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Fable Classic Poetry

Poetry helps us express ourselves and live better. Discover great poets from across the centuries!

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Skip to Classic Poetry book selections
Why are poems important?
Great poems help us express ourselves and live better. Once you read a good poem that expresses how you feel, you can put the difficult feelings in their place and begin to change the way you feel. 
Leonardo da Vinci said it best: “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
Poetry can also help us reach out and connect with others and feel better because we understand and share their feelings. 
Discover great poetry book recommendations
We’ve rounded up a few poem books to get you started on your reading journey. Join Fable’s official Poetry Book Club to read great poems with the Fable community.
The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman digital book - Fable

The Hill We Climb

By Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe with her call for unity and healing.

Ledger  by Jane Hirshfield digital book - Fable

Ledger

By Jane Hirshfield

A pivotal book of personal, ecological, and political reckoning tuned toward issues of consequence to all who share this world's current and future fate, from the internationally renowned poet.

Postcolonial Love Poem  by Natalie Diaz digital book - Fable

Postcolonial Love Poem

By Natalie Diaz

Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried in its pages—bodies of language, land, rivers, suffering brothers, enemies, and lovers—be touched and held as beloveds.

An American Sunrise  by Joy Harjo digital book - Fable

An American Sunrise

By Joy HarjoFable Club Pick

Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared.

Sailing Alone Around the Room  by Billy Collins digital book - Fable

Sailing Alone Around the Room

By Billy Collins

These poems show Collins performing the kinds of distinctive poetic maneuvers that have delighted and fascinated so many readers. They may begin in curiosity and end in grief; they may begin with the everyday and end in the infinite.

The Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes digital book - Fable

The Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in Black writing in America—the poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death and represent stunning work from his entire career.

Poems by Elizabeth Bishop digital book - Fable

Poems

By Elizabeth Bishop

This is the definitive edition of the work of one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th Century. Bishop's poems combine humor and sadness, pain and acceptance, and observe nature and lives in perfect miniaturist close-up.

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda digital book - Fable

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

By Pablo Neruda

In his work a continent awakens to consciousness," wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda, author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers.

Free poems on Fable
Try reading a poem every night before bed. It’s the best way to calm your scattered brain. Science backs us up on this, as one study found that reading can reduce stress levels by 68 percent.
Start with these free books of poetry on Fable!
Cane  by Jean Toomer digital book - Fable

Cane

By Jean Toomer

Published in 1923, this book was widely heralded as one of the first masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance, and its author as “a bright morning star” of the movement. Cane is a mosaic of intricately connected poems, stories, songs, and dialogues.

Sonnets from the Portuguese  by Elizabeth Barrett Browning digital book - Fable

Sonnets from the Portuguese

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A collection of forty-four love sonnets that went on to become some of the most famous and critically-acclaimed love sonnets to this day.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám  by Omar Khayyám digital book - Fable

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

By Omar Khayyám

Edward FitzGerald triggered a poetic revolution in Victorian England upon his translation of a medieval Iranian mathematician, philosopher, scholar, and poet. One critic compared the impact of this book to the effect of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

New Hampshire  by Robert Frost digital book - Fable

New Hampshire

By Robert Frost

Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

 Divine Comedy  by Dante Alighieri digital book - Fable

Divine Comedy

By Dante Alighieri

Writing between 1308 and 1320, Dante answers the age-old question with his poetic vision: what does the afterlife look like? This three-volume epic poem describes in great detail the systematic levels in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

Eugene Onegin  by Alexander Pushkin digital book - Fable

Eugene Onegin

By Alexander Pushkin

Pushkin’s novel in verse was and is a huge influence on Russian literature. Its unusual verse structure combined with Pushkin’s own commentary on the social canvas of the time has meant that it has remained relevant and read to this day.

Find more great poems on Fable!
Join our official Poetry Book Club to read great poems with the Fable community.
To help Fable readers discover more poetry, you can find great poets and poems across the centuries in two folios: Being Alive Right Now and Sunset Stories: Classic Poetry.
All these books are available in the Fable Bookstore, and some of them are completely free. You can also explore our National Poetry Month collection well as other Fable Folios!
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