Though possessing one of the youngest literary canons in the Western World, American Literature, 241 years in the making, has grown and evolved to produce some of the finest lore the contemporary world has to offer. From Herman Melville's masterpiece "Moby Dick" to Mark Twains polarizing "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", the United States is home to writers that have defined, examined, and immortalized the American Landscape and the ideals its people strive to see into reality. Among the most brilliant pieces published, containing some of the most brilliant lines ever delivered and spoken, originate from the countries poetic tradition. Rhymes and lays that capture the attitude within the yearnings, sorrows and joys this country, and its people, have come to know across days, months, years, and time.

1. "I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am." - Sylvia Plath

2. "Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." - Langston Hughes

3. "Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned." - Edna St. Vincent Millay

4. “It isn't enough for your heart to break because everybody's heart is broken now." - Allen Ginsberg

5. "Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you." - Walt Whitman

6. "The real trouble with war is that it gives no one a chance to kill the right people." - Ezra Pound

7. “There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.” - T.S. Eliot

8. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” - Edgar Allan Poe

9. “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” - Robert Frost

10. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” - Zora Neale Hurston