Introduction to Literature (Course Guide / Andy Skemp)

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold...."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate..."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

"Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end..."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red..."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

"Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme..."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love..."
Source: OpenSource Shakespeare

Welcome to Open Source Shakespeare (OSS). Since it debuted in 2003, OSS has become one of the most popular Shakespeare sites on the Internet. It is used regularly by scholars, educators, and Shakespeare lovers around the world.

While William Shakespeare’s reputation is based primarily on his plays, he became famous first as a poet.

"I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee ..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"A little black thing among the snow,
Crying "weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe!"
Source: Poetry Foundation

"Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees ..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night...."
Source: Poetry Foundation

Poet, painter, engraver, and visionary William Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. Though in his lifetime his work was largely neglected or dismissed, he is now considered one of the leading lights of English poetry, and his work has only grown in popularity.

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead...."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees...."
Source: Poetry Foundation

William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the 17th century. Most members of this minority considered themselves English people who happened to have been born in Ireland, but Yeats staunchly affirmed his Irish nationality.

"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge.."
Source: Poetry Foundation

"He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey..."
Source: Poetry Foundation

Wilfred Owen, who wrote some of the best British poetry on World War I, composed nearly all of his poems in slightly over a year, from August 1917 to September 1918. In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of 25, one week before the Armistice.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day.."
Source: Poetry Foundation

Born in Swansea, Wales, Dylan Thomas is famous for his acutely lyrical and emotional poetry, as well as his turbulent personal life. The originality of his work makes categorization difficult.