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Poems about epiphany illuminate moments of profound realization and insight. They capture the transformative power of these revelations, guiding individuals toward newfound perspectives and understanding.
Through imagery and introspective musings, these verses evoke a sense of clarity and the potential for personal growth. They inspire introspection, encouraging readers to embrace the profound shifts that can occur in their lives.
David Constantine’s ‘Watching for Dolphins’ presents urbanites seeking spirituality in nature, symbolized by their quest to spot dolphins.
In the summer months on every crossing to Piraeus
One noticed that certain passengers soon rose
From seats in the packed saloon and with serious
Looks and no acknowledgement of a common purpose
‘Cristina’ by Robert Browning speaks about love’s power in one’s life and how transformative one moment can be.
She should never have looked at me
If she meant I should not love her!
There are plenty ... men, you call such,
I suppose ... she may discover
‘Afternoon with Irish Cows’ describes one speaker’s presumptions about the interior lives of cows and the power that sound has over human understanding.
There were a few dozen who occupied the field
across the road from where we lived,
stepping all day from tuft to tuft,
their big heads down in the soft grass,
‘Each and All’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson depicts nature as interconnected and dependent on all other living and non-living things. The poet uses a few clever examples to demonstrate why he sees the world this way.
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
‘Song of the Open Road’ by Ogden Nash is a short but humorous poem that expresses an annoyance and anxiety over the prevalence of billboards over trees.
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
Robert Bly’s ‘Evolution from the Fish’ presents humanity’s spiritual journey with epic scope, using evolution and ‘deep image’ to create subconscious, spiritual resonance.
This grandson of fishes holds inside him
A hundred thousand small black stones.
This nephew of snails, six feet long, lies naked on a bed
With a smiling woman, his head throws off light
A quiet reflection on modern life and spiritual escape, ‘The Scholar-Gipsy’ follows a wandering figure who leaves the world behind in search of something deeper and lasting.
Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill;
Go, shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes!
No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed,
Nor let thy bawling fellows rack their throats,
‘Upon A Wasp Chilled With Cold’ sees the narrator observing the natural world in the first half and the second half is almost in the form of a prayer as he hopes to be able to continue seeing God’s work around him and to feel God’s loving influence.
The bear that breathes the northern blast
Did numb, torpedo-like, a wasp
Whose stiffened limbs encramped, lay bathing
In Sol's warm breath and shine as saving,
Amy Lowell’s ‘Chinoiseries’ is an ekphrastic poem depicting the engravings on chinoiserie pottery. Lowell’s speaker gets lost in the art as if it is the eyes of her loved one.
When I looked into your eyes,
I saw a garden
With peonies, and tinkling pagodas,
And round-arched bridges
‘The Complaints of the Poor’ by Robert Southey takes place in a city, likely London, and describes the desperate measures poverty drives people to.
And wherefore do the Poor complain?
The rich man asked of me,—
Come walk abroad with me, I said
And I will answer thee.
Louise Glück’s ‘Heaven and Earth’ captures a quiet moment of beauty and the bittersweet truth that nothing lasts forever.
Where one finishes, the other begins.
On top, a band of blue; underneath,
a band of green and gold, green and deep rose.
‘The Greatest of These is Charity’ by Christina Rossetti emphasizes that while faith and hope are essential virtues, love is the greatest and most enduring of them all.
A moon impoverished amid stars curtailed,
A sun of its exuberant lustre shorn,
A transient morning that is scarcely morn,
A lingering night in double dimness veiled.—
‘Men’ by Maya Angelou is an emotional poem about the negative parts of relationships and how painful they can be.
When I was young, I used tov
Watch behind the curtains
As men walked up and down the street.
Wino men, old men.
‘Had I not been awake’ is a stunning expression of hope against the backdrop of doubt, which reminds the reader of their capacity to inspire.
Had I not been awake I would have missed it,
A wind that rose and whirled until the roof
Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore
‘Complex Matter’ by Gabriel Okara is a poem that delves into the poet’s personal sense of identity and self.
I am not one person, I am many things, many persons
I am what you see and think you know;
I am what I see and think I know of me-
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