Humanities › Literature 11 Poems Everyone Should Know Chosen by Poetry Guide Bob Holman Share Flipboard Email Print BeyzaSultanDURNA / Getty Images Literature Poetry Favorite Poems & Poets Poetic Forms Best Sellers Classic Literature Plays & Drama Quotations Shakespeare Short Stories Children's Books By Bob Holman & Margery Snyder Poetry Experts B.A., English and American Literature, University of California at Santa Barbara B.A., English, Columbia College Bob Holman and Margery Snyder are nationally-recognized poets who have been featured on WNYC and NPR. our editorial process Bob Holman & Margery Snyder Updated June 23, 2017 Here’s my list of 11 essential poems everyone should know—these are talisman poems, crucial revelations in my journey of exploration in the world of poetry. “Patterns” by Amy Lowell (1916) “I walk down the garden paths,And all the daffodilsAre blowing, and the bright blue squills.I walk down the patterned garden-pathsIn my stiff, brocaded gown....” “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” by E.E. Cummings (1935) I cannot quote a single line from this poem—it’s a whole, a piece of typographical art. Just notice that the title is an anagram of “grasshopper,” and then see the poem itself. “Wild Nights — Wild Nights!” (#249) by Emily Dickinson “Wild Nights — Wild Nights!Were I with theeWild Nights should beOur luxury!” “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell (1681) “Had we but world enough, and time,This coyness, lady, were no crime.We would sit down and think which wayTo walk, and pass our long love’s day...” “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound (1915) “While my hair was still cut straight across my foreheadI played about the front gate, pulling flowers.You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums...” “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest L. Thayer (1888) “The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play...” “Harlem” by Langston Hughes (1951) “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?...” “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1918) “Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim...” “To Every Thing There Is a Season,” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from the King James Bible “To everything, there is a season,and a time to every purpose under the heaven:a time to be born, and a time to die...” “Voyelles” (“Vowels”) by Arthur Rimbaud (1872) “A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins...” “Autopsychography” by Fernando Pessoa (himself) “The poet is a fakerWho’s so good at his actHe even fakes the painOf pain, he feels in fact...”