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Rhyming Poems · Poems About Mom

Candles for You

by The QuillOak Editors

1Today the candles are for you,

2the cake, the song, the fuss:

3one single day to pay you back

4for every day you gave to us.

5We'll never manage it, of course;

6the sum's too big, the debt's too deep.

7But blow them out and make a wish.

8That one, at least, is yours to keep.

Original poem © QuillOak — personal sharing is permitted.

Quick facts

Poem
Candles for You
Poet
The QuillOak Editors
Length
8 lines
Form
Rhyming Poems, Lyric Poem
Themes
Poems About Mom, Family, Happiness

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
8 lines · 2 quatrains
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes rhyming poems, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Original QuillOak text. Personal sharing is permitted; other reuse requires permission.

Author record
The QuillOak Editorstoday
Source record
QuillOak originalCandles for You, authored for QuillOak by The Quillery
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 876854766558ffda…
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue

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