National Poetry Month

In honor of National Poetry Month, I wanted to share a poem that I learned when I was a teenager. It remains a favorite of mine. Although it’s fairly simple, and, in the second verse, a bit pedantic, it surprises by reaching into the depth of human importance and puts it all into perspective:

Song, by  Christina Rossetti (1848)

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

What are some of your favorite poems?