Category: American Poetry

20th century, African-American, American, American Poetry, Classic Poetry, Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, Stanza

January 13, 2026

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

“My soul has grown deep like the rivers.” Written when he was just 17, this Langston Hughes classic traces Black history from the Euphrates to the Mississippi.
American Poetry, Black Poetry, Classic Poetry, Claude McKay, Poetry

January 10, 2026

After Winter

“We’ll turn our faces southward, love…” As winter sets in, Claude McKay envisions a return to the warmth of the tropics. Read this classic Harlem Renaissance poem about seeking shelter, quiet hills, and the promise of spring.
African-American, America, American, American Poetry, General, Life, Literature, Love, Other Stuff, poet, Poetry, Religion and Spirituality, Teyuna T. Darris, United States, women, women poets

September 1, 2024

Book Release: Stuff I Wrote from My Heart

by Teyuna Darris Exciting News: My First Poetry Chapbook is Now Available on Amazon! 🎉 Dear Good Poetry Community, I am so happy and grateful to share some exciting news with you, today I self-published my poetry chapbook, entitled, “Stuff I Wrote from My Heart— Part One: The Ingenue. This collection is now available on…
21st Century, African-American, American, American Poetry

July 2, 2024

“My Poetical Side”

by Teyuna Darris This poem is on page 6 of my upcoming poetry chapbook, entitled, “Stuff I Wrote from My Heart” under the penname (or pseudonym) Margalo Meeks. I wrote this poem when I was circa 15 or 16 years old. The following is a link to a reel of my narration of my poem:…
19th century, America, American, American Poetry, Celebration, Fourth of July, Walt Whitman

July 4, 2023

“I Hear America Singing”

by Walt Whitman I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in…
19th century, American Poetry, Walt Whitman

July 3, 2023

“America”

by Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
19th century, America, American Poetry, American Revolution, Fourth of July, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, History, Public Domain, United States, United States of America, war

July 2, 2023

“Paul Revere’s Ride”

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the…
19th century, African-American, America, American, American Poetry, Black History, Christian, Christianity, General, new england, Sara Louisa Forten, United States, women, women poets

April 23, 2023

An Appeal to Women

“We are thy sisters, Oh, woman, woman in thy brightest hour Of conscious worth, of pride, of conscious power”
18th Century, African-American, America, American, American Poetry, Poetry, United States

February 3, 2023

“The Slave’s Complaint”

“Am I sadly cast aside, On misfortune’s rugged tide? Will the world my pains deride Forever?”
African-American, American, American Poetry, Black History, Poetry, Uncategorized

October 23, 2022

from “The Octoroon” by Alberry Alston Whitman (1851 – 1901)

“…What man is there who would not dare defend A life like this? Is doing so a sin?”