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ONLY poems listed here or in the current printed anthology are eligible for the 2012-2013 Poetry Out Loud competition. More information here.

The Spring

By Thomas Carew

Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream . . .

Spring

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –         
   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         
   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush          . . .

Spring

By William Shakespeare

When daisies pied and violets blue
   And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue . . .

Spring and Fall

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you . . .

Stanzas in Meditation: Stanza LXXXIII

By Gertrude Stein

Why am I if I am uncertain reasons may inclose.   
Remain remain propose repose chose.   
I call carelessly that the door is open    . . .

The Star

By Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor

TWINKLE, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are !
Up above the world so high, . . .

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here    . . .

Sugar Dada

By J. Allyn Rosser

Go home. It's never what you think it is,
The kiss, the diamond, the slamdance pulse in the wrist.
Nothing is true, my dear, not even this . . .

Summer at North Farm

By Stephen Kuusisto

Fires, always fires after midnight,
the sun depending in the purple birches
. . .

Surprised by Joy

By William Wordsworth

Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport—Oh! with whom
But Thee, long buried in the silent Tomb, . . .