Theme · 157 poems

Sad Poems

Sometimes the only company that helps is a poem that's been there. Heartbreak, melancholy, and beautiful blue hours.

It's a strange fact of reading that sad poems help. The mechanism isn't mysterious: a poem that names your exact ache proves someone else felt it precisely enough to write it down — and survived long enough to revise. Aristotle called it catharsis; most readers just call it company.

The canon of sorrow is deep. Auden stopping all the clocks, Hardy haunted by his wife's ghost on the Cornish cliffs, Dickinson measuring 'the Hour of Lead' — heartbreak, regret, and melancholy each have their laureates. Read them on the bad nights; they were written on worse ones.

LengthForm

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

Remember

Christina Rossetti · 1862

Remember me when I am gone away,Gone far away into the silent land;When you can no more hold me by the hand,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

William Shakespeare · 1609

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyesI all alone beweep my outcast state,And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

14 lines · sonnet

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

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

Annabel Lee

Edgar Allan Poe · 1849

It was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may know

41 lines · ballad

The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe · 1845

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

113 lines · narrative

Soft Music

Robert Herrick

The mellow touch of music most doth woundThe soul, when it doth rather sigh, than sound.

2 lines · lyric

I Shall Not Care

Sara Teasdale · 1915

Teasdale, Sara (1915), "I Shall Not Care" in Rivers to the Sea.Teasdale, Sara (1917), "I Shall Not Care" in Love Songs.

2 lines · lyric

Upon His Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabethherrick

Robert Herrick

First, for effusions due unto the dead,My solemn vows have here accomplished;Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell,

4 lines · lyric

So gay a Flower

Emily Dickinson

So gay a FlowerBereaves the MindAs if it were a Woe —

5 lines · lyric

To-Morrow

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Where art thou, beloved To-morrow?When young and old, and strong and weak,Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow,

6 lines · lyric

To Music

Robert Herrick

Begin to charm, and as thou strok'st mine earsWith thine enchantment, melt me into tears.Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre,

6 lines · lyric

From all the Jails the Boys and Girls

Emily Dickinson

From all the Jails the Boys and GirlsEcstatically leap —Beloved only Afternoon

8 lines · lyric

Oh Future! thou secreted peace

Emily Dickinson

Oh Future! thou secreted peaceOr subterranean woe —Is there no wandering route of grace

8 lines · lyric

Only God—detect the Sorrow

Emily Dickinson

Only God — detect the Sorrow —Only God —The Jehovahs — are no Babblers —

8 lines · lyric

She's happy, with a new Content

Emily Dickinson

She's happy, with a new Content —That feels to her — like Sacrament —She's busy — with an altered Care —

8 lines · lyric

Summer is shorter than any one

Emily Dickinson

Summer is shorter than any one —Life is shorter than Summer —Seventy Years is spent as quick

8 lines · lyric

The Butterfly upon the Sky

Emily Dickinson

The Butterfly upon the Sky,That doesn't know its NameAnd hasn't any tax to pay

8 lines · lyric

A Dirge

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rough wind, that moanest loudGrief too sad for song;Wild wind, when sullen cloud

8 lines · lyric

To Mary Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone,And left me in this dreary world alone?Thy form is here indeed — a lovely one —

8 lines · lyric

Lines to an Old Sweetheart

Robert Burns

ONCE fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear, Sweet early object of my youthful vows,Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere,

8 lines · lyric

Love in the Guise of Friendship

Robert Burns

YOUR friendship much can make me blest, O why that bliss destroy!Why urge the only, one request

8 lines · lyric

To Heaven

Robert Herrick

Open thy gatesTo him who weeping waits,And might come in,

8 lines · lyric

To Music, to Becalm a Sweet Sick Youth

Robert Herrick

Charms, that call down the moon from out her sphere,On this sick youth work your enchantments here!Bind up his senses with your numbers, so

8 lines · lyric

Infant Sorrow

William Blake

My mother groaned, my father wept:Into the dangerous world I leapt,Helpless, naked, piping loud,

8 lines · lyric

The Little Boy Found

William Blake

The little boy lost in the lonely fen, Led by the wandering light,Began to cry, but God, ever nigh,

8 lines · lyric

The Little Boy Lost

William Blake

"Father, father, where are you going? Oh do not walk so fast!Speak, father, speak to your little boy,

8 lines · lyric

The Sick Rose

William Blake · 1794

O rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm,That flies in the night,

8 lines · lyric

Undue Significance a starving man attaches

Emily Dickinson

Undue Significance a starving man attachesTo Food —Far off — He sighs — and therefore — Hopeless —

9 lines · lyric

Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father

Robert Burns

O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains, Draw near with pious rev’rence, and attend!Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains,

9 lines · lyric

Time

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years,Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woeAre brackish with the salt of human tears!

10 lines · lyric

So We'll Go No More a Roving

Lord Byron · 1817

So, we'll go no more a rovingSo late into the night,Though the heart be still as loving,

12 lines · lyric

Nobody knows this little Rose

Emily Dickinson

Nobody knows this little Rose —It might a pilgrim beDid I not take it from the ways

12 lines · lyric

On a Faded Violet

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The odour from the flower is goneWhich like thy kisses breathed on me;The colour from the flower is flown

12 lines · lyric

Song. Translated From the Italian

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Oh! what is the gain of restless care,And what is ambitious treasure?And what are the joys that the modish share,

12 lines · lyric

Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear

Robert Burns

AH, woe is me, my mother dear! A man of strife ye’ve born me:For sair contention I maun bear;

12 lines · lyric

The Primrose

Robert Herrick

Ask me why I send you hereThis sweet Infanta of the year?Ask me why I send to you

12 lines · lyric

Whispers of Heavenly Death

Walt Whitman

WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur’d I hear;Labial gossip of night—sibilant chorals;Footsteps gently ascending—mystical breezes, wafted soft and low;

12 lines · lyric

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake

A little black thing in the snow,Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!"Where are thy father and mother? Say!" —

12 lines · lyric

Pan, Echo, and the Satyr

Percy Bysshe Shelley

FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.Pan loved his neighbour Echo — but that childOf Earth and Air pined for the Satyr leaping;

13 lines · lyric

O Beauty, Passing Beauty!

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?I only ask to sit beside thy feet.

14 lines · lyric

To F

Edgar Allan Poe

Beloved! amid the earnest woes That crowd around my earthly path —(Drear path, alas! where grows

14 lines · lyric

To Zante

Edgar Allan Poe

Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers, Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take!How many memories of what radiant hours

14 lines · lyric

Where Thou art—that—is Home

Emily Dickinson

Where Thou art — that — is Home —Cashmere — or Calvary — the same —Degree — or Shame —

14 lines · lyric

To My Brother George

John Keats

Many the wonders I this day have seen:The sun, when first he kissed away the tearsThat filled the eyes of Morn;—the laurelled peers

14 lines · lyric

To Emilia Viviani

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to meSweet-basil and mignonette?Embleming love and health, which never yet

14 lines · lyric

To Wordsworth

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to knowThat things depart which never may return:Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow,

14 lines · lyric

Upon the Loss of His Mistresses

Robert Herrick

I have lost, and lately, theseMany dainty mistresses: —Stately Julia, prime of all;

14 lines · lyric

Sonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there

William Shakespeare

Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there,And made my self a motley to the view,Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie

William Shakespeare

Those lines that I before have writ do lie,Even those that said I could not love you dearer:Yet then my judgment knew no reason why

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 119: What potions have I drunk of Siren tears

William Shakespeare

What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 120: That you were once unkind befriends me now

William Shakespeare

That you were once unkind befriends me now,And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,Needs must I under my transgression bow,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fair

William Shakespeare

In the old age black was not counted fair,Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;But now is black beauty's successive heir,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 129: The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

William Shakespeare

The expense of spirit in a waste of shameIs lust in action: and till action, lustIs perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 140: Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press

William Shakespeare

Be wise as thou art cruel; do not pressMy tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head

William Shakespeare

O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,Which have no correspondence with true sight;Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 28: How can I then return in happy plight

William Shakespeare

How can I then return in happy plight,That am debarre'd the benefit of rest?When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

William Shakespeare

When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts

William Shakespeare

Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,Which I by lacking have supposed dead;And there reigns Love, and all Love's loving parts,

14 lines · sonnet

Common questions

Why do sad poems make us feel better?

Psychologists call it catharsis; readers call it company. A poem that names your exact ache proves someone survived it long enough to write it down.

What is the saddest poem ever written?

Common nominees include W. H. Auden's 'Funeral Blues' ('Stop all the clocks') and Thomas Hardy's poems of 1912-13, written after his wife's death — grief sharpened by regret.