There are many cheesy, silly, pointless poems out there, and I often feel embarrassed to be reading this form of artistic expression. But sometimes the concise, lyrical words catch me and fill me with emotion. I would encourage any reader to start with the classic poets.

My most recent discovery of poetry is this website by Michael R. Burch, which includes some of the most beautiful poems in the English language. Here’s one of my favorites:

When You Are Old

by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.