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    27 Phenomenal Poems That Everyone Should Read At Least Once In Their Life

    "It really shows you what power just the right words can hold."

    Recently, for World Poetry Day, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share their favourite poems and why they love them so much. Here are some of the best responses:

    1. "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou.

    It's the fire in my eyes And the flash of my teeth The swing in my waist And the joy in my feet I'm a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That's me

    2. "An Unfortunate Choice" by Wendy Cope.

    I think I am in love with A E Housman Which puts me in a worse than usual fix No woman ever stood a chance with Housman And he’s been dead since 1936

    3. "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas.

    Do not go gentle into that good night Old age should burn and rave at close of day Rage rage against the dying of the light

    4. "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

    My name is Ozymandias king of kings Look on my works ye Mighty and despair Nothing beside remains Round the decay Of that colossal wreck boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away

    5. "Resumé" by Dorothy Parker.

    Razors pain you Rivers are damp Acids stain you And drugs cause cramp Guns arent lawful Nooses give Gas smells awful You might as well live

    6. "When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny" by Blythe Baird.

    As a child fat was the first word people used to describe me which didn’t offend me until I found out it was supposed to

    7. "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

    Four gray walls and four gray towers Overlook a space of flowers And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott

    8. "The Tyger" by William Blake.

    Tiger tiger burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry

    9. "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats.

    Darkling I listen and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme To take into the air my quiet breath

    10. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

    Whose woods these are I think I know His house is in the village though He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow

    11. "The Shirt" by Jane Kenyon.

    The shirt touches his neck and smooths over his back It slides down his sides It even goes down below his belt down into his pants Lucky shirt

    12. "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]" 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

    13. "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou.

    You may write me down in history With your bitter twisted lies You may trod me in the very dirt But still like dust Ill rise

    14. "Sonnet 130" by William Shakespeare.

    My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun Coral is far more red than her lips red If snow be white why then her breasts are dun If hairs be wires black wires grow on her head

    15. "For Women Who Are Difficult' to Love" by Warsan Shire.

    you are terrifying and strange and beautiful something not everyone knows how to love

    16. "If–" by Rudyard Kipling.

    If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run Yours is the Earth and everything thats in it And which is more youll be a Man my son

    17. "oh yes" by Charles Bukowski.

    oh yes there are worse things than being alone but it often takes decades to realize this and most often when you do its too late and theres nothing worse than too late

    18. "One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII" by Pablo Neruda.

    I love you without knowing how or when or from where I love you directly without problems or pride I love you like this because I dont know any other way to love

    19. "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" by Mary E. Frye.

    Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there I do not sleep I am a thousand winds that blow I am the diamond glints on snow

    20. "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe.

    For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

    21. "The Stolen Child" by W. B. Yeats.

    Come away O human child To the waters and the wild With a faery hand in hand For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand

    22. "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley.

    It matters not how strait the gate How charged with punishments the scroll I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul

    23. "Afternoons" by Philip Larkin.

    Summer is fading The leaves fall in ones and twos From trees bordering The new recreation ground

    24. "People" by D. H. Lawrence.

    The great gold apples of night Hang from the streets long bough Dripping their light On the faces that drift below On the faces that drift and blow Down the nighttime out of sight In the winds sad sough

    25. "Embarrassed" by Hollie McNish.

    Cause Im getting tired of discretion and being polite As my babys first sips are drowned drenched in shite I spent the first feeding months of her beautiful life Feeling nervous and awkward and wanting everything right

    26. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot.

    Let us go then you and I When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table

    27. "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen.

    Gas GAS Quick boys An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundring like a man in fire or lime Dim through the misty panes and thick green light

    Note: Some entries were edited for length and/or clarity.

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