Thomas Hood wrote at the start of the nineteenth century, but he sounds surprisingly modern. In this poem, Hood takes a look at winter in a cold, urban climate, expressed with a nice sense of humour.
This poem is about teaching English and conveys powerful emotions through observation of small, almost banal details: shoes in shoe shops, bright dresses, the artificial language of an English lesson.
In this fable – written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement - a squirrel and a mountain have an argument!
"O say what is that thing call'd Light, | Which I must ne'er enjoy"
In this short poem, Poet Laureate Colley Cibber describes the feelings of a boy who has never been able to see.
This Taoist poem shows that trying to label something can make a non-existent thing wrongly seem as if it had concrete or material existence, as Starshine finds out when he questions Non-Being.
"Abandon the flock and abolish the herd". This funny poem explores what would happen if we stopped farming sheep and cattle and started cultivating beans instead!
In 'Progress', Osbert Sitwell provides negative images of the city and conjures up fond memories of the country. In 'The City', Charles Hanson Towne does the opposite.
"Alas! I am very sorry to say | That ninety lives have been taken away". Lines from the most famous poem from William Topaz McGonagall, who is regarded as one of the worst poets in the English language!
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