World Poetry Day is a special day that was created to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression. We have created a Memories Timeline highlighting all the creative and consuming poems that have been shared over the years.
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Join MemoriesMary Carr Although it might’ve been written around the 1590s, “Sonnet 18” was first published in 1609.
Mary Carr Sonnet 18 is one of the 154 sonnets written by English poet, William Shakespeare. It is considered one of his best known sonnets and was also written in iambic pentameter.
Mary Carr “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent”, also known as “On His Blindness”, is a sonnet written by English poet John Milton, who also wrote “Paradise Lost”.
Mary Carr It is the 19th sonnet in Milton’s volume of poems called “Poems etc. on several occasions by Mr John Milton, both English and Latin, composed at several times, etc.” first published in 1673.
Mary Carr English poet William Blake published the second phase of his illustrated poems, “Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul” in 1794. In it was one of his popular poems, “The Tyger”.
Mary Carr “The Tyger” is the sister poem of Blake’s “The Lamb”, which is found on the first phase “Songs of Innocence”. Both poems were contrary to each other, the concept of which was Blake’s tenet in his work. He suggests that in order to achieve truth, one must see both sides, the good and the bad, before any resolution.
Mary Carr The cover art of “Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul”.
Mary Carr “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”, or more popularly known as “Daffodils”, was first published in 1807.
Mary Carr “Daffodils” were apart of William Wordsworth’s book “Poems, In Two Volumes”.
Mary Carr "Daffodils" is William Wordsworth’s most famous work. A polo shirt from the recent Spring/Summer 2019 collection of Gucci featured embroidery of the last lines of the poem.
Mary Carr Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English poet who married Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, in his second marriage.
Mary Carr The poem’s central theme deals with the subject of impermanence and ephemerality, that even the greatest men and empires fall down and are forgotten to oblivion.
Mary Carr His sonnet about the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II, “Ozymandias” was first published in the London paper “The Examiner” in its 11 January 1818 issue.
Mary Carr The year after, Percy Bysshe Shelley included the sonnet in his book “Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems”, and in his posthumous poem collection in 1826.
Mary Carr English Romantic poet John Keats completed “Ode On A Grecian Urn” in May 1819, using classical Greek art as a metaphor in describing the relationships between soul, nature and art.
Mary Carr It was first printed on January 1920 in the “Annals of the Fine Arts”.
Mary Carr First known manuscript of the Ode.
Mary Carr Although it was published anonymously, “A Psalm of Life” first appeared in the October 1838 issue of the New York literary magazine, “The Knickerbocker”. The poem tells the reader to live life presently and neither lament the past nor to take the future for granted.
Mary Carr It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy in English language.
Mary Carr Emily Dickinson wrote almost 1,800 poems in her lifetime, but only 10 were published. Her first known poem “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” was published anonymously as “A Valentine” in The Springfield Daily Republican’s 20 February 1852 issue.
Mary Carr A sonnet inspired by the ancient Greek statue Colossus of Rhodes, "The New Colossus" was written by American poet Emma Lazarus in 1883. This statue was also one of the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World.
Mary Carr The manuscript of "The New Colossus".
Mary Carr The poem was cast onto a bronze plaque inside The Statue of Liberty in 1903.
Mary Carr The first entry in Robert Frost’s third poetry collection “Mountain Interval” and his narrative poem “The Road Not Taken” were first published in 1916.
Mary Carr A young Robert Frost in 1916.
Mary Carr Known for his idiosyncratic style, multi-award winning American poet and writer Edward Estlin “E.E.” Cummings wrote the song “Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand” in 1923.
Mary Carr African-American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou published her first book of poems “Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie” on 12 August 1971. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Mary Carr Maya Angelou pictured on the cover of her book of poems.
Mary Carr The Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage of the United Kingdom first published “The Shout” in 2005. *A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution.
Mary Carr Written as the final poem in his book of the same name, Scottish poet Don Paterson wrote “Rain” in 2008 and published the book on 5 November 2009.
Mary Carr “Rain”won the Forward Prizes for Poetry in the UK the same year.
Mary Carr After winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2010, Rae Armantrout published a collection of poems, entitled “Money Shot” on 8 February 2011.
Mary Carr American poet Adam Fitzgerald published his debut 48-poem collection “The Late Parade” on 17 June 2013.
Mary Carr Today, countless types of poems are available to enjoy, including haikus, limericks, sonnets, and ballads. Comment below your favourite poet!