The Best Short Poems to Memorize

What is the best short poem to memorize? This list includes great poems that are easy to memorize such as "Dream within a Dream," "This Is Just to Say," "Richard Cory," and "First Fig." Memorizing poetry will prove to be an impressive trick at parties, will bring you closer to the poem, and foster a lifelong bond with literature that simply reading these poems doesn't offer. Poetry buffs might also enjoy the best poems about love, the best rhyming poems, and the best epic poems, while theatre fans may want to see the best short monologues. 

Written works have the ability to make us feel. They make us want to believe, be inspired, and live vicariously through the stories we read on the page. They can make us love, laugh, and cry. Though brief, these short poems are full of rich imagery and hidden meaning. It is these elements which provoke readers to dig deeper, and memorizing the poem furthers that relationship even more.

Poets and their poetry have the ability to take readers places and into worlds never imagined. Poets can often be tortured souls or great thinkers who allow readers a new view on the world, sometimes in as few as 10 or 12 line verses. Their skills with words, even when the poem is only a few lines long, draw the reader in, making us want to memorize certain works, like those on this list.

Vote up all good simple and short poems to memorize below, or add the easiest classic famous poems to recite if they aren't already on the list.