Tell all the truth but tell it slant
by EMILY DICKINSON

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —


Tell all the truth but tell it slant (Emily Dickinson)

i carry your heart with me
by E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

i carry your heart with me (e.e. cummings)

a song in the front yard
by GWENDOLYN BROOKS

I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life. 
I want a peek at the back 
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.   
A girl gets sick of a rose. 

I want to go in the back yard now   
And maybe down the alley, 
To where the charity children play.   
I want a good time today. 

They do some wonderful things. 
They have some wonderful fun. 
My mother sneers, but I say it’s fine 
How they don’t have to go in at quarter to nine.   
My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae   
Will grow up to be a bad woman. 
That George’ll be taken to Jail soon or late 
(On account of last winter he sold our back gate). 

But I say it’s fine. Honest, I do. 
And I’d like to be a bad woman, too, 
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace   
And strut down the streets with paint on my face.

a song in the front yard (Gwendolyn Brooks)

Recuerdo
by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

We were very tired, we were very merry— 
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. 
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable— 
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, 
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon; 
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon. 

We were very tired, we were very merry— 
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry; 
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, 
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; 
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, 
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold. 

We were very tired, we were very merry, 
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. 
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head, 
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; 
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears, 
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

Recuerdo (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

I, Too
by LANGSTON HUGHES

I, too, sing America. 

I am the darker brother. 
They send me to eat in the kitchen 
When company comes, 
But I laugh, 
And eat well, 
And grow strong. 

Tomorrow, 
I’ll be at the table 
When company comes. 
Nobody’ll dare 
Say to me, 
“Eat in the kitchen,” 
Then. 

Besides, 
They’ll see how beautiful I am 
And be ashamed— 

I, too, am America.

I Too (Langston Hughes)

One's-Self I Sing
by WALT WHITMAN

One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person, 
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. 

Of physiology from top to toe I sing, 
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, 
The Female equally with the Male I sing. 

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, 
Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine, 
The Modern Man I sing.

Poetry for English Language Learners

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