I need to recite a poem in English class. Does any one have any ideas?

Question

Im a sophmore and it is an honors class if that helps.

Answer 1

i still find this to be a personal favourite and utterly thought provoking - but we all enoy different things ;-)

Walter De La Mare

The Listeners

"Is anybody there?" said the Traveler,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence chomped the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor.
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the traveler's head:
And he smote upon the door a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveler;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his gray eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveler's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Answer 2

Paradise-Un

In the beginning God, unaccompanied,
And unmanned, made light.
Adam as yet unimagined.

Then the world unwound
From heaven. The day unbuttoned
From the night. The sea unearthed

And the earth unfastened
The grass and the trees unhusked
Their seeds. Adam unhastened.

God created he him, Adam unfallen,
Unpinned from the ground.
Unhitched Adam. Adam unbound.

And in order that Eve could uncage,
Adam unribbed, and both undressed
And were unashamed.

But the serpent (more subtle), unheard
From until now, unlocked and unappled
Eve, and Adam unabled.

Then the unthorned got thorns
And the unthistled thistles, the earth
Untoiled until then.

Adam unparadized — a song not
Unsung, of life's uneasying,
And Adam undone.

Catherine Wing

This is a poem about paradise lost (which was originally titled "Adam Unparadized") and I figured since it is an honors class you could recite a poem about it because it is a classical piece of literature. And the poem is really interesting. Plus it's not TOO long ;)

Answer 3

I had to do that too, decades ago, and I chose a poem that I REALLY liked ("The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost in my case), and so I enjoyed the poem so much as I recited it, that the audience didn't mean as much and so I made it through. That poem has been about the only poem I've remembered since then, and that was about 37 or 38 years ago. Choose the poem you like the best, and the audience kind of "fades-into-the-backgroud", and so does your anxiety. God Bless you.

Answer 4

Here's one that never Doesn't bring tears to my eyes.

She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Lord Byron

On a lighter note, I can STILL recite the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Old English. You'll freak them all out if you choose that.

Also, Jabberwocky would be a neat choice. Its pretty much gibberish, but the cadence is there and the words sound foreign, but real.

Answer 5

I'd Pick More Daisies
By Jorge Luis Borges (?)

If I had my life to live over,
I'd try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have on this trip.
I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic.
I would take more chances, I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers,
and watch more sunsets.
would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I am one of those people who lives
prophylactically and sensibly and sanely,
hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I have had my moments
And if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments,one after another.
Instead of living so many years ahead each day.
I have been one of those people who never go anywhere
without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a
raincoat, and a parachute.

If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things.
I'd travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted
earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would play hooky more. I wouldn't make such good grades
except by accident.
I would ride on merry-go-rounds.

I'd pick more daisies!

Answer 6

There's a poem by Edna St Vincent Malay called "Day Is Done". I'll write some of it to you and you can decide whether you want to do it: "Day is done, and darkness falls on the wings of night. Like a feather drifted downward from an eagle in its flight. I see the lights in the village gleam through the rain and the mist, and a feeling of sadness comes 'oer me that my soul cannot resist. Come read to me a poem, some simple heart-felt lay,that will banish this restless feeling and banish the thoughts of day. ( I don't remember the rest, sorry)!

Answer 7

attempt this one, it fairly is my all time in demand: The Black Lace Fan My mom Gave Me by using Eavan Boland It exchange into the 1st present he ever gave her, figuring out to purchase it for 5 5 francs interior the Galeries in pre-conflict Paris. It exchange into stifling. A starless drought made the nights stormy. They stayed interior the city for the summer season. The met in cafes. She exchange into consistently early. He exchange into late. That night he exchange into later. They wrapped the fan. He regarded at his watch. She regarded down the side highway des Capucines. She ordered greater espresso. She stood up. The streets have been emptying. the warmth exchange into killing. She theory the gap smelled of rain and lightning. those are wild roses, appliqued on silk by using hand, darkly picked, stitched boldly, at once. something is tortoiseshell and has the reticent sparkling persistence of its element. it fairly is a drained, underwater bullion and it keeps, even now, an inference of its violation. The lace is overcast as though the climate it opened for and offset had entered it. The previous is an empty cafe terrace. An airless dusk in the previous thunder. a guy working. And no thank you to be attentive to what happened then— none in any respect—till ,of direction, you improvise: The blackbird in this wide-unfold sultry morning, in summer season, looking buds, worms, fruit, feels the warmth. all quickly she places out her wing— the entire, complete, flirtatious span of it.

Answer 8

If you have to recite anytime near Valentine's Day, recite the opening to Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet."

Answer 9

Talk about HIV/AIDS.That it is a killer and so your fellow classmates should be careful when they engage in casual sex.