Read classic and contemporary poems about making and listening to music.
Classic Poems about Music
“Suspend, Singer Swan” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Suspend, singer swan, the sweet strain…
“The Song of the Jellicles” by T. S. Eliot
Jellicle Cats come out to-night
“Pan with Us” by Robert Frost
Pan came out of the woods one day...
“Ghost Music” by Robert Graves
Gloomy and bare the organ-loft…
“The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune…
“The Banjo Player” by Fenton Johnson
There is music in me, the music of a peasant people…
“The Gift to Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path…
“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea...
“The Guitar” by Federico García Lorca
The weeping of the guitar…
“Listening” by Amy Lowell
’T is you that are the music, not your song…
“A Violin at Dusk” by Lizette Woodworth Reese
Stumble to silence, all you uneasy things…
“My Harp” by John Rollin Ridge
Oh must I fling my harp aside…
“The Trumpet” by Edward Thomas
Rise up, rise up…
“Song of Myself, 18” by Walt Whitman
With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums…
“Song of Myself, 26” by Walt Whitman
Now I will do nothing but listen…
“With Music” by Helen Hay Whitney
Dear, did we meet in some din yesterday…
“Endymion” by Oscar Wilde
The apple trees are hung with gold…
Educator Resources
Browse a selection of lesson plans featuring classic and contemporary poems about music.