Poems That Stayed With Me

We had to read, analyze, and memorize a lot of poems in school. Some of them had a huge impact on my world-view and life.

Adam’s First Night

This one had the biggest impact on me. I’m unable to find this poem online, so perhaps it’s a lesser-known one. In it, an angel visits Adam in Eden and tells him night is about to fall. Adam feels fear. How could he see or live without the sun? But when darkness comes, he’s astonished to find the sky ablaze with stars. What he thought was loss turns out to be revelation: the sun that seemed to show him everything had actually hidden a greater beauty.

It really helped me fear change less, and be open to the opportunities that it might bring. I decided to go to the boarding school in Chennai for 11th and 12th. This had an enormous impact on my life. They were the hardest two years of my life at that time, but I became self-reliant and confident that I could handle anything.

Update: While ChatGPT and Google failed me, Google Gemini 2.5 Flash was able to find it. Still no link though. I don’t know if Gemini hallucinated a part of this or not, but everything sounds correct. I’ll update this section if I find the original.

The First Night - Alfred Noyes
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He had seen the sun go down, and the world turn dark.
He had cried to the Angel, "Lo, the end is here!
How shall I live, or find my path, or seek
The face of God, when all the light is gone?
This heavy, black, uncoloured darkness falls
Upon my soul, a doom, a veil of death."

And the Angel, Michael, smiled upon the man,
And gently touched his shoulder, bade him look.

For lo! the roof of Eden burst aflame,
Not with the fierce, gold glare of blinding day,
But with a million silver, piercing eyes,
That looked on him from all the deep of space.
The world that he had known was swept away,
That blinding sun which hid the greater light,
Had veiled the starry wonder of the night.

And Adam stood silent, on the flowered sod,
And found his terror turned to boundless awe,
As in the black abyss he saw the law,
The unimaginable order of his God.

"Oh, Sun, I thought thee perfect, showing all,
But thou didst hide the majesty of night!
I thought the loss was total, and I find
That what was hidden is the more sublime."

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

I remember being stunned by this poem. Until then I had seen life as a series of accomplishments: the more you achieve, the better you’ve lived.

Ozymandias: Full Poem

Bryan Cranston has done a wonderful reading of it.

Menelaus And Helen - Rupert Brooke

Poet’s imagination of how Helen and Menelaus lived out their old age, regreting their choices.

I

High sat white Helen, lonely and serene.
He had not remembered that she was so fair,
And that her neck curved down in such a way;
And he felt tired. He flung the sword away,
And kissed her feet, and knelt before her there,
The perfect Knight before the perfect Queen.

II

Often he wonders why on earth he went
Troyward, or why poor Paris ever came.
Oft she weeps, gummy-eyed and impotent;
Her dry shanks twitch at Paris’ mumbled name.
So Menelaus nagged; and Helen cried;
And Paris slept on by Scamander side.

Full Poem

My younger self would’ve been amazed if you had told him that one day he’ll actually get to visit Troy!

Argus - Alexander Pope

When I watched Futurama - Jurassic Bark, after I finished crying my eyes out, I wondered if that episode was based on Argus. Some think it is based on Hachikō. All very good boys.

Full Poem

Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats

The lovers never kiss but also never fade; the urn freezes beauty in a timeless, unchanging form.

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Full Poem

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - William Wordsworth

This made me really happy, and appreciate the “little things” in life which are anything but little.

For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.

Full Poem