Poetry that sparks excitement is filled with energetic language and lively imagery. These poems pulse with anticipation, exploring moments of thrill, wonder, and joyful surprise.
The poet captures the exhilaration of new experiences, adventures, and discoveries, creating a palpable sense of eagerness and enthusiasm. These verses mirror the rapid heartbeat of excitement, creating a contagious sense of delight and anticipation that captivates the reader and carries them along on a wave of expectation.
‘That Music Always Round Me’ by Walt Whitman is a beautiful poem that melds together the poet’s democratic worldview with a rapt appreciation for individual beauty.
A powerful emotion in Walt Whitman's poem is excitement. Many of his poems are defined by their breathless zeal, and this one is no different. Whisking the listener away in a flurry of music as the speaker describes the perfectly tangible and invigorating sounds and tones emanating around them.
That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long untaught I did not hear,
‘Lochinvar’ is a ballad about a young and courageous knight who saves his beloved, the fair lady Ellen, from marrying another man.
With its anapestic meter, 'Lochinvar,' as a whole, rolls off of the tongue, making the poem speedy and exciting to read. Similarly, Lochinvar's bravery, constant action, and movement bring the poem to life and uplift the listener.
O young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
‘Love Poem’ by Gregory Orr is a short poem about a speaker’s imaginative telling of asking for someone’s phone number.
The opening images that fill the first four lines of the poem are meaning to be exciting. As they support the assumption that this love poem is one filled with both drama and romance. But that excitement also serves the irony of its ending.
‘Golden Retrievals’ is a poignant poem that personifies man’s best-friend in an attempt to remind us that happiness and shelter from life’s woes is best found in the present.
Excitement is one of the defining emotions in Mark Doty's poem, imbuing both its tone and mood with a carefree ebullience. This is mainly owed to the poem's chosen speaker: a dog that doesn't understand concepts such as time or grieving over the past. Instead, they're purely consumed by the joys of the present and delight in their walk.
‘Bards of Passion and of Mirth’ by John Keats is one of the poet’s early odes. In it, Keats confirms that bards, or authors, have two souls, with one rising to heaven, and the other staying on earth.
As Keats holds a one-sided conversation with himself about the immortality of storytellers, he grows increasingly excited about the things that the afterlife might have to offer. His tone is enthusiastic, as the meter moves rapidly from line to line with few pauses and several exclamations. By the end, Keats is resounding with joy that storytellers both go to heaven and live on forever though their words.
Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott’ narrates the tale of the cursed Lady entrapped in a tower on the island of Shalott, who meets a tragic end.
The poem generates excitement through its suspenseful narrative, withholding the outcome of the curse until the end, keeping readers hooked. Tennyson's skillful use of descriptive language heightens the tension, creating a sense of anticipation as the Lady's fate unfolds. The introduction of Lancelot injects a sense of thrill and romantic intrigue into the narrative, making the readers eager to discover the resolution of the Lady's predicament, making the poem captivating and exhilarating from start to finish.
‘Loveliest of Trees’ by A. E. Housman is a joyful nature poem in which the speaker describes how powerful the image of cherry blossom trees is in his life. He takes a great deal of pleasure from looking at them.
The image of the cherry tree blooming to the fullest and turning all white fills the speaker’s heart with excitement. At the same time, it makes the speaker sad about the fact that he cannot explore nature fully in one lifetime.
’39’ is a poem in which the narrator looks back on his life while eagerly awaiting his fortieth birthday and the years that will follow.
There is a sense of excitement that runs through this entire poem. The repeated refrain, where the narrator praises the coming decade of his life, highlights how he feels about it. He is thirty-nine years old, so his fortieth birthday is drawing near. He is eagerly awaiting it, thinking that this next decade will be much better than the one that he is currently living through. He explains the way that he thinks it will be better, and how he thinks he will be able to have some of the times from his youth that he missed out on, or the times that he wants to recapture.
In ‘At The Zoo,’ A. A. Milne narrates a trip to the zoo through a child’s eyes. The speaker’s fantastical and mixed-up descriptions of various animals are the source of much amusement.
This poem shows the speaker's excitement for the zoo. Each stanza ends with an exclamation point, emphasizing his complete enthusiasm.
In Robert Browning’s ‘Meeting at Night,’ the speaker sails across the sea to secretly reunite with his beloved under the moon’s soft glow.
The speaker's journey to meet their beloved is filled with excitement and the anticipation of seeing her. The act of the beloved lighting a match upon his arrival suggests mutual excitement and eagerness for the clandestine rendezvous. The secretive nature of their meeting evokes nostalgia for romantic adventures, igniting butterflies in the stomach reminiscent of similar encounters as the poem captures the electrifying thrill of love and clandestine romance.
‘New Year’s Eve Midnight’ by Gabriel Okara reflects on passage of time, hopes, and dreams amidst fading memories, and dawn of new beginnings.
The poem elicits excitement through its depiction of anticipation for the dawn of a new year. The chiming bells and imagery of new beginnings evoke a sense of energy and enthusiasm. The speaker's contemplation of possibilities and hopes for the future ignites a feeling of excitement, as readers join in the anticipation of what the new year may bring.
Heaney’s ‘Personal Helicon’ draws inspiration from his rural carefree childhood and intimate connection with nature.
The poem captures the wonder and awe with which the narrator experienced nature as a child. However, they can no longer capture those feelings as an adult.
As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
‘The Sea and the Hills’ by Rudyard Kipling depicts the ocean, its heaving waves, incredible winds, and ever-present danger. It has evoked longing in men throughout time and will continue to do so, just as one longs to return home.
The poem shows excitement about the sea's power and beauty. Kipling describes the waves crashing and the storms brewing. Sailors feel a thrill as they face these natural forces. This excitement draws them back to the ocean again and again. The unpredictable nature of the sea adds to this feeling of excitement.
Who hath desired the Sea? - the sight of salt water unbounded -
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing
Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing -
The fourth poem of ‘The Fisherman’s Invocation’ discusses how people can be brought together through their traditions.
The feeling of excitement in the poem is conveyed in several ways. The movements of the people are described, as well as the physical sensations that they experience, and this helps the reader to understand their excitement. The use of repetition also allows the reader to feel the excitement - in particular, the oft-repeated "The child-Front has come, is coming," shows the anticipation as the expected future comes toward them.
‘Corner Of the Street’ by A.A. Milne is a short poem about the excitement of a child as they go to a meeting point at the corner of a street.
There is a sense of excitement that runs throughout this poem. The narrator describes the journey that they take down to the corner of the street, and the way that the footsteps of the other people sound to them. They create a sense of anticipation as they build up to the moment at the end of the poem where the reason for their excitement is revealed. They encounter people that they know, and the final line seems to be an exclamation of their excitement.
Down by the corner of the street
Where the three roads meet,
And the feet
Of the people as they pass go ‘Tweet-tweet-tweet—’
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