This is the place to post your favorite poems. Please stick to poems that have at least SOME literary value. Nobody wants to read bad MySpace emo poetry (in fact, let's just avoid goth and emo poetry altogether, unless the poem is particularly famous). Also, don't post any song lyrics. On the other hand, poems by authors like Shel Silverstein or Agatha Christie (yes, she wrote poems too), is more than welcome. Please place the actual poem in quote tags. Also, include an explanation of why you like the poem in question.
I'll begin.
One of my favorite poems is Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I like this poem because I feel it captures an essential truth about wealth and success... and because it's written as a red herring with a shocking yet appropriate ending.
Richard Cory
By Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.
