Anthology Two: Relationships

This poem by Seamus Heaney describes the death of his mother.

This is one of 154 sonnets published by William Shakespeare In 1609. They explore the themes of love, sex and beauty.

Written by Andrew Marvell in the seventeenth century, the poet urges his mistress to give in to pleasure.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) expresses her love for her husband through comparisons and metaphors, showing its spiritual and enduring nature.

Simon Armitage's unconventional love poem; the poet reflects on a terrible wrong he committed in the past at the expense of the person addressed in the poem, a girl he liked.

Harrison shows his father coping with his wife’s death by pretending she’s still alive. He first rejects this denial, then realises he repeats it after his father dies.

Carol Ann Duffy's elegy written in tribute to the poet’s mother, examining the carefree life she had in the past before having her daughter.

WH Auden's famous elegy describing the enormous grief and sense of loss the speaker feels on the death of a loved one.

The poem recounts Larkin’s failed relationship with a woman he didn’t truly love, while idealising her more attractive friend.

The poem is an elegy written by Ben Jonson after the death of his seven-year-old son.

EE Cummings poem expresses a deep emotional connection and unity between two people.He carries his beloved’s heart inside his own, showing how inseparable they are.

A sonnet written by Christina Rossetti from the perspective of a dying speaker, asking their loved one to remember them.

A bittersweet poem written by WB Yeats inviting the addressee to look back in her old age and consider how she rejected the true love offered by the poet.

A short poem by Robert Graves that describes love as something painful and uncontrollable.

Robert Browning's poem is spoken by a vengeful woman in dramatic monologue. She is in a laboratory, watching poison being made to kill her romantic rival, and possibly others too.