The Wonder of It All: Inspirational Poems That Will Lift Your Spirits

Ode to Joy

By Friedrich Schiller

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity, Daughter of Elysium, We enter, drunk with fire, Thy heavenly sanctuary!

Thy magic binds again What custom's harsh law has divided; All men become brothers Under thy gentle wings.

Whoever has achieved The divine gift of friendship, Let him join our chorus! Whoever knows the name of love, Let him join our chorus!

All creatures drink of joy At Nature's bounteous breast; Good and wicked alike Follow her rosy path.

She gave us kisses, and wine, And a faithful friend, Death's cold hand she doth not spare, But her care for us doth never end.

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity, Daughter of Elysium, We enter, drunk with fire, Thy heavenly sanctuary!

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: