Collection

Great Poems & Speeches

Canonical poems and speeches for classical Christian high school students: from the Psalms and Old English verse to Lincoln, Churchill and Reagan. Each has a journal-style abstract, a student guide, verified quotes, virtue tags, and, where public domain, the full text.

Poems (25)Speeches (32)

Public-domain items include a full-text reader. Speeches still under copyright (marked below) carry the abstract, student guide and at most two short quotations. A few famous pieces already live inside larger works in the library; those entries link to the existing record.

Poems

Ancient

Psalm 23Attributed to DavidFrom The Biblec. 1000 BC (traditional); KJV 1611 · Full text

Medieval

Cædmon's HymnCædmonc. 658-680 · Full textThe Dream of the RoodAnonymousc. 700-750 (Ruthwell Cross); Vercelli Book c. 975 · Full text

Renaissance & Early Modern

Sonnet 116William ShakespeareFrom Sonnets1609 · Full textHoly Sonnet X: "Death, be not proud"John Donnewritten c. 1609-1610; published 1633 · Full textThe CollarGeorge Herbert1633 · Full textOn His Blindness (Sonnet XIX)John Miltonwritten c. 1652-1655; published 1673 · Full text

18th Century

Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardThomas Gray1751 · Full textThe TygerWilliam Blake1794 · Full textLines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern AbbeyWilliam Wordsworth1798 · Full text

19th Century

OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley1818 · Full textOde on a Grecian UrnJohn Keatswritten 1819; published 1820 · Full textUlyssesAlfred, Lord Tennysonwritten 1833; published 1842 · Full textMy Last DuchessRobert Browning1842 · Full textThe RavenEdgar Allan Poe1845 · Full textPaul Revere's RideHenry Wadsworth Longfellowwritten 1860; published 1861 · Full textBecause I could not stop for DeathEmily DickinsonFrom Poems: First, Second and Third Serieswritten c. 1862-1863; published 1890 · Full textO Captain! My Captain!Walt WhitmanFrom The Complete Poems1865 · Full textGod's GrandeurGerard Manley HopkinsFrom Poemswritten 1877; published 1918 · Full text

Early 20th Century

If—Rudyard Kiplingwritten c. 1895; published 1910 · Full textLepantoG. K. Chesterton1911 · Full textIn Flanders FieldsJohn McCrae1915 · Full textThe Road Not TakenRobert FrostFrom Early Poems: A Boy's Will, North of Boston, Mountain Interval1915; collected 1916 · Full textThe Second ComingW. B. Yeatswritten 1919; published 1920 · Full textJourney of the MagiT. S. Eliot1927 · Full text

Speeches

Ancient

Pericles' Funeral OrationPericlesFrom The History of the Peloponnesian Wardelivered 431 BC; recorded by Thucydides c. 431-400 BC · Full textThe Apology of SocratesPlato (speech of Socrates)In the library as part of The Last Days of Socrates. Socrates’ defense speech at his trial is the Apology, the first dialogue in The Last Days of Socrates.399 BC · Full textFirst Oration Against CatilineMarcus Tullius Cicero63 BC · Full textThe Sermon on the MountJesus of Nazareth (Gospel of Matthew)In the library as part of The Bible. Matthew 5–7, read in the King James Version within The Bible.c. AD 30; Gospel c. AD 80-90 · Full text

Renaissance & Early Modern

Speech to the Troops at TilburyElizabeth I1588 · Full textMark Antony's Funeral Oration ("Friends, Romans, countrymen")William ShakespeareFrom Julius Caesar1599 · Full textThe St Crispin's Day SpeechWilliam ShakespeareFrom Henry V1599 · Full textA Model of Christian CharityJohn Winthrop1630 · Full text

18th Century

Give Me Liberty or Give Me DeathPatrick Henrydelivered 1775; text published 1817 · Full textThe Newburgh AddressGeorge Washington1783 · Full textFirst Inaugural Address (Washington)George WashingtonIn the library as part of Farewell Address and Selected Letters. Delivered in Federal Hall, New York, April 30, 1789; the full text is included in Farewell Address and Selected Letters.1789 · Full textWashington’s Farewell AddressGeorge WashingtonIn the library as part of Farewell Address and Selected Letters. The Farewell Address heads the library’s Washington volume, with full text.1796 · Full text

19th Century

First Inaugural Address (Jefferson)Thomas Jefferson1801 · Full textHayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution)Robert Y. Hayne1830 · Full textSecond Reply to HayneDaniel Webster1830 · Full textWhat to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?Frederick DouglassIn the library as part of Narrative of the Life and What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. Douglass’s Rochester oration of 5 July 1852 is paired with his Narrative in the library.1852 · Full textHouse Divided SpeechAbraham Lincoln1858 · Full textThe Gettysburg AddressAbraham Lincoln1863 · Full textSecond Inaugural AddressAbraham Lincoln1865 · Full textI Will Fight No More ForeverChief Joseph1877 · Full textAtlanta Exposition AddressBooker T. Washington1895 · Full text

Early 20th Century

Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena")Theodore Roosevelt1910 · Full textFirst Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear")Franklin D. Roosevelt1933 · Full textFarewell to Baseball ("The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth")Lou Gehrig1939 · Copyrighted: abstract onlyTheir Finest HourWinston Churchill1940 · Copyrighted: abstract onlyWe Shall Fight on the BeachesWinston Churchill1940 · Copyrighted: abstract onlyPearl Harbor Address ("A Date Which Will Live in Infamy")Franklin D. Roosevelt1941 · Full textOrder of the Day, 6 June 1944Dwight D. Eisenhower1944 · Full text

Postwar & Contemporary

Inaugural AddressJohn F. Kennedy1961 · Full textI Have a DreamMartin Luther King Jr.From Sermons and Letter from Birmingham Jail1963 · Copyrighted: abstract onlyAddress to the Nation on the Challenger DisasterRonald Reagan1986 · Full textTear Down This Wall (Brandenburg Gate Address)Ronald Reagan1987 · Full text