There Will Come Soft Rains
Nature’s calm outlasts human conflict in Teasdale’s quietly devastating WWI-era lyric.
The White Man’s Burden
An imperial‑era exhortation whose persuasive craft and racial assumptions make it a central text for contextual study.
If—
Discover Kipling’s timeless code of endurance and self-mastery in “If—,” a father’s lesson in courage and restraint.
To an Athlete Dying Young
A meditation on youth, fame, and mortality, where early death preserves glory from decay.
Loveliest of Trees
A gentle meditation on the fleeting beauty of life and the resolve to see the cherry bloom before time runs out.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
A lyrical vision of retreat, where remembered waters guide the heart toward quiet and self-sufficiency.
The Darkling Thrush
A wintry century’s despair meets a thrush’s song of inexplicable hope.
Channel Firing
War’s rehearsal rattles the dead as Hardy exposes modern militarism’s empty thunder.
Goblin Market
Rossetti’s narrative poem of temptation and sisterly sacrifice, where desire, commerce, and redemption collide in richly musical Victorian verse.
Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” contrasts beauty and despair, exploring lost faith and the enduring need for love in a changing world.
Remember
A tender sonnet that weighs remembrance against the kindness of letting go.
Ulysses
An aging hero refuses stillness, urging his crew toward one last voyage of meaning.