English Literature Famous Line,Work and writer list

 

Famous Line	Poem / Work	Poet	Memory Tip
"They flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude."	Daffodils	William Wordsworth	Joy of nature remembered in solitude
"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"	Ozymandias	P.B. Shelley	Irony of forgotten empires
"I am half-sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott.	The Lady of Shalott	Alfred Lord Tennyson	Isolation of artist; longing for real life
"A savage place! as holy and enchanted / As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted"	Kubla Khan	Samuel Taylor Coleridge	Dreamlike exotic imagery
"Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky"	The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock	T.S. Eliot	Famous modernist opening
"The child is father of the man"	My Heart Leaps Up	William Wordsworth	Importance of childhood in shaping adults
"For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love."	The Canonization	John Donne	Metaphysical blend of love and religion
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow."	The Waking	Theodore Roethke	Paradox of consciousness and learning
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."	The Waste Land	T.S. Eliot	Symbol of spiritual barrenness
"What rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"	The Second Coming	W.B. Yeats	Apocalyptic vision
"Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness"	Ode on a Grecian Urn	John Keats	Art’s eternal stillness
"The world is too much with us; late and soon"	The World is Too Much With Us	Wordsworth	Critique of industrial materialism
"I could not love thee, dear, so much, / Lov'd I not honour more."	To Lucasta, Going to the Wars	Richard Lovelace	Honour above love
"That is no country for old men."	Sailing to Byzantium	W.B. Yeats	Youth vs. spiritual longing
"Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage"	To Althea, from Prison	Richard Lovelace	Mental freedom above physical confinement
"No man is an island, entire of itself;"	Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (Prose)	John Donne	Human interdependence
"I am not what I am."	Othello	William Shakespeare	Iago’s duplicity
"Out, out, brief candle!"	Macbeth	Shakespeare	Life’s fragility and brevity
"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact."	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Shakespeare	Similarity of passion and madness

"Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!"	Dover Beach	Matthew Arnold	Theme of lost faith in modern world
"Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea!"	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Samuel Taylor Coleridge	Mariner’s isolation; repetition = emphasis
"Fool," said my Muse to me, / "Look in thy heart, and write."	Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet 1	Sir Philip Sidney	Muse advises Sidney to write from emotion
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."	The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock	T.S. Eliot	Symbol of mundane life
"I am become a name"	Ulysses	Alfred Lord Tennyson	Fame and restlessness of Ulysses
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."	Paradise Lost	John Milton	Satan’s pride and defiance
"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"	Ode to the West Wind	P.B. Shelley	Hope after hardship
"A little learning is a dangerous thing"	An Essay on Criticism	Alexander Pope	Warning against shallow knowledge
"Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink."	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Coleridge	Irony of thirst at sea
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."	He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven	W.B. Yeats	Sensitivity of love and imagination
"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?"	Doctor Faustus	Christopher Marlowe	Refers to Helen of Troy
"All changed, changed utterly: / A terrible beauty is born."	Easter, 1916	W.B. Yeats	On Irish rebellion
"Come live with me and be my love"	The Passionate Shepherd to His Love	Christopher Marlowe	Idealized pastoral love
"And death shall have no dominion."	And Death Shall Have No Dominion	Dylan Thomas	Triumph over death
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"	Preface to Lyrical Ballads	William Wordsworth	Key Romantic principle

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."	Ode on a Grecian Urn	John Keats	Beauty & Truth on the urn
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"	Daffodils	William Wordsworth	Lonely cloud = nature
"To be, or not to be: that is the question."	Hamlet (play)	William Shakespeare	Hamlet's dilemma
"My last Duchess painted on the wall"	My Last Duchess	Robert Browning	Duchess portrait
"Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –"	Because I could not stop for Death	Emily Dickinson	Death as a carriage driver
"Do I dare / Disturb the universe?"	The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock	T.S. Eliot	Prufrock’s insecurity
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."	Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night	Dylan Thomas	Fight against death
"April is the cruellest month"	The Waste Land	T.S. Eliot	Paradox of spring
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"	The Second Coming	W.B. Yeats	Chaos of modern age
"Hope is the thing with feathers"	Hope is the thing with feathers	Emily Dickinson	Hope = bird
"And miles to go before I sleep"	Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening	Robert Frost	Duty before rest
"I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul."	Invictus	William Ernest Henley	Self-determination
"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?"	Anthem for Doomed Youth	Wilfred Owen	War & senseless death
"When I consider how my light is spent"	On His Blindness	John Milton	Poet’s reflection on blindness
"They also serve who only stand and wait."	On His Blindness	John Milton	Patience is service
"The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."	Paradise Lost	John Milton	Satan’s perspective
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"	Endymion	John Keats	Beauty’s eternal nature
"Had we but world enough and time"	To His Coy Mistress	Andrew Marvell	Carpe diem theme
"And thus I clothe my naked villainy / With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ"	Richard III (play)	William Shakespeare	Hypocrisy exposed
"She walks in beauty, like the night"	She Walks in Beauty	Lord Byron	Woman’s serene beauty