Main Page

Welcome to Wikisource, the free library that anyone can improve. 387,627 texts in English

Site index Community portal News Sandbox

APRIL’S FEATURED TEXT

Grab a download!

Trees and Other Poems is a collection of poems written by Joyce Kilmer and published in 1914. Of the various poems included in the volume, "Trees", which begins "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree," is the poem for which Kilmer is best remembered.

The same year that this volume was published, Kilmer was abroad visiting England. Upon seeing the long lines of men waiting to enlist for WW I, he exclaimed, "My God, if I look at these boys much longer I'll have to hook on at the tail of this queue and join up with them!" Kilmer enlisted on 23 April 1917, shortly after America entered the war. He was killed on July 30, 1918—almost 100 years ago.

WITHIN the Jersey City shed⁠
The engine coughs and shakes its head.
The smoke, a plume of red and white,
Waves madly in the face of night.
And now the grave incurious stars
Gleam on the groaning hurrying cars.
Against the kind and awful reign
Of darkness, this our angry train,
A noisy little rebel, pouts
Its brief defiance, flames and shouts—
And passes on, and leaves no trace.

(Read on...)

or see all featured texts.

CURRENT COLLABORATIONS

The current Community collaboration is collecting texts related to the Eminent Women Series Recent collaborations: Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Henry David Thoreau, WikiProject NARA, Tenth Anniversary Contest, Disney

The current Proofread of the Month is Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain  (1852) by James Kennedy. Recent collaborations: A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Cyclopedia of Painting, Cras credemus: A Treatise on the Cultivation of the Potato, The Sclavonic Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, The Milestones and the Old Post Road, The Language of the Eye, The Man Who Knew Too Much, A Bid for Fortune, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Revised Edition

The current Maintenance of the Month task is Work index revision Recent collaborations: Orphans, Proposed policies and guidelines, Author page connection with Wikidata items, Help page improvement, Undated works

NEW TEXTS

Laus Patriae Celestis (1867)

by Bernard of Cluny, translated by Oliver Andrew Morse

Thoreau: As remembered by a young friend (1917)

by Edward Emerson

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)

by Frederick Douglass

Biblical Biology (1884)

by Annie Besant

The Kingdom of Man (1938)

by Ralph Vary Chamberlin

Summer in Massachusetts: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau (1884)

by Henry David Thoreau

Abraham (1922)

by Hrotsvitha, translated by Richard S. Lambert

HIGHLIGHTS

Poetry from ancient and romantic to modern, in love and war

Texts, laws, constitutions of many countries

Documents from US history, including Revolution and Civil War

US law: Supreme Court decisions, government documents, presidential addresses

General literature: modern novels and short stories, horror stories, children’s literature, science fiction, drama

Original, encyclopedic, popular articles on relativity, physics, biology, and other sciences

EXPLORE WIKISOURCE

Authors – Index

• By era
• By genre
• By nationality
• By type

Works – Index

• By era
• By genre
• By subject
• By type

Subject index

WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION

Wikisource is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization which also hosts other free-content projects:

Commons	Wikibooks	Wikidata	Wikinews	Wikipedia	Wikiquote	Wikispecies	Wikiversity	Wikivoyage	Wiktionary	Meta-Wiki

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. And we need your help: Contribute to our projects, or make a donation. Donations are primarily used for site maintenance and software improvements.