15 Must-Read Poems

Why is poetry beautiful? While the poet wields the pen and writes a poem, what really sets poetry apart from other literature is that it's free, it's all-inclusive, it's open, it's not bound by rules, it's accommodative and it's warm. It makes you feel, it gives you emotions and by doing so, it reminds you that you are alive.

1. 'Sailing to Byzantium' by W.B. Yeats Read here

Once out of nature I shall never take. My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make. Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

2. 'Psalm of Life' by H.W. Longfellow Read here

in the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!

. 'Invictus' by William Ernest Henley Read here

I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

4. 'If' by Rudyard Kipling Read here

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

5. 'The Tiger' by William Blake Read here

On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?

6. 'Keeping Quiet' by Pablo Neruda Read here

It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

7. 'Where the Mind is without Fear'(Gitanjali 35) by Rabindranath Tagore Read here

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth;

8. 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost Read here

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

9. 'Phenomenal Woman' by Maya Angelou Read here

It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman

10. 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Caroll Read here

One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

11. 'Ulysses' by Alfred Lord Tennyson Read here

I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and forever when I move.

12. 'Hope is the thing with Feathers' by Emily Dickinson Read here

And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -

13. 'Lady Lazarus' by Sylvia Plath Read here

As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.

14. 'In the Bazaars of Hyderabad' by Sarojini Naidu Read here

Turbans of crimson and silver, Tunics of purple brocade, Mirrors with panels of amber, Daggers with handles of jade.

15. 'Planetarium' by Adrienne Rich Read here

I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo-luted that a light wave could take 15 years to travel through me