She Walks in Beauty
Byron’s classic lyric celebrates beauty as harmony — a poised balance of dark and bright, surface and soul.
When We Two Parted
A restrained lyric of secrecy and betrayal, “When We Two Parted” turns grief into judgment with tolling simplicity.
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Canto III — Selected Excerpts)
Exile becomes self-fashioning in Byron’s Canto III, where Spenserian stanzas join spectacle to inward pilgrimage.
Don Juan (Canto I — Selected Excerpts)
In witty ottava rima, Byron’s “Don Juan” swaps epic heroics for satire — a comic anatomy of desire and hypocrisy.
Song of Myself (Selected Excerpts)
Whitman’s “Song of Myself” makes a democratic, embodied lyric — a capacious voice that invites contradiction and communion.
I Hear America Singing
An anthem of labor and individuality, “I Hear America Singing” gathers many voices into one democratic chorus.
O Captain! My Captain!
Whitman’s elegy for Lincoln balances public exultation with private grief in a rare, formally rhymed lament.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (Selected Excerpts)
Whitman’s Lincoln elegy braids lilac, star, and thrush into a ritual of grief and renewal in free verse.