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Have you ever compared someone to a summer’s day? Then you’re a poet and you didn’t know it!

When it comes to poetry, we’re quick to say we don’t know a lot simply because we can’t recite all of Shakespeare’s sonnets by heart. But we bet you’ve been quoting more than Poe’s raven without even realising.

Check out these famous lines from poems you may not realise you knew.

"Come as you are"

This is something you say when you’re having an informal get-together, and the meaning was the same in a famous poem. The complete line is, “Come as you are, tarry not over your toilet.”, and it’s the beginning of the sixth poem by Rabindranath Tagore in POETRY: A Magazine of Verse, published in 1913. It might get a giggle today, but toilet in the historical sense can mean cosmetics, and ‘to tarry’ means to delay or stay. It carries the lovely sentiment of simply show up imperfectly and be quick about it; the person’s presence in the world is more important than any dress code.

“Tis better to have loved and lost/ Than never to have loved at all.”

You may have heard this line in pop songs and films, but it originated in the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem is about the loss of a beloved friend in life. The poem’s title is in reference to Arthur Henry Hallam, who sadly and suddenly died when both men were at university. It took Tennyson 17 years to finish and eventually publish, in 1850 – but as the line dictates, the good memories remain.

“How do I love thee?/ Let me count the ways.”

Quite possibly one of the most well-known poem openings ever, it comes from Elizabeth Barratt’s How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) published in 1850 as part of Sonnets from the Portuguese. Barratt wrote the sonnet for her husband and fellow poet Robert Browning, expressing how she considered her love for him not only romantic, but spiritual. The other famous line is “I love thee to the level of every day’s/ Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.”, meaning love is also an everyday decision, not just made up of grand metaphors and gestures – which wasn’t a common sentiment in romantic poetry. This was Barratt’s most renowned poem ever and made her one of the most celebrated poets of the Romantic era.

“Someone will remember us, even in another time.”

This isn’t an Instagram poem, though you may have seen the familiar lines floating around on social media, particularly in LGBTQ+ circles. This paraphrased line is actually a complete poem – or rather, a serendipitously incomplete one. This is Fragment 147 of a poem by Ancient Greek poet and writer Sappho of Lesbos. The commonly translated lines are: “someone I say/ will remember us/ even in another time” and are thought to be part of a larger poem, but together make up something short and profoundly sweet. Tragically much of Sappho’s poetry has been lost, but she continues to be celebrated even in fragmented form – so, indeed, we do remember her from another time.

“Still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

Still I Rise is not only Maya Angelou’s most famous poem of many, but it’s also her personal favourite. It was written in 1976 and has been recited by celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Janelle Monáe and Serena Williams to name a few. The poem addresses the oppression of black people as well as promoting the sentiment of overcoming personal adversity, which Angelou did throughout her difficult childhood and adult life. The final lines are “I rise/ I rise/ I rise.”, the mantra of a powerful and defiant narrator.

“Now comes the rather grisly bit…”

You’ll definitely know children’s author Roald Dahl for stories such as The BFG, The Twits and Matilda. But have you read many of his poems? He has a collection of over 40, and this line is from The Pig, in which a clever pig realises what’s in store for him and eats his Farmer to avoid being eaten – that’s the “rather grisly bit”! Many people have adopted this phrase into their speech without realising they’re actually quoting one of the most famous British writers.

“The road less travelled.”

To take the road less travelled is a phrase meaning you choose the unconventional or unexplored option, but did you know it comes from a popular work by American poet Robert Frost? Inspired by Frost’s Welsh pal Edward Thomas, who was always regretful of his decisions, the poem is called The Road Not Taken, and says: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -/ I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference.” Several interpretations have been put forward for this line (and the poem as a whole), but the one that stuck in common language has to do with picking something independently, despite what everyone else is doing.

This article was published in October 2022