthems, but the people
who serve and sacrifice their lives for the greater good. His soldier is
“A body of England’s, breathing English air,” composed of and composing what
England is. “The Soldier” is a heartfelt memorial to all of those who
met danger with courage and should stir us to press forward — even at the
highest cost.
13.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot
What happens when societies favor disillusionment rather than contentment, individuality rather than community, safety rather than fulfillment? Eliot explores these questions in his own context, writing after the devastation brought on by World War I. Ironically titled, the poem lacks another individual for the poet to praise. Rather, the narrator reflects and laments on missed chances and opportunities never taken to reach out and connect with another person. A difficult but rewarding read, Eliot’s iconic poem serves as a warning — do not allow the awkwardness of human connection to keep you from making meaningful relationships.
14.
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and
Napoleon have one thing in common — they were unable to outlast the
empires they forged. Though they garbed themselves in symbols meant to
represent the eternal, eventually they went to the grave like the rest of
mankind. Shelley encapsulates this motif in “Ozymandias,” written from the
perspective of a man speaking with a traveler who had just visited the former
empire of the great Ozymandias. Although the dead ruler’s statues and
memorials remain, they are dilapidated and gather dust, a symbol of the passage
of time that dooms any who dreams of building empires. Shelley’s classic work
is a morality tale, a check on hubris, a reminder that no matter how great our
works, they will all ultimately decay as the wheel of history turns
round.
15.
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne
Written to his wife upon leaving for
a trip abroad, Donne’s poem uses the literary concept of a “conceit,” an
extended metaphor, to encourage his wife to see their momentary separation not
as “A breach, but an expansion” of their love. Donne describes their
relationship in terms of a drawing compass, her being the arm that is fixed in
place and his as the arm extended outward, yet still connected. Donne’s
masterful use of the English language, blended with emotional longing, makes “A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” one of the greatest love songs ever penned.
Donne’s work is an excellent poem to read with your spouse or significant
other.
16.
Poem from The Iron Heel by Jack London
This poem is actually contained
within another work of literature — Jack London’s novel, The Iron Heel.
The book’s narrator, Avis Everhard, describes the text as her
husband’s favorite poem and an encapsulation of his sprit, but it is also
clearly a description of London’s own philosophy of life — his
belief in the infinite power and potential of man and desire
to experience everything the world had to offer. “How can a
man, with thrilling, and burning, and exaltation, recite the following and
still be mere mortal earth, a bit of fugitive force, an evanescent form?”
Everhard asks. It’s a rhetorical question, of course; speak it aloud
and see for yourself.
17.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
During the Crimean War, a
miscommunication led a small band of around six hundred British cavalrymen to
ride into a valley surrounded by twenty Russian battalions armed with heavy
artillery. While the British cavalry was resoundingly and tragically defeated,
and their commanders sharply criticized for the heavy casualties, the bravery
of the men who charged into the “valley of death” was celebrated and honored in
many forms — none more famous than this poem by Tennyson.
18.
“Opportunity” by John James Ingalls
Opportunity, it is famously said,
knocks only once. John James Ingalls, a U.S. Senator from Kansas, penned an ode
to this simple but profound principle in the mid-19th century, and it was said
to have become Theodore Roosevelt’s very favorite poem. When he was president,
an autographed copy of it was the only thing besides a portrait to hang in TR’s
executive office in the White House. If the Bull Moose needed a potent reminder
to listen for opportunity’s subtle call, we all surely do as well.
19.
“Character of the Happy Warrior” by William Wordsworth
What makes a good soldier? What
qualities are attendant in a “happy warrior”? These are the questions that
William Wordsworth lays out in the opening line of one of his most famous
poems, and then proceeds to answer in the lines that follow. A great
warrior deftly finds balance between being eager for battle, and yet
aching for the joys and pleasures of home. A great warrior is guided by an
inner light of virtuosity and generosity. A great warrior knows that suffering
contains purpose. While the words pertain particularly to the soul of a
soldier, its inspiration applies to every man engaged in the fight of
life.
20.
Ode 1.11 by Horace
Made famous by Robin Williams’
inspiring literature teacher in the film Dead Poets Society,
Horace’s Ode 1.11 contains one of the most quoted Latin phrases — Carpe
diem, or “Seize the day!” Writing to his friend Leuconoe, Horace
tries to convince him to avoid thinking about tomorrow, or attempt to
speak to astrologers in order to peer into the future. Instead, he encourages
Leuconoe to “seize the day!” — to make every day count and to stop relying on
the hope that tomorrow will bring something better on its own. Ode 1.11
admonishes us to remember that we are not promised tomorrow, and calls us
to do what needs to be done today.
Read Ode 1.11 here.
Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel, wrote “Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” I agree with her. And I don't think your choices are too masculine. As you stated, everyone interprets poetry differently - according to their way of thinking. Sometimes I reread a poem and interpret it differently each time, depending on my emotions. The poem "If" by Kipling is especially appropriate this time of year, as it is read at many graduation ceremonies and is on many graduation cards. This was a really enjoyable blog to read!
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