Poetry Out Loud: pre-20th-century poems under 25 lines
Poetry Out Loud rules usually ask for one poem of 25 lines or fewer and one written before the 20th century. Every poem here meets both: it was written before 1900 and runs 25 lines or fewer. Pick one — it opens in the Memorizun trainer.
- Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? — William Shakespeare · 14 lines
- Invictus — William Ernest Henley · 16 lines
- Because I could not stop for Death — Emily Dickinson · 20 lines
- I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud — William Wordsworth · 24 lines
- The Tyger — William Blake · 24 lines
- Ozymandias — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 14 lines
- My Heart Leaps Up — William Wordsworth · 9 lines
- Crossing the Bar — Lord Alfred Tennyson · 16 lines
- I'm Nobody! Who are you? — Emily Dickinson · 8 lines
- "Hope" is the thing with feathers — Emily Dickinson · 12 lines
- The New Colossus — Emma Lazarus · 14 lines
- Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds — William Shakespeare · 14 lines
- A Red, Red Rose — Robert Burns · 16 lines
- The Arrow and the Song — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 12 lines
- When I Have Fears — John Keats · 14 lines
- O Captain! My Captain! — Walt Whitman · 24 lines
- The Eagle — Lord Alfred Tennyson · 6 lines
- Remember — Christina Rossetti · 14 lines
- London — William Blake · 16 lines
- She Walks in Beauty — George Gordon, Lord Byron · 18 lines
- When You Are Old — W. B. Yeats · 12 lines
- The Lake Isle of Innisfree — W. B. Yeats · 12 lines
- Success is counted sweetest — Emily Dickinson · 12 lines
- There is no Frigate like a Book — Emily Dickinson · 8 lines
- Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 — William Wordsworth · 14 lines
- The World Is Too Much with Us — William Wordsworth · 14 lines
- So We'll Go No More a-Roving — George Gordon, Lord Byron · 12 lines
- Break, Break, Break — Lord Alfred Tennyson · 16 lines
- Auld Lang Syne — Robert Burns · 24 lines
- The Passionate Shepherd To His Love — Christopher Marlowe · 24 lines
- Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art — John Keats · 14 lines
- The Lamb — William Blake · 20 lines
- Song To Celia - II — Ben Jonson · 16 lines
- Wild nights – Wild nights! — Emily Dickinson · 12 lines
- I heard a Fly buzz – when I died — Emily Dickinson · 16 lines
- Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun — William Shakespeare · 14 lines
- Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes — William Shakespeare · 14 lines
Poetry Out Loud is the national poetry recitation contest run by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation with state arts agencies. Rules differ by state and season, and contestants choose from the official contest anthology, which changes every year.
These are classics that fit the length and date rules. Check poetryoutloud.org that your pick is in the current anthology before you commit. Memorizun is not affiliated with Poetry Out Loud.