| 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 |
