12 Line Poems | DiscoverPoetry.com (2024)

Table of Contents

1. The Swing

   by Robert Louis Stevenson | Total Words: 81, Lines: 12

   How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
   Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!
   

   Up in the air and over the wall,
   Till I can see so wide,
   Rivers and trees and cattle and all
   Over the countryside—
   

   Till I look down on the garden green,
   Down on the roof so brown—
   Up in the air I go flying again,
   Up in the air and down!
   

2. Loss and Gain

   by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Total Words: 77, Lines: 12

   
   

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   When I compare
   What I have lost with what I have gained,
   What I have missed with what attained,
   Little room do I find for pride.
   

   I am aware
   How many days have been idly spent;
   How like an arrow the good intent
   Has fallen short or been turned aside.
   

   But who shall dare
   To measure loss and gain in this wise?
   Defeat may be victory in disguise;
   The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
   

3. Trees

   by Joyce Kilmer | Total Words: 80, Lines: 12

   
   

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   I think that I shall never see
   A poem lovely as a tree.
   

   A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
   Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
   

   A tree that looks at God all day,
   And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
   

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   A tree that may in Summer wear
   A nest of robins in her hair;
   

   Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
   Who intimately lives with rain.
   

   Poems are made by fools like me,
   But only God can make a tree.
   

4. Little Things

   by Anonymous | Total Words: 63, Lines: 12

   A cup of water timely brought,
   An offered easy chair,
   A turning of the window-blind,
   That all may feel the air;
   An early flower bestowed unasked,
   A light and cautious tread,
   A voice to softest whispers hushed
   To spare an aching head—
   Oh, things like these, though little things,
   The purest love disclose,
   As fragrant atoms in the air
   Reveal the hidden rose.
   

5. The Scarecrow

   

   by Annie Stone | Total Words: 75, Lines: 12

   
   

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   Here is the scarecrow, see him stand
   Upon the newly planted land;
   A figure rugged and forlorn,
   A silent watcher of the corn.
   

   His dangling legs, his arms spread wide,
   A lone man of the countryside;
   Uncouth, the butt of pen and tongue,
   Unheralded, unsought, unsung
   

   To you, old scarecrow, then this lay
   To cheer you on your lonely way;
   Would that all men, their whole lives through,
   Served some good purpose same as you.
   

6. O Brown Eyes

   by Ruby Archer

   
   

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   O brown eyes, how warm you are
   With look I may not meet,
   Lest there I read too deep and far
   A meaning wild and sweet.
   

   O brown eyes, you need not ask
   With such pathetic plea,
   As if it were a doleful task,
   "And will you think of me?"
   

   O brown eyes, your Orient light
   Of passion and regret,
   Of pain and joy in mystic might,
   I never could forget!
   

7. A Recipe For a Day

   by Amos Russel Wells | Total Words: 78, Lines: 12

   
   

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   Take a little dash of water cold,
   And a little leaven of prayer,
   And a little bit of morning gold
   Dissolved in the morning air.
   

   Add to your meal some merriment,
   And a thought for kith and kin;
   And then, as your prime ingredient,
   A plenty of work throw in.
   

   But spice it all with the essence of love
   And a little whiff of play;
   Let a wise old Book and a glance above
   Complete the well-made day.
   

8. Conscience and Remorse

   I cried: "Come back, my conscience;
   I long to see thy face."
   But conscience cried: "I cannot;
   Remorse sits in my place."
   

   – Paul Laurence Dunbar
   Conscience and Remorse

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   by Paul Laurence Dunbar | Total Words: 67, Lines: 12

   
   

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   Full Text

   "Good-bye," I said to my conscience —
   "Good-bye for aye and aye,"
   And I put her hands off harshly,
   And turned my face away;
   And conscience smitten sorely
   Returned not from that day.
   

   But a time came when my spirit
   Grew weary of its pace;
   And I cried: "Come back, my conscience;
   I long to see thy face."
   But conscience cried: "I cannot;
   Remorse sits in my place."
   

9. The Happiest Heart

   by John Vance Cheney | Total Words: 75, Lines: 12

   
   

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   Who drives the horses of the sun
   Shall lord it but a day;
   Better the lowly deed were done,
   And kept the humble way.
   

   The rust will find the sword of fame,
   The dust will hide the crown;
   Ay, none shall nail so high his name
   Time will not tear it down.
   

   The happiest heart that ever beat
   Was in some quiet breast
   That found the common daylight sweet,
   And left to Heaven the rest.
   

10. My Wage

    by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse | Total Words: 71, Lines: 12

    I bargained with Life for a penny,
    And Life would pay no more,
    However I begged at evening
    When I counted my scanty store;
    

    For Life is a just employer,
    He gives you what you ask,
    But once you have set the wages,
    Why, you must bear the task.
    

    I worked for a menial's hire,
    Only to learn, dismayed,
    That any wage I had asked of Life,
    Life would have paid.
    

11. A Vagabond Song

    by Bliss Carman | Total Words: 97, Lines: 12

    
    

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    There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood —
    Touch of manner, hint of mood;
    And my heart is like a rhyme,
    With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time....

    The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
    Of bugles going by.
    And my lonely spirit thrills
    To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

    There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
    We must rise and follow her,
    When from every hill of flame
    She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

12. The Arrow and the Song

    by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Total Words: 88, Lines: 12

    
    

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    I shot an arrow into the air,
    It fell to earth, I knew not where;
    For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
    Could not follow it in its flight.
    

    I breathed a song into the air,
    It fell to earth, I knew not where;
    For who has sight so keen and strong,
    That it can follow the flight of song?
    

    Long, long afterward, in an oak
    I found the arrow, still unbroke;
    And the song, from beginning to end,
    I found again in the heart of a friend.
    

13. To My Dear and Loving Husband

    by Anne Bradstreet | Total Words: 103, Lines: 12

    If ever two were one, then surely we.
    If ever man were loved by wife, than thee;
    If ever wife was happy in a man,
    Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
    I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
    Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
    My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
    Nor aught by love from thee give recompense.
    Thy love is such I can no way reply;
    The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
    Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
    That when we live no more we may live ever.
    

14. Daisies

    by Frank Dempster Sherman

    
    

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    At evening when I go to bed
    I see the stars shine overhead;
    They are the little daisies white
    That dot the meadow of the Night.
    

    And often while I'm dreaming so,
    Across the sky the Moon will go;
    It is a lady, sweet and fair,
    Who comes to gather daisies there.
    

    For, when at morning I arise,
    There's not a star left in the skies;
    She's picked them all and dropped them down
    Into the meadows of the town.
    

15. The New Moon

    by Sara Teasdale

    
    

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    Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
    As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,
    Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
    Left me nothing lovely or whole—
    Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
    Day that dies in dusky blue:
    

    For suddenly over the factories
    I saw a moon in the cloudy seas—
    A wisp of beauty all alone
    In a world as hard and gray as stone—
    Oh who could be bitter and want to die
    When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?
    

16. Inalienable

    Two things are yours that no man's wealth can buy:
    The air, and time;
    

    - Amos Russel Wells
    Inalienable

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    by Amos Russel Wells

    
    

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    Two things are yours that no man's wealth can buy:
    The air, and time;
    And, having these, all fate you may defy,
    All summits climb.
    

    While you can draw the fresh and vital breath,
    And own the day,
    No enemy, not Hate, nor Fear, nor Death,
    May bring dismay.
    

    Breathe deeply! Use the minutes as they fly!
    Trust God in all!
    Thus will you live the life that cannot die,
    Nor ever fall.
    

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