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Yeats' "The Second Coming" is the most referenced poem of the 20th century; "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" might be the most beautiful;
Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly" is dense enough to stand up to dozens of readings but accessible enough not to require poring over to get a drip of info out of.
Ted Hughes' "Daffodils" is wonderful
Others:
Wallace Stevens: The Snowman
Stanley Kunitz: The Wellfleet Whale
Randall Jarrell: The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Frost: Nothing Gold can Stay
Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum est
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"When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”--Abraham Lincoln
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