Theme · 159 poems

Poems About Life

Poems that take life whole — its shortness, its sweetness, its strange luck. Carpe diem classics, quiet meditations, and lines sturdy enough to live by.

The oldest advice in poetry is two words long: seize the day. Horace coined the phrase, Herrick translated it into rosebuds gathered while ye may, and the tradition runs straight through to Frost standing at his fork in the yellow wood. Poems about life tend to be poems about time — how little of it there is, and what that scarcity is for.

These are the poems people use as pocket philosophy: taped to monitors, quoted at graduations, recited on hard mornings. They earn that use by being honest about the shortness before recommending the sweetness — a poem that skips the first part is a greeting card; one that includes it is a companion.

LengthForm

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes · 1921

I've known rivers:I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

6 lines · free verse

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

Walt Whitman · 1865

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

7 lines · free verse

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

Success is counted sweetest

Emily Dickinson · 1864

Success is counted sweetestBy those who ne'er succeed.To comprehend a nectar

12 lines · lyric

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1818

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert...Near them, on the sand,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

William Shakespeare · 1609

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,

14 lines · sonnet

We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar · 1895

We wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—This debt we pay to human guile;

15 lines · rondeau

A Poison Tree

William Blake · 1794

I was angry with my friend:I told my wrath, my wrath did end.I was angry with my foe:

16 lines · lyric

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost · 1923

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping here

16 lines · lyric

Because I could not stop for Death

Emily Dickinson · 1890

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;The carriage held but just ourselves

20 lines · lyric

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost · 1916

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stood

20 lines · lyric

The Second Coming

W. B. Yeats · 1920

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

22 lines · lyric

The Tyger

William Blake · 1794

Tyger, tyger, burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eye

24 lines · lyric

Auld Lang Syne (Wikisource)

Robert Burns · 1788

Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind ?Should old acquaintance be forgot,

25 lines · ballad

If—

Rudyard Kipling · 1910

If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you;If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

32 lines · lyric

Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold · 1867

The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; on the French coast, the light

37 lines · lyric

To a Mouse

Robert Burns · 1785

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!Thou needna start awa' sae hasty,

48 lines · lyric

Ode On A Grecian Urn

John Keats · 1820

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

50 lines · ode

Ode to a Nightingale

John Keats · 1819

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

80 lines · ode

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Thomas Gray · 1751

It would almost seem that poetry has for its greatest mission the lesson of a proper humility.The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea.

128 lines · elegy

On Advice

The QuillOak Editors

"Advice" is the formal requestto bless what we've already guessed.

2 lines · epigram

Loss from the Least

Robert Herrick

Great men by small means oft are overthrown;He's lord of thy life, who contemns his own.

2 lines · lyric

Peace Not Permanent

Robert Herrick

Great cities seldom rest; if there be noneT' invade from far, they'll find worse foes at home.

2 lines · lyric

The Definition of Beauty

Robert Herrick

Beauty no other thing is, than a beamFlash'd out between the middle and extreme.

2 lines · lyric

Time was upon

Robert Herrick

Wrinkles no more are, or no less,Than beauty turn'd to sourness.

2 lines · lyric

Upon a Painted Gentlewoman

Robert Herrick

Men say you're fair; and fair ye are, 'tis true;But, hark! we praise the painter now, not you.

2 lines · lyric

Happy Thought

Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things,I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

2 lines · lyric

Beautiful Women

Walt Whitman

WOMEN sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young;The young are beautiful—but the old are more beautiful than the young.

2 lines · lyric

Summer Grasses (haiku)

Matsuo Bashō · 1689

summer grasses grow —all that remains of the dreamsof proud warriors

3 lines · haiku

One Percent

The QuillOak Editors

phone at one percent —suddenly I rememberthe names of the clouds

3 lines · senryu

Of Life to own

Emily Dickinson

Of Life to own —From Life to draw —But never tough the reservoir —

3 lines · lyric

On Tomorrow

The QuillOak Editors

There's nothing I can't conquer,no summit I can't claim,no task I cannot master —

4 lines · epigram

The Song of the Reed (opening lines)

Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains,Lamenting its banishment from its home:“Ever since they tore me from my osier bed,

4 lines · lyric

Birthday of but a single pang

Emily Dickinson

Birthday of but a single pangThat there are less to come —Afflictive is the Adjective

4 lines · lyric

Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell

Emily Dickinson

Could that sweet Darkness where they dwellBe once disclosed to usThe clamor for their loveliness

4 lines · lyric

Declaiming Waters none may dread

Emily Dickinson

Declaiming Waters none may dread —But Waters that are stillAre so for that most fatal cause

4 lines · lyric

Estranged from Beauty—none can be

Emily Dickinson

Estranged from Beauty — none can be —For Beauty is Infinity —And power to be finite ceased

4 lines · lyric

"Faith" is a fine invention

Emily Dickinson

"Faith" is a fine inventionWhen Gentlemen can see —But Microscopes are prudent

4 lines · lyric

Forbidden Fruit A Flavor Has

Emily Dickinson

Forbidden fruit a flavor hasThat lawful orchards mocks;How luscious lies the pea within

4 lines · lyric

Her sovereign People

Emily Dickinson

Her sovereign PeopleNature knows as wellAnd is as fond of signifying

4 lines · lyric

If Nature smiles—the Mother must

Emily Dickinson

If Nature smiles — the Mother mustI'm sure, at many a whimOf Her eccentric Family —

4 lines · lyric

In this short Life

Emily Dickinson

In this short LifeThat only lasts an hourHow much — how little — is

4 lines · lyric

Lad of Athens, faithful be

Emily Dickinson

Lad of Athens, faithful beTo Thyself,And Mystery —

4 lines · lyric

The words the happy say

Emily Dickinson

The words the happy sayAre paltry melodyBut those the silent feel

4 lines · lyric

When Memory is full

Emily Dickinson

When Memory is fullPut on the perfect Lid —This Morning's finest syllable

4 lines · lyric

A Hate-Song

Percy Bysshe Shelley

A hater he came and sat by a ditch,And he took an old cracked lute;And he sang a song which was more of a screech

4 lines · lyric

In Horologium

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Inter marmoreas Leonorae pendula collesFortunata nimis Machina dicit horas.Quas MANIBUS premit illa duas insensa papillas

4 lines · lyric

Epigram on a Suicide

Robert Burns

EARTH’D up, here lies an imp o’ hell, Planted by Satan’s dibble;Poor silly wretch, he’s damned himsel’,

4 lines · lyric

To Enjoy the Time

Robert Herrick

While fates permit us, let's be merry;Pass all we must the fatal ferry;And this our life, too, whirls away,

4 lines · lyric

To his Girls

Robert Herrick

Wanton wenches do not bringFor my hairs black colouring :For my locks, girls, let 'em be

4 lines · lyric

Locations and Times

Walt Whitman

LOCATIONS and times—what is it in me that meets them all, whenever and wherever, and makes me at home?

4 lines · lyric

First Fig

Edna St. Vincent Millay · 1920

My candle burns at both ends;It will not last the night;But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

4 lines · lyric

The Caffeine Resolution

The QuillOak Editors

I solemnly swore off caffeineon Monday at seven-fifteen;by twenty past seven

5 lines · limerick

Time does go on

Emily Dickinson

Time does go on —I tell it gay to those who suffer now —They shall survive —

5 lines · lyric

Cancelled Passage of Mont Blanc

Percy Bysshe Shelley

There is a voice, not understood by all,Sent from these desert-caves. It is the roarOf the rent ice-cliff which the sunbeams call,

5 lines · lyric

Jesus! thy Crucifix

Emily Dickinson

Jesus! thy CrucifixEnable thee to guessThe smaller size!

6 lines · lyric

No Romance sold unto

Emily Dickinson

No Romance sold untoCould so enthrall a ManAs the perusal of

6 lines · lyric

Cancelled Passage of the Ode to Liberty

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Within a cavern of man's trackless spiritIs throned an Image, so intensely fairThat the adventurous thoughts that wander near it

7 lines · lyric

Another Trip Around the Sun

The QuillOak Editors

Another trip around the sun,another year of you —of all the laughter you have caused,

8 lines · lyric

The Tassel

The QuillOak Editors

It's just a string, the tassel is,a finger's worth of thread —but look what it took to move it

8 lines · lyric

Common questions

What is the most famous poem about life?

Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' — possibly the most quoted (and most charmingly misread) poem in English. 'Invictus' and Kipling's 'If—' round out the podium.

What is a carpe diem poem?

A 'seize the day' poem — verse urging you to live now, like Herrick's 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' The genre is as old as Horace, who coined the phrase in 23 BC.