Name: __________________________

Year & Section: __________________

TOP 50 MOST OFTEN QUOTED POETIC LINES

50. The mind is its own place, and in itself/ [Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n]. Milton
49. Full fathom five thy father lies. Shakespeare
48. If you can keep your head when all about you. Kipling
47. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Barrett Browning
46. If music be the food of love, play on. Shakespeare
45. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. Shakespeare
44. What is this life if, full of care,/We have no time to stand and stare. W.H. Davies
43. The moving finger writes; and, having writ,/Moves on. Edward Fitzgerald
42. They also serve who only stand and wait. Milton
41. The quality of mercy is not strained. Shakespeare
40. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. Coleridge
39. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Shakespeare
38. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day. Shakespeare
37. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Keats
36. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Keats
35. Do not go gentle into that good night. Dylan Thomas
34. Busy old fool, unruly sun. John Donne
33. Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Auden
32. Human kind/Cannot bear very much reality. T.S. Eliot
31. O Romeo, Romeo; wherefore art thou Romeo. Shakespeare
30. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Shakespeare
29. The old lie: Dulce et Decorum Est. Wilfred Owen
28. Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. Gertrude Stein
27. When I am an old woman I shall wear purple. Jenny Joseph
26. I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree. Joyce Kilmer
25. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Alexander Pope
24. When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes. Shakespeare
23. I grow old... I grow old.../I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. T.S. Eliot
22. 'The time has come', the Walrus said,/'To talk of many things'. Lewis Carroll
21. A narrow fellow in the grass. Emily Dickinson
20. Beauty is truth, truth beauty; that is all. John Keats
19. To be or not to be: that is the question. Shakespeare
18. In Flanders fields the poppies blow. John McCrae
17. The proper study of mankind is man. Alexander Pope
16. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Alexander Pope
15. But at my back I always hear. Andrew Marvell
14. Candy/Is dandy/But liquor/Is quicker. Ogden Nash
13. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun. Shakespeare
12. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. W.B.Yeats
11. Because I could not stop for death/He kindly stopped for me. Emily Dickinson
10. Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all. Tennyson
9. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Shelley
8. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Tennyson
7. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. W.B. Yeats
6. Not with a bang but a whimper. T.S. Eliot
5. And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost
4. I wandered lonely as a cloud. Wordsworth
3. The child is father of the man. Wordsworth
2. I am the master of my fate. William Ernest Henley
1. To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope
Name: __________________________
Year & Section: __________________

TOP 25 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S QUOTES

1. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

2. All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and
their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.
3. To be or not to be that is the question.
4. Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
5. Now is the winter of discontent.
6. Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?
7. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
8. Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant never taste of death but once.
9. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!
10. I am one who loved not wisely but to well.
11. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor
men’s cottage prince’s palaces.
12. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
13. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and
then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing
14. To thine own self be true.
15. All that glistens is not gold.
16. Nothing will come of nothing.
17. The course of true love never did run smooth.
18. Whoever loved that loved not at first sight.
19. A horse! A horse! my kingdom for a horse!
20. Love looks not the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
21. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
22. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the
edge of husbandry.
23. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
24. I am a man more sinned that sinning.
25. Golden lads and girls all must, as chimneys-sweepers, come to dust.