What is the most beautiful, meaningful or inspiring line of poetry, and by whom?,?

Answer 1

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Answer 2

When you are sad,
and you feel you can't go on.
Tears well in your eyes
and the pain is so strong.

So far from your friends,
and you're all on your own.
No-one to run to,
So very alone.

When all seems so useless,
and you can't take anymore.
As you put on your coat,
and head for the door.

Remember.......

I was there once,
lost, all alone
You can cry in my ear,
Just pick up the phone.

When you are lonely and feeling so blue
Someone is thinking ...thinking of you


by Peter Finlayson

Answer 3

some of my favorites:

Shakespeare Sonnet #XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Opening lines of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence :

"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

Robert Herrick's "Upon Julia's Clothes

When as in silks, my Julia goes
Then, then methinks how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
Oh how that glittering taketh me!

James Shirley (1596-1666)
The Glories of our Blood and State (middle verse omitted)

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
.....

The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon death's purple altar now,
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

See links for complete poems.

Answer 4

I like the Rubyihat of Omar Khyam, specifically this line:
"The Rose that Once has Blown,
forever dies."...

Answer 5

For me it would be 'I love a sunburnt country' from Dorothea McKellar's poem, My Country, about Australia. It's old but the words still hold true.

Answer 6

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Answer 7

Balloons sometimes turn yellow when they fade

Rod Mccune

Answer 8

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did.

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then) they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

Answer 9

I agree with Maine, "Two roads" has always been my favorite, but you have to wonder, why Frost "sighs", is it because he remembers the choice with regret? or did he sigh with relief that he took the road less traveled. I have to think he did not regret his choice because that is the road I travel by.

Answer 10

I lurve Antony and Cleopatra. it has such passion. I don't remeber all the words but god is it a piece of work. turns my heart and soul on.