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Shall we compare thee to a summer’s day? Hm, no, maybe not. But summer does inspire some lush, passionate poetry and artwork. Here are some poems and visual art we found in the JSTOR and Artstor digital libraries, available for free PDF/JPG download!

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“Summer Work,” by Mary Oliver

Summer Flowers Jerome B. Thompson
Summer Flowers by Jerome B. Thompson (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; 1984.252.1)

“Desultory Summer Poem,” by Geoffrey Grigson

Watching Fireflies on a Summer Night by Mishima Shōsō (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Gift of Donald Keene, in honor of Julia Meech-Pekarik, 1986 ; JP3710)

“Summer Poem #1,” by Mina Kumar

Summer Evening Emil Ganso
Summer Evening by Emil Ganso (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940; 40.111.109)

“Summer Poem #3,” by Matthew Zapruder

Summer Flowers Henri Fantin-Latour
Summer Flowers by Henri Fantin-Latour (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; 1997.347)

“Summer Evening,” by Isabella Gardner

Vétheuil in Summer by Claude Monet (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; 51.30.3)

More Poems on JSTOR

red peony

Seven Favorite Flower Poems

The Editors
April 15, 2016
Our editors pick flower poems from Poetry magazine, American Poetry Review, and the Kenyon Review.
botticelli primavera

Ten Favorite Love Poems

The Editors
April 7, 2017
Love poems by Pablo Neruda, Joyce Carol Oates, Kenneth Koch, Willie Perdomo, Robert Penn Warren, Edith Wharton, and more.
nature poems orange foliage

Ten Breathtaking Nature Poems

The Editors
April 15, 2017
In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve gathered some of the best nature poems from JSTOR. Including Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, and others.
Artstor Public Collectionspaintingpoems and poetryJournal of South Asian LiteraturePloughsharesPoetryThe American ScholarThe Sewanee Review

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Summer Work
By: MARY OLIVER
The American Scholar, Vol. 72, No. 3 (SUMMER 2003), p. 34
The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Desultory Summer Poem
By: Geoffrey Grigson
Poetry, Vol. 121, No. 3 (Dec., 1972), pp. 129-131
Poetry Foundation
SUMMER POEM #1
By: Mina Kumar
Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 31/32, No. 1/2 (1996/1997), pp. 86-87
Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University
Summer Poem #3
By: MATTHEW ZAPRUDER
Ploughshares, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 2015), p. 214
Ploughshares
Summer Evening [Poem]
By: Isabella Gardner
The Sewanee Review, Vol. 62, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1954), p. 454
The Johns Hopkins University Press