The whiskey on your breath (My
Papa’s Waltz) V3:191
The white ocean in which birds swim
(Morning Walk) V21:167
The wind was a torrent of darkness
among the gusty trees (The
Highwayman) V4:66
The windows were open and the
morning air was, by the smell of
lilac and some darker flowering
shrub, filled with the brown and
chirping trills of birds. (Yet we
insist that life is full of happy
chance) V27:291
There are blows in life, so hard...I
just don’t know! (The Black
Heralds) V26:47
There are strange things done in the
midnight sun(The Cremation of
Sam McGee) V10:75
There have been rooms for such a
short time (The Horizons of
Rooms) V15:79
There is a hunger for order, (A Thirst
Against) V20:205
There is no way not to be excited
(Paradiso) V20:190–191
There is the one song everyone (Siren
Song) V7:196
There will come soft rains and the
smell of the ground, (There Will
Come Soft Rains) V14:301
There you are, in all your innocence,
(Perfect Light) V19:187
There’s a Certain Slant of Light
(There’s a Certain Slant of
Light) V6:211
There’s no way out. (In the Suburbs)
V14:201
These open years, the river (For
Jennifer, 6, on the Teton)
V17:86
These unprepossessing sunsets (Art
Thou the Thing I Wanted)
V25:2–3
They eat beans mostly, this old
yellow pair (The Bean Eaters)
V2:16
They said, ‘‘Wait.’’ Well, I waited.
(Alabama Centennial) V10:2
They say a child with two mouths is
no good. (Pantoun for Chinese
Women) V29:241
they were just meant as covers (My
Mother Pieced Quilts) V12:169
This girlchild was: born as usual
(Barbie Doll) V9:33
This is a litany of lost things, (The
Litany) V24:101–102
This is my letter to the World (This
Is My Letter to the World)
V4:233
This is the Arsenal. From floor to
ceiling, (The Arsenal at
Springfield) V17:2
This is the black sea-brute bulling
through wave-wrack
(Leviathan) V5:203
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets
feign, (The Chambered
Nautilus) V24:52–53
This poem is concerned with
language on a very plain level
(Paradoxes and Oxymorons)
V11:162
This tale is true, and mine. It tells
(The Seafarer) V8:177
Thou still unravish’d bride of
quietness (Ode on a Grecian
Urn) V1:179
Three times my life has opened.
(Three Times My Life Has
Opened) V16:213
Time in school drags along with so
much worry, (Childhood)
V19:29
to fold the clothes. No matter who
lives (I Stop Writimg the Poem)
V16:58
To replay errors (Daughter-Mother-
Maya-Seeta) V25:83
To weep unbidden, to wake
(Practice) V23:240
Toni Morrison despises (The Toni
Morrison Dreams)
V22:202–203
Tonight I can write the saddest lines
(Tonight I Can Write) V11:187
tonite,thrillerwas (Beware: Do Not
Read This Poem) V6:3
Truth be told, I do not want to forget
(Native Guard) V29:183
Turning and turning in the widening
gyre (The Second Coming)
V7:179
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
(Jabberwocky) V11:91
’Twas mercy brought me from my
pagan land, (On Being Brought
from Africa to America)
V29:223
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
(The Road Not Taken) V2:195
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright (The
Tyger) V2:263W
wade (The Fish) V14:171
Wanting to say things, (My Father’s
Song) V16:102
We are saying goodbye (Station)
V21:226–227We came from our own country in a
red room (Originally)
V25:146–147
We cannot know his legendary head
(Archaic Torso of Apollo)
V27:3
We could be here. This is the valley
(Small Town with One Road)
V7:207
We met the British in the dead of
winter (Meeting the British)
V7:138
We real cool. We (We Real Cool)
V6:242
Well, son, I’ll tell you (Mother to
Son) V3:178
What dire offense from amorous
causes springs, (The Rape of the
Lock) V12:202
What happens to a dream deferred?
(Harlem) V1:63
What of the neighborhood homes
awash (The Continuous Life)
V18:51
What thoughts I have of you tonight,
Walt Whitman, for I walked
down the sidestreets under the
trees with a headache self-
conscious looking at the full
moon (A Supermarket in
California) V5:261
Whatever it is, it must have
(American Poetry) V7:2
When Abraham Lincoln was
shoveled into the tombs, he
forgot the copperheads, and
the assassin... in the dust, in
the cool tombs (Cool Tombs)
V6:45
When I consider how my light is
spent ([On His Blindness]
Sonnet 16) V3:262
When I have fears that I may cease to
be (When I Have Fears that I
May Cease to Be) V2:295
When I heard the learn’d
astronomer, (When I Heard the
Learn’d Astronomer) V22:244
When I see a couple of kids (High
Windows) V3:108
When I see birches bend to left and
right (Birches) V13:14
When I was born, you waited
(Having it Out with
Melancholy) V17:98
When I was one-and-twenty (When I
Was One-and-Twenty) V4:268
When I watch you (Miss Rosie)
V1:133
When the mountains of Puerto Rico
(We Live by What We See at
Night) V13:240Cumulative Index of First Lines