Short Poems

Our Short Poems Collection highlights the power of poetry through titles that make an impact in few words. These bite-sized selections offer a convenient starting place for readers new to analyzing poetry or anyone who appreciates short-form verse and its ability to move and inspire.

Channel Firing

by Thomas Hardy

Publication year 1914

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes War, Religion & Spirituality, Conflict

Tags Lyric Poem, Satirical Literature, Military & War, Victorian Period, Christian

English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy wrote “Channel Firing” in May of 1914, only three months before the beginning of WWI. Eerily prophetic, the poem depicts the global chaos and destruction that soon followed. Overlaid by tones of satire and irony, the poem details the violence of war and humanity’s age-old proclivity toward it through a conversation between God and the dead. Hardy, although best known for his earlier novels, received positive reception concerning war... Read Channel Firing Summary

Chosen

by Marilyn Nelson

Publication year 1990

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Race, Birth, The Past, Family

Tags Lyric Poem, US History, Trauma & Abuse, African American Literature, Science Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Religion & Spirituality

Marilyn Nelson is part of a coterie of writers who published in the late-1970s and 1980s after the revolutionary fervor of the Black Arts Movement. Though the period during which Nelson wrote is less acknowledged than those aforementioned, it was a time when diverse Black poetic talents emerged. Nelson’s contemporaries included Afaa Michael Weaver, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, Ntozake Shange, Melvin Dixon, and Essex Hemphill. Their work grappled with the aftermath of the Vietnam War... Read Chosen Summary

Daddy

by Sylvia Plath

Publication year 1964

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Marriage, Love, Fathers

Tags Confessional, Grief & Death, Education, Education, American Literature, Classic Fiction

... Read Daddy Summary

Death Be Not Proud

by John Donne

Publication year 1633

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Hope, Wins & Losses

Tags Lyric Poem, Grief & Death, Education, Education, British Literature, World History, Classic Fiction, Religion & Spirituality

... Read Death Be Not Proud Summary

Declaration

by Tracy K. Smith

Publication year 2018

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Politics & Government, Loyalty & Betrayal, Safety & Danger, Memory, Grief, Justice

Tags Race & Racism, Social Justice, Trauma & Abuse

... Read Declaration Summary