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Famous lines and where they come from

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:Ode to a Nightingale, Keats, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
Marley was dead: to begin with.A Christmas Carol, Dickens, paragraph 2
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson, stanza 1, lines 1 to 3
Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen.Cinderella, Perrault, paragraph 1
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot, stanza 1, lines 1 to 3
There was once a little girl whose hair was so bright and yellow that it glittered in the sun like spun-gold. For this reason she was called Goldilocks.Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pyle, paragraph 1
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,The Raven, Poe, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children.Hansel and Gretel, Grimm, paragraph 1
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright—The Walrus and the Carpenter, Carroll, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains.Rip Van Winkle, Irving, paragraph 1
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,Annabel Lee, Poe, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
And the red looked pretty upon the white snow, and she thought to herself, “Would that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame.”Snow White, Grimm, paragraph 1

All 120 famous lines

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:Kubla Khan, Coleridge, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.The Cask of Amontillado, Poe, paragraph 1
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed.The Emperor’s New Clothes, Andersen, paragraph 1
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
He was greatly given to self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done.The Lady, or the Tiger?, Stockton, paragraph 1
I am a part of all that I have met;Ulysses, Tennyson, stanza 2, line 18
A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving, paragraph 3
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;If—, Kipling, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
When the sisters rose, arm-in-arm, through the water in this way, their youngest sister would stand quite alone, looking after them, ready to cry, only that the mermaids have no tears, and therefore they suffer more.The Little Mermaid, Andersen, paragraph 11
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Paul Revere’s Ride, Longfellow, stanza 1, lines 1 to 3
Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly.The Monkey’s Paw, W. W. Jacobs, paragraph 1
Take this kiss upon the brow!A Dream Within a Dream, Poe, stanza 1, line 1
“Even so, I rather think they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.”The Most Dangerous Game, Connell, paragraph 13
I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils), Wordsworth, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.The Story of an Hour, Chopin, paragraph 1
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Dickinson, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman, paragraph 1
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,Invictus, Henley, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
There was once a woman who wished very much to have a little child, but she could not obtain her wish.Thumbelina, Andersen, paragraph 1
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,O Captain! My Captain!, Whitman, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Bierce, paragraph 1
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:Sonnet 116, Shakespeare, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by every one who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child.Little Red Riding Hood, Grimm, paragraph 1
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Sonnet 130, Shakespeare, stanza 1, line 1
There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child.Rapunzel, Grimm, paragraph 1
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Sonnet 18, Shakespeare, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the King, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, “I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.”Rumpelstiltskin, Grimm, paragraph 1
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,The Road Not Taken, Frost, stanza 1, line 1
There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed.Sleeping Beauty, Perrault, paragraph 1
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?The Tyger, Blake, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe, paragraph 1
The sea is calm to-night.Dover Beach, Arnold, stanza 1, line 1
One dollar and eighty-seven cents.The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry, paragraph 1
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,In Flanders Fields, McCrae, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
I was sick—sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe, paragraph 1
Whose woods these are I think I know.Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost, stanza 1, line 1
True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe, paragraph 1
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?I’m Nobody! Who Are You?, Dickinson, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
“How large the world is,” said the young ducks, when they found how much more room they now had than while they were inside the egg-shell.The Ugly Duckling, Andersen, paragraph 1
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.Nothing Gold Can Stay, Frost, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
There was once upon a time a poor widow who had an only son named Jack, and a cow named Milky-white.Jack and the Beanstalk, Joseph Jacobs, paragraph 1
I met a traveller from an antique landOzymandias, Shelley, stanza 1, line 1
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country.The Masque of the Red Death, Poe, paragraph 1
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.Fire and Ice, Frost, stanza 1, lines 1 to 2
Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!The Three Little Pigs, Halliwell-Phillipps, paragraph 1
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrowThe Red Wheelbarrow, Williams, stanza 1, lines 1 to 4
A hare one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: “Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.”The Tortoise and the Hare, Aesop, paragraph 1
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;Ode to a Nightingale, Keats, stanza 2, lines 15 to 18
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.A Christmas Carol, Dickens, paragraph 7
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson, stanza 5, lines 37 to 38
However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her mean apparel, was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they were always dressed very richly.Cinderella, Perrault, paragraph 3
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot, stanza 2, lines 13 to 14
Then she sat down in the dear little chair, and it was just right, and fitted her as though it had been made for her.Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pyle, paragraph 6
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.The Raven, Poe, stanza 2, lines 7 to 8
Then he went back and said to Grethel, “Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not forsake us,” and he lay down again in his bed.Hansel and Gretel, Grimm, paragraph 2
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.The Walrus and the Carpenter, Carroll, stanza 3, lines 13 to 14
The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor.Rip Van Winkle, Irving, paragraph 5
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.Annabel Lee, Poe, stanza 1, lines 5 to 6
“Looking-glass, Looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?”Snow White, Grimm, paragraph 4
A savage place! as holy and inchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!Kubla Khan, Coleridge, stanza 3, lines 14 to 16
I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.The Cask of Amontillado, Poe, paragraph 1
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing, for there was nothing to be seen.The Emperor’s New Clothes, Andersen, paragraph 6
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said:The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson, stanza 1, lines 5 to 6
This was the king’s semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious.The Lady, or the Tiger?, Stockton, paragraph 7
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.Ulysses, Tennyson, stanza 2, lines 19 to 21
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving, paragraph 4
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;If—, Kipling, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
“Pride must suffer pain,” replied the old lady.The Little Mermaid, Andersen, paragraph 14
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;Paul Revere’s Ride, Longfellow, stanza 2, line 10
He wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow.The Monkey’s Paw, W. W. Jacobs, paragraph 26
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;A Dream Within a Dream, Poe, stanza 1, lines 4 to 5
The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.The Most Dangerous Game, Connell, paragraph 14
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.I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils), Wordsworth, stanza 1, lines 3 to 6
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.The Story of an Hour, Chopin, paragraph 5
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Dickinson, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman, paragraph 5
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.Invictus, Henley, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and they gave her the name of “Thumbelina,” or Tiny, because she was so small.Thumbelina, Andersen, paragraph 3
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.O Captain! My Captain!, Whitman, stanza 1, lines 5 to 8
Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Bierce, paragraph 2
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;Sonnet 116, Shakespeare, stanza 1, lines 5 to 6
Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called “Little Red-Cap.”Little Red Riding Hood, Grimm, paragraph 1
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.Sonnet 130, Shakespeare, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
“Ah,” answered he, “let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity.Rapunzel, Grimm, paragraph 1
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sonnet 18, Shakespeare, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
“What will you give me,” said the manikin, “if I do it for you?”Rumpelstiltskin, Grimm, paragraph 3
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;The Road Not Taken, Frost, stanza 2, lines 6 to 8
The old Fairy’s turn coming next, with a head shaking more with spite than age, she said that the Princess should have her hand pierced with a spindle and die of the wound.Sleeping Beauty, Perrault, paragraph 6
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?The Tyger, Blake, stanza 2, lines 5 to 8
I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results.The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe, paragraph 11
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!Dover Beach, Arnold, stanza 1, line 6
Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry, paragraph 2
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.In Flanders Fields, McCrae, stanza 1, lines 4 to 5
Then silence, and stillness, night were the universe.The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe, paragraph 1
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost, stanza 2, lines 5 to 8
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe, paragraph 2
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.I’m Nobody! Who Are You?, Dickinson, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
He is my own child, and he is not so very ugly after all if you look at him properly.The Ugly Duckling, Andersen, paragraph 9
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.Nothing Gold Can Stay, Frost, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
“Ah! you don’t know what these beans are,” said the man; “if you plant them over-night, by morning they grow right up to the sky.”Jack and the Beanstalk, Joseph Jacobs, paragraph 14
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,Ozymandias, Shelley, stanza 1, lines 4 to 7
The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think.The Masque of the Red Death, Poe, paragraph 2
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.Fire and Ice, Frost, stanza 1, lines 3 to 4
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”The Three Little Pigs, Halliwell-Phillipps, paragraph 5
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
waterThe Red Wheelbarrow, Williams, stanza 2, lines 3 to 6
The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal.The Tortoise and the Hare, Aesop, paragraph 1

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