6. Oh, My Self…Oh, Life… by Walt Whitman

Oh my self! oh life! All these questions assail me,
From the endless parade of the disloyal,
of cities full of fools,
of myself, that I always reproach myself, well,
Who is more foolish than me, nor more disloyal?
Of the eyes that in vain long for the light, of the objects
despicable, of the fight always renewed,
of the bad results of everything, of the crowds
busy and sordid that surround me,
Of the empty and useless years of others,
I intertwined with others,
The question, oh my self!, the sad question that
returns: what good is there in all this, oh, my self, oh, life?
Answer:
“That you are here, that life and identity exist,
that the powerful drama continues, and that perhaps
you can contribute to it with a verse.”

Walt Whitman reflects here on the burdens and uncertainties of human existence. encourages us to accept life’s obstacles and to see that each of us can contribute something unique and important to the world.

7. Life is but a dream by Lewis Carroll

A boat, under a bright sky,
advances persistent and sleepy,
one July afternoon.

There are three children who lie together,
with longing eyes and ears,
delighted to have a simple story to listen to.

It’s been a long time since that sky turned pale;
the echo and the memories faded;
The autumn frosts destroyed that July.

However, like a spectrum,
Alice still wanders under the heavens,
never seen by awakened eyes.

The children, to listen to the story,
with longing eyes and ears,
They will gladly lie down together.

In a wonderland they rest,
dreaming as the days go by,
dreaming while the summer dies,
always drifting with the current,
lingering on the golden reflection…
What is life but a dream?

A poem that invites us to reflect on the beauty and brevity of lifeand invites us to embrace its fleeting moments, like a quiet summer afternoon.

8. to a rose by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Divine rose that in gentle culture
you are with your fragrant subtlety
purple magisterium in beauty,
snowy teaching to beauty;
threat of human architecture,
example of vain kindness
in whose being he united nature
the happy cradle and sad grave:
How haughty in your pomp, presumptuous,
pride, the risk of dying disdain;
and then, fainted and shrunken,
of your obsolete being you give musty signs!
With what, with learned death and foolish life,
By living you deceive and by dying you teach!

A poem that reflects on the fleeting beauty of a rose as metaphor for life, love and mortalityand invites us to contemplate the ephemeral nature of existence.

9. The Peace of the Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When anguish for the world grows in me
And I wake up at night at the slightest sound,
worried about what will happen to my life and the lives of my children,
I go out and lie down where the duck
It rests with its beauty in the water, and the gray heron feeds.
I enter the peace of wild things
who do not overwhelm their lives with the anticipation of pain.
I enter the presence of still water,
and I feel the invisible stars above my head
waiting with its light. For a moment,
I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.

Berry reflects on the seeking solace in nature and suggests that getting away from life’s worries can restore peace.

10. Rima LIII by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

The dark swallows will return
on your balcony their nests to hang,
and again with the wing to its crystals
playing they will call.

But those that the flight restrained
your beauty and my joy to contemplate,
those who learned our names…
Those… won’t come back!

The bushy honeysuckle will return
of your garden the walls to climb,
and again in the afternoon even more beautiful
its flowers will open.

But those, curdled with dew
whose drops we watched tremble
and fall like tears of the day…
Those… won’t come back!

They will return from love in your ears
the burning words to sound;
your heart from its deep sleep
maybe he will wake up.

But mute and absorbed and on my knees
how God is worshiped before his altar,
how I have loved you…; disabuse yourself,
like this… they won’t love you!

One of the most famous poems by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (if not the most), which invites us to reflect on the transience of love, loss, the passage of time and the impossibility of recovering it once it has passed.