Ririro.com - Poetry

"Serenade" by Edgar Allan Poe unfolds in a world suspended between waking and sleep, where the speaker addresses his beloved Adeline in a voice so soft it barely disturbs the night. Stars, ocean, and mountain all rest in shared silence, and even the Pleiades find their mirror in the deep. The speaker fears that any sound — even a lute — might break the spell, yet he murmurs on, longing for their s...

"O, Tempora! O, Mores!" is a satirical poem by Edgar Allan Poe that takes sharp, comedic aim at the declining manners and hollow vanities of his era. The speaker wrestles with whether to weep like Heraclitus or laugh like Democritus at the absurdity around him — and settles, grumpily, on a growl. His chief target is a preening shop boy named Pitts, whose curls, coat, and ankle consume more thought...

"Lines on Ale" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe that trades gothic dread for gleeful indulgence. The speaker raises a glass of cream-laced amber ale and welcomes the quaint thoughts and queer fancies that bubble up through his pleasantly clouded mind. Light, rhythmic, and almost defiantly carefree, the poem captures a rare mood from Poe — one of warmth and whimsy — as the speaker dismisses the m...

"Impromptu. To Kate Carol" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe that captures a charming moment of admiration caught between two kinds of brilliance. The speaker, turning from the "gems of thought" found in Kate Carol's words, finds himself equally captivated by her eyes — and delightfully uncertain which deserves greater praise. The poem's final line delivers a clever pun that transforms a simple c...

"Fanny" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which a lovesick speaker mourns an unrequited devotion. Drawing on vivid natural imagery — a dying swan's final song, a sunburst breaking through midnight clouds — he captures both the overwhelming beauty of the woman he worships and the cold indifference she returns. The poem moves from breathless admiration to quiet heartbreak, as the speaker reflect...

"Evangeline" is a short satirical poem by Edgar Allan Poe that takes sharp aim at self-important intellectuals — the "owl-eyed pundits" and "frog-faced" old authorities who wander lost in their own fog of pretension. With crude, carnival-like imagery of peanuts, pumpkins, and pine-knots, Poe deflates the bloated reputations of those who mistake pomposity for wisdom. The poem crackles with contempt...

"Epigram for Wall Street" is a short comic poem by Edgar Allan Poe built around a single, groan-worthy pun. The speaker offers a sly "financial plan" — fold a banknote and you've doubled your money, since folding creates creases. Sharp and deadpan, the poem takes a satirical jab at the promises of bankers and financiers, suggesting their grand schemes are no more substantial than a paper trick. Br...

"Elizabeth" is a short acrostic poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which the speaker playfully justifies placing a woman's name first — above logic, above scholarly convention, and above the opinions of philosophers like Zeno. With dry wit and self-aware humour, Poe skewers poets who study little, read less, and write without soul or feeling. Beneath the comedy lies a sincere conviction: that the most imp...

"The Divine Rights of Kings" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which the speaker reimagines monarchy as a metaphor for romantic devotion. A woman named Ellen King becomes his sovereign — her virtue an unassailable throne, her beauty a chain he would gladly wear. With playful wit and genuine longing, Poe's speaker declares he would abandon all desire for freedom if only she would consent to rul...

"Deep in Earth" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe built around just two devastating lines: a beloved lies buried, and the speaker is left to grieve in absolute solitude. The poem distills loss to its rawest form — no comfort, no company, only the weight of mourning carried alone. In its stark brevity, Poe captures an emotional depth that longer works rarely achieve, leaving the reader sitting wit...

"Beloved Physician" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe that traces the quiet rhythm of a devoted soul measured against a faltering pulse. Through spare, repeating lines — "the pulse beats ten and intermits" — Poe builds a meditation on tireless loyalty, whether in calm or storm, by night or day. The tone shifts from resolute endurance to gentle surrender, as soft eyes close and a faithful heart fi...

"An Acrostic" by Edgar Allan Poe is a short poem that conceals a woman's name — Elizabeth — spelled out through the first letter of each line. The speaker addresses her with a mixture of longing and gentle defiance, arguing that her plea to "love not" is undone by the very sweetness with which she delivers it. Drawing on the myth of Endymion, whose cure for love cost him everything, the poem build...

"To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter" is a short poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which a helpless lover confesses he cannot free himself from a consuming fascination — not for want of trying, but because some deeper spell holds him fast. Poe draws a chilling parallel between the lover and a bird lured down from safety by a coiling snake, circling its own destruction until the final, inevitable blow falls. Rom...

"The Mahogany Tree" is a convivial Victorian poem by William Makepeace Thackeray that conjures the warmth of companions gathered around a familiar table in midwinter. Against icy winds and life's mounting worries — debts, grief, and the passage of time — a group of friends drinks, laughs, and sings defiantly together. The poem moves between nostalgia for absent faces and a determined, boisterous j...

"O Holy Night" is one of the most celebrated Christmas carols ever written, opening with a vision of a star-filled sky on the night of Christ's birth. Cappeau's three verses move from the world's weary longing for redemption, through the humble scene of wise men kneeling before the manger, to a rousing call for love, peace, and freedom — declaring that chains shall break and all oppression cease....

"King Witlaf's Drinking-Horn" is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in which a Saxon king bequeaths his golden drinking-horn to the monks of Croyland, asking only that they pray for his soul as they feast. One Christmas night the monks drink deeply — toasting Witlaf, Christ, the Apostles, and an ever-growing roll of saints — until their Abbot dies mid-revel, goblet in hand. With black humour, th...

"Make Me Merry Both More and Less" is a boisterous medieval Christmas poem that captures the rowdy spirit of a great hall celebration. Every guest who enters must bring a song or some other sport to entertain the feast — or face a humorous punishment in the stocks. With its rollicking refrain "For now is the time of Christmas," the poem pulses with communal joy, seasonal obligation, and the gleefu...

"Christmas Treasures" is a poem in which a grieving parent tenderly revisits a small collection of keepsakes — a toy, a faded stocking, a lock of golden hair — each one tied to a cherished Christmas memory of their young son. Field draws the reader into the child's wide-eyed delight at hanging his stocking and waking to find it filled, then quietly reveals the ache beneath: the angels who once ble...

"Signs of the Season" by William Barnes bursts with the sounds and warmth of a country Christmas gathering. Friends share tales, sing songs, and drain cups of ale through the long winter night. The poem pulses with boisterous energy — snapping tongs, shaking rafters, romping games of blind-man's buff — building to a heartfelt invitation: bring your fiddle, don't be late, and help keep old Christma...

"Christmas Comes But Once A Year" is a jubilant Christmas poem that sweeps through centuries of holiday tradition, from snow-bearded old Christmas tramping through winter woods with holly and mistletoe, to knights reining up at abbey gates and maidens dancing before yule-log fires. Miller weaves medieval feasting scenes with the warmth of Bethlehem's nativity, capturing how the season lifts even t...

"The Music in the Hall" rings out like a Christmas celebration in verse, drawing readers into a festive hall alive with minstrels, wassail bowls, and the joyful clamour of the season. Structured as a dramatic exchange between a Master of Ceremonies and the Minstrels, the poem calls for song, generosity to the poor, and reverence for Old Christmas himself — that beloved, brown-faced wanderer who kn...

"Old English Christmas" is a spirited poem that conjures the roaring festivities of a traditional English Christmas, where a jovial figure — Christmas himself, crowned and enthroned like a king — presides over merrymaking that spans generations. Maidens and yeomen bear him in triumph beneath the kissing bough, a Wassail Bowl is raised, the Yule Log blazes, and the snow drives hard outside. The poe...

"Christmas Night of 1862" places the reader beside a Confederate soldier standing guard on a bitter winter night, watch-fires flickering against driving snow. As his comrades cluster together and speak softly of home, his mind drifts to a vanished past — a mother's kiss, a lamplit hall wreathed in mistletoe, the laughter of voices long silenced. Where other soldiers can find comfort in knowing som...

"A Christmas Reverie" captures the ache of a British soldier stationed in colonial India, dreading a cheerless Christmas dinner with his commanding officer while his heart is thousands of miles away. Through vivid imagination, he conjures his family gathered in their English hall — the silvering father, the warm mother, siblings grown and changed — feasting, carolling, and toasting the one absent...

"Peace on Earth" is a Christmas poem in which shepherds arrive at a humble stable to find the Virgin Mother cradling her newborn son. As they recount the angels' proclamation, Mary holds her child closer, feeling a surge of joy at the promise of peace on earth. When a speaker challenges why so poor a woman should rejoice merely at the end of strife — pointing to war's supposed grandeur — Mary answ...