Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Featured PoemsJenny Kiss'd Me
Jenny kiss’d me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss’d me.
Summary
This tiny poem turns one affectionate moment into a memory powerful enough to answer sadness, age, and loss.
Meaning
As a short poem to make someone feel special, it works because it says one gesture can become a treasured part of a life. The person receiving it feels remembered for a moment that mattered.
Best For
A sweet, playful message, a romantic note, or a poem to make someone smile.
Song: To Celia
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not withered be;
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent’st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself but thee!
Summary
Jonson’s speaker says a look or breath from the beloved is better than wine, nectar, or roses. Affection becomes almost magical.
Meaning
This poem makes someone feel special by placing their smallest gestures above rich pleasures. A glance, a kiss, or a breath becomes enough to transform the speaker’s world.
Best For
A romantic partner, a classic love note, or a graceful poem for someone you adore.
Bright Star
Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shore,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel forever its soft fall and swell,
Awake forever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Summary
Keats wishes to be as constant as a star, but not lonely like one. He wants steadfastness beside the person he loves.
Meaning
This poem is for a deeply romantic mood. It tells someone they are the place where the speaker wants time, attention, and life itself to rest.
Best For
A serious romantic message or a poem for someone whose presence feels like home.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle.
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.
The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
Summary
Marlowe’s speaker invites the beloved into a world of rivers, birds, flowers, music, and simple pleasures. The whole poem is an invitation to shared happiness.
Meaning
This poem fits sweet poems to make someone feel special because it offers a world made for the beloved’s delight. It says, “Come with me, and I will make life beautiful for you.”
Best For
A romantic invitation, a dreamy love note, or a classic poem for someone special.
The Good-Morrow
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike that none do slacken, none can die.
Summary
Donne imagines love as an awakening. Before love, life felt childish and dreamlike; after love, one room becomes a whole world.
Meaning
This is a strong poem to make someone feel loved because it tells them they changed the speaker’s reality. Love does not only add happiness; it makes life feel truly awake.
Best For
A deep romantic relationship, a partner who changed your life, or a mature love message.
