The given lines are all opening lines of famous poems, with each word reduced to its first two letters (or only letter, when necessary).
| Author | Original Line | Short Line | Extraction Position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angelou | You may write me down in history | Yo ma wr me do in hi | (line 8, word 4, letter 2) | I |
| Blake | Tyger Tyger, burning bright, | Ty Ty, bu br, | (line 7, word 3, letter 3) | N |
| Browning | How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. | Ho do I lo th? Le me co the wa. | (line 11, word 8, letter 4) | M |
| Carroll | "Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried, | "Ju th pl fo a Sn!" th Be cr, | (line 4, word 1, letter 2) | Y |
| Carroll | 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves | 'Tw br, an th sl to | (line 3, word 3, letter 3) | B |
| Coleridge | In Xanadu did Kubla Khan | In Xa di Ku Kh | (line 4, word 2, letter 4) | E |
| Coleridge | It is an ancient Mariner, | It is an an Ma, | (line 3, word 3, letter 4) | G |
| Cummings | i carry your heart with me(i carry it in | i ca yo he wi me(i ca it in | (line 4, word 4, letter 1) | I |
| Dickinson | Because I could not stop for Death -- | Be I co no st fo De -- | (line 5, word 5, letter 2) | N |
| Dickinson | "Hope" is the thing with feathers -- | "Ho" is the th wi fe -- | (line 8, word 4, letter 3) | N |
| Donne | Death, be not proud, though some have called thee | De, be no pr, th so ha ca th | (line 2, word 1, letter 2) | I |
| Eliot | April is the cruellest month, breeding | Ap is th cr mo, br | (line 16, word 4, letter 8) | N |
| Eliot | Let us go then, you and I, | Le us go th, yo an I, | (line 6, word 3, letter 3) | G |
| Frost | Some say the world will end in fire, | So sa th wo wi en in fi, | (line 5, word 6, letter 4) | I |
| Frost | Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, | Tw ro di in a ye wo, | (line 19, word 5, letter 3) | S |
| Frost | Whose woods these are I think I know. | Wh wo th ar I th I kn. | (line 3, word 5, letter 1) | M |
| Hughes | What happens to a dream deferred? | Wh ha to a dr de? | (line 8, word 3, letter 2) | S |
| Keats | A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: | A th of be is a jo fo ev: | (line 4, word 8, letter 4) | Y |
| Keats | Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, | Th st un br of qu, | (line 8, word 2, letter 3) | E |
| Lear | The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea | Th Ow an th Pu-ca we to se | (line 4, word 1, letter 7) | N |
| Longfellow | Listen my children and you shall hear | Li my ch an yo sh he | (line 18, word 6, letter 5) | D |
| Longfellow | This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, | Th is th fo pr. Th mu pi an the he, | (line 2, word 8, letter 2) | I |
| Poe | Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, | On up a mi dr, wh I po, we an we, | (line 2, word 6, letter 7) | N |
| Shakespeare | Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? | Sh I co th to a su da? | (line 10, word 7, letter 4) | S |
| Shelley | I met a traveller from an antique land | I me a tr fr an an la | (line 5, word 7, letter 1) | U |
| Silverstein | I will not play at tug o' war. | I wi no pl at tu o' wa. | (line 9, word 3, letter 1) | C |
| Silverstein | There is a place where the sidewalk ends | Th is a pl wh th si en | (line 4, word 2, letter 5) | C |
| Tennyson | Half a league, half a league, | Ha a le, ha a le, | (line 6, word 4, letter 4) | E |
| Thomas | Do not go gentle into that good night, | Do no go ge in th go ni, | (line 4, word 2, letter 3) | S |
| Whitman | O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, | O Ca! my Ca! ou fe tr is do, | (line 2, word 2, letter 3) | I |
| Wordsworth | I wandered lonely as a cloud | I wa lo as a cl | (line 15, word 4, letter 2) | O |
| Wordsworth | The world is too much with us; late and soon, | Th wo is to mu wi us; la an so, | (line 8, word 4, letter 9) | N |
Looking up the indicated line, word, and letter in each poem yields IN MY BEGINNING IS MY END IN SUCCESSION, which is the opening line of T.S. Eliot's poem "East Coker". The 19th line of the fifth part (which is in fact the first line of its second stanza) is "Home is where one starts from. As we grow older" whose fifth word is STARTS.