Theme · 199 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
Tradition, thou art for suckling children
Stephen Crane
Tradition, thou art for suckling children,Thou art the enlivening milk for babes;But no meat for men is in thee.
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
Sonnet 09 - Can it be right to give what I can give?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Can it be right to give what I can give?To let thee sit beneath the fall of tearsAs salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet 30 - I see thine image through my tears to-night
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I see thine image through my tears to-night,And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. HowRefer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth.I have heard love talked in my early youth,
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
Holy Sonnet III: O Might Those Sighs And Tears Return Again
John Donne
O might those sighs and tears return againInto my breast and eyes, which I have spent,That I might in this holy discontent
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree
John Donne
If poisonous minerals, and if that treeWhose fruit threw death on else immortal us,If lecherous goats, if serpents envious
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet V: I Am A Little World Made Cunningly
John Donne
I am a little world made cunninglyOf elements, and an angelic sprite;But black sin hath betrayed to endless night
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet VII: At The Round Earth's Imagined Corners Blow
John Donne
At the round earth's imagined corners blowYour trumpets, angels, and arise, ariseFrom death, you numberless infinities
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet VIII: If Faithful Souls Be Alike Glorified
John Donne
If faithful souls be alike glorifiedAs angels, then my fathers soul doth see,And adds this even to full felicity,
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet XII: Why Are We By All Creatures Waited On?
John Donne
Why are we by all creatures waited on?Why do the prodigal elements supplyLife and food to me, being more pure than I,
14 lines · lyric
Holy Sonnet XIII: What If This Present Were The World's Last Night?
John Donne
What if this present were the world's last night?Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
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
More poems in this theme
- Farewell to the CourtLike truthless dreams, so are my joys expir'd,…14 lines
- Sonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and thereAlas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there,…14 lines
- Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lieThose lines that I before have writ do lie,…14 lines
- Sonnet 119: What potions have I drunk of Siren tearsWhat potions have I drunk of Siren tears,…14 lines
- Sonnet 120: That you were once unkind befriends me nowThat you were once unkind befriends me now,…14 lines
- Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fairIn the old age black was not counted fair,…14 lines
- Sonnet 129: The expense of spirit in a waste of shameThe expense of spirit in a waste of shame…14 lines
- Sonnet 140: Be wise as thou art cruel; do not pressBe wise as thou art cruel; do not press…14 lines
- Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath Love put in my headO me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,…14 lines
- Sonnet 28: How can I then return in happy plightHow can I then return in happy plight,…14 lines
- Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtWhen to the sessions of sweet silent thought…14 lines
- Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endeared with all heartsThy bosom is endeared with all hearts,…14 lines
- Sonnet 34: Why didst thou promise such a beauteous dayWhy didst thou promise such a beauteous day,…14 lines
- Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea take them allTake all my loves, my love, yea take them all;…14 lines
- Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my griefThat thou hast her it is not all my grief,…14 lines
- Sonnet 44: If the dull substance of my flesh were thoughtIf the dull substance of my flesh were thought,…14 lines
- Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is tookBetwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,…14 lines
- Sonnet 48: How careful was I when I took my wayHow careful was I when I took my way,…14 lines
- Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the wayHow heavy do I journey on the way,…14 lines
- Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am deadNo longer mourn for me when I am dead…14 lines
- Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widow's eyeIs it for fear to wet a widow's eye,…14 lines
- Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, nowThen hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;…14 lines
- Acquainted with the NightI have been one acquainted with the night.…14 lines
- From the Original Draft of the Poem to William ShelleyThe world is now our dwelling-place;…15 lines
- ToWhen passion's trance is overpast,…15 lines
- To a StarSweet star, which gleaming o'er the darksome scene…15 lines
- To a Gentlewoman, Objecting to Him Hisgray HairsAm I despised, because you say;…15 lines
- When I Am Dead, My Dearest (Song)When I am dead, my dearest,…16 lines
- A FarewellFlow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,…16 lines
- Home They Brought Her Warrior DeadHome they brought her warrior dead:…16 lines
- In Memoriam 3: O Sorrow, cruel fellowshipO Sorrow, cruel fellowship,…16 lines
- The Princess: A Medley: Home they Brought her Warrior DeadHome they brought her warrior dead:…16 lines
- SongI saw thee on thy bridal day —…16 lines
- SympathyThere should be no despair for you…16 lines
- Like Some Old fashioned MiracleLike Some Old fashioned Miracle…16 lines
- Life's TragedyIt may be misery not to sing at all,…16 lines
- BereavementHow stern are the woes of the desolate mourner,…16 lines
- SonnetFROM THE ITALIAN OF CAVALCANTI.…16 lines
- A Prayer under the Pressure of Violent AnguishO THOU Great Being! what Thou art,…16 lines
- Farewell to BallochmyleTHE CATRINE woods were yellow seen,…16 lines
- There’ll never be Peace till Jamie comes hameBY yon Castle wa’, at the close of the day,…16 lines
- His Mistress to Him at His FarewellYou may vow I'll not forget…16 lines
- To the Willow-treeThou art to all lost love the best,…16 lines
- LondonI wandered through each chartered street,…16 lines
- The AngelI dreamt a dream! What can it mean?…16 lines
- To TirzahWhate'er is born of mortal birth…16 lines
- Break, Break, BreakBreak, break, break,…16 lines
- There's a certain Slant of lightThere's a certain slant of light,…16 lines
- To Marie Louise (Shew)Of all who hail thy presence as the morning —…18 lines
- I Am!I AM: yet what I am none cares or knows,…18 lines
- A Bridal SongThe golden gates of Sleep unbar…18 lines
- In Memoriam 78: Again at Christmas did we weaveAgain at Christmas did we weave…20 lines
- ImitationA dark unfathomed tide…20 lines
- HopeHope was but a timid friend;…20 lines
- I felt a Funeral, in my BrainI felt a Funeral, in my Brain,…20 lines
- To His Dying Brother, Master William HerrickLife of my life, take not so soon thy flight,…20 lines
- A DreamOnce a dream did weave a shade…20 lines
- Songs of Experience: IntroductionHear the voice of the Bard,…20 lines
- Songs of Innocence: IntroductionPiping down the valleys wild,…20 lines
- The Garden of LoveI laid me down upon a bank,…20 lines
- Eulalie I dwelt alone…22 lines
- The Tower of FamineAmid the desolation of a city,…22 lines
- The Book of Thel. Part IVThe eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar:…22 lines
- AloneReading of the poem "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe…22 lines
- There was a man and a womani…23 lines
- An Epitaph On A Child Of Queen Elizabeth's ChapelWeep with me, all you that read…24 lines
- A Better RessurectionI have no wit, no words, no tears;…24 lines
- A Dream Within A DreamTake this kiss upon the brow!…24 lines
- The Happiest DayThe happiest day — the happiest hour…24 lines
- The ProhibitionTake heed of loving me;…24 lines
- Dirge for the YearOrphan Hours, the Year is dead,…24 lines
- To Mary Who Died in This OpinionMaiden, quench the glare of sorrow…24 lines
- Farewell thou stream that winding flowsFAREWELL, thou stream that winding flows…24 lines
- On the Birth of a Posthumous ChildSWEET flow’ret, pledge o’ meikle love,…24 lines
- Prayer—O Thou Dread PowerO THOU dread Power, who reign’st above,…24 lines
- Winter: A DirgeTHE WINTRY west extends his blast,…24 lines
- Comfort to a Youth That Had Lost His LoveWhat needs complaints,…24 lines
- A Little Boy Lost"Nought loves another as itself,…24 lines
- The Human AbstractPity would be no more…24 lines
- SolitudeLaugh, and the world laughs with you;…24 lines
- Death, To The Dead For EvermoreDEATH, to the dead for evermore…25 lines
- And ask ye why these sad tears stream?‘Te somnia nostra reducunt.’…26 lines
- War Is KindDo not weep, maiden, for war is kind.…26 lines
- The Valley Of Unrest_Once_ it smiled a silent dell…27 lines
- Before the Birth of One of Her ChildrenAll things within this fading world hath end,…28 lines
- DespairAsk not the pallid stranger's woe,…28 lines
- EpitaphThese are two friends whose lives were undivided;…28 lines
- To the MoonbeamMoonbeam, leave the shadowy vale,…28 lines
- The FarewellFAREWELL, old Scotia’s bleak domains,…28 lines
- An Ode to Master Endymion Porter, Upon His Brother's DeathNot all thy flushing suns are set,…28 lines
- To Primroses Filled with Morning DewWhy do ye weep, sweet babes? can tears…28 lines
- The Book of Thel. Part IIIThen Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.…29 lines
- A Farewell to False LoveFarewell, false love, the oracle of lies,…30 lines
- To One In ParadiseThou wast that all to me, love,…32 lines
- Come hither, childCome hither, child — who gifted thee…32 lines
- DeathDeath! that struck when I was most confiding…32 lines
- When We Two PartedWhen we two parted…32 lines
- SorrowTo me this world's a dreary blank,…32 lines
- The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James’s Lodge, TarboltonADIEU! a heart-warm fond adieu;…32 lines
- A SongSweet dreams, form a shade…32 lines
- I Remember, I RememberI remember, I remember…32 lines
- To Music, to Becalm His FeverCharm me asleep, and melt me so…33 lines
- An Ode, Written October, 1819, Before the Spaniards Had Recovered Their LibertyArise, arise, arise!…35 lines
- On an Icicle That Clung to the Grass of a GraveOh! take the pure gem to where southerly breezes,…35 lines
- A Farewell to the WorldFALSE world, good night! since thou hast brought…36 lines
- Hymn of ApolloThe sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie,…36 lines
- The Same(As revised by Mr. C.D. Locock.)…36 lines
- ConfessionsWhat is he buzzing in my ears?…36 lines
- On Another's SorrowCan I see another's woe,…36 lines
- The Rights of Women—Spoken by Miss FontenelleWHILE Europe’s eye is fix’d on mighty things,…38 lines
- The Conqueror WormLo! 'tis a gala night…40 lines
- Bards of Passion and of Mirth, written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher's Tragi-Comedy 'The Fair Maid of the Inn'BARDS of Passion and of Mirth,…40 lines
- A Woman's Last WordLet's contend no more, Love,…40 lines
- Now Spring has clad the grove in greenNOW spring has clad the grove in green,…40 lines
- To Flush, My DogYet, my pretty sportive friend,…42 lines
- A PæanHow shall the burial rite be read?…44 lines
- A ValentineSent to a friend who had complained that I was glad enough to see…44 lines
- FairylandDim vales — and shadowy floods —…46 lines
- The ColiseumType of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary…46 lines
- Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter BlairTHE LAMP of day, with-ill presaging glare,…47 lines
- The Haunted PalaceIn the greenest of our valleys…48 lines
- The Revenge of Rain-in-the-FaceIn that desolate land and lone,…48 lines
- NightThe sun descending in the west,…48 lines
- Phantasmagoria CANTO VII ( Sad Souvenaunce )"WHAT'S this?" I pondered. "Have I slept?…50 lines
- In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his AbsenceO Lord, Thou hear'st my daily moan…52 lines
- The Little Girl FoundAll the night in woe…52 lines
- The Little Girl LostIn futurity…52 lines
- The Goblet of LifeFilled is Life's goblet to the brim;…60 lines
- The Palace of HumbugLays of Mystery,…60 lines
- Birthday Ode for 31st December, 1787AFAR 1 the illustrious Exile roams,…60 lines
- John Barleycorn: A BalladTHERE was three kings into the east,…60 lines
- The Fatal SistersNow the storm begins to lower,…64 lines
- The PassionI…68 lines
- Lays of SorrowThe day was wet, the rain fell souse…69 lines
- Faith and DespondencyThe winter wind is loud and wild,…70 lines
- A Day DreamOn a sunny brae, alone I lay…72 lines
- In Reference to Her ChildrenI had eight birds hatched in one nest,…93 lines
- The Buried LifeLight flows our war of mocking words, and yet,…98 lines
- Tom May's DeathAs one put drunk into the Packet-boat,…100 lines