Theme · 95 poems
Summer Poems
Long light, cut grass, and thunderstorms that clear by dinner: poems for the year's wide-open season. Shakespeare compared thee to it for a reason.
Summer holds a unique honor in English poetry: it's the season Shakespeare reached for when he needed the ultimate compliment to fall short — Sonnet 18 spends thirteen lines explaining why the beloved beats a summer's day. The haiku masters logged the season just as faithfully: cicadas drilling into rock, the short night, the smell of rain arriving on hot stone.
Summer poems run on the senses more than any others — heat shimmer, mown grass, pond water, the specific freedom of a day with no edges. Half of them are really childhood poems wearing sunscreen, which is why they ache a little even at their happiest.
August Afternoon
The QuillOak Editors
3 lines · haiku
Cicadas at Dusk
The QuillOak Editors
3 lines · haiku
To see the Summer Sky
Emily Dickinson
3 lines · lyric
My Garden—like the Beach
Emily Dickinson
5 lines · lyric
A little Snow was here and there
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
A soft Sea washed around the House
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Consulting summer's clock
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
How know it from a Summer's Day?
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Lain in Nature—so suffice us
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Midsummer, was it, when They died
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Nature can do no more
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Split the Lark—and you'll find the Music
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Summer is shorter than any one
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Summer laid her simple Hat
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Talk not to me of Summer Trees
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
The last of Summer is Delight
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
The Summer that we did not prize
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
'Twas here my summer paused
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
'Twas later when the summer went
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Twice had Summer her fair Verdure
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
When Roses cease to bloom, Sir
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Winter is good—his Hoar Delights
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
The Succession of the Four Sweet Months
Robert Herrick
8 lines · lyric
Summer for thee, grant I may be
Emily Dickinson
9 lines · lyric
The One who could repeat the Summer day
Emily Dickinson
9 lines · lyric
Would you like summer? Taste of ours
Emily Dickinson
9 lines · lyric
It can't be "Summer"!
Emily Dickinson
10 lines · lyric
So much Summer
Emily Dickinson
11 lines · lyric
The Isle
Percy Bysshe Shelley
11 lines · lyric
'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight
Emily Brontë
12 lines · lyric
As if some little Arctic flower
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
As Summer into Autumn slips
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
I know a place where Summer strives
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
On this long storm the Rainbow rose
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
Summer has two Beginnings
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
Summer—we all have seen
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
To her derided Home
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
Summer in the South
Paul Laurence Dunbar
12 lines · lyric
Autumn Fires
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
Bed in Summer
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
The Summer Sun Shone Round Me
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
From Sunset to Star Rise
Christina Rossetti
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet—To Science
Edgar Allan Poe
14 lines · lyric
Happy Is England! I Could Be Content
John Keats
14 lines · lyric
To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses
John Keats
14 lines · lyric
Written On A Summer Evening
John Keats
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet 102: My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 5: Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 54: O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 68: Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt, and will do none
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Like Flowers, that heard the news of Dews
Emily Dickinson
15 lines · lyric
Further in Summer than the Birds
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
Her final Summer was it
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
Like Some Old fashioned Miracle
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
Ourselves were wed one summer—dear
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
More poems in this theme
- Summer begins to have the lookSummer begins to have the look…16 lines
- The Heaven vests for EachThe Heaven vests for Each…16 lines
- The Winters are so shortThe Winters are so short —…16 lines
- What shall I do when the Summer troublesWhat shall I do when the Summer troubles —…16 lines
- Thine am I, my faithful FairTHINE am I, my faithful Fair,…16 lines
- A Pit—but Heaven over itA Pit — but Heaven over it —…17 lines
- Summer and WinterIt was a bright and cheerful afternoon,…18 lines
- Natural MagicAll I can say is — I saw it!…18 lines
- I'm sorry for the Dead—TodayI'm sorry for the Dead — Today —…20 lines
- It will be Summer—eventuallyIt will be Summer — eventually.…20 lines
- The Moon was but a Chin of GoldThe Moon was but a Chin of Gold…20 lines
- Picture-Books in WinterSummer fading, winter comes —…20 lines
- Summer SunGreat is the sun, and wide he goes…20 lines
- The FlyLittle Fly,…20 lines
- A something in a summer's DayA something in a summer's Day…22 lines
- Evening Star'Twas noontide of summer,…23 lines
- Nature—the Gentlest Mother isNature — the Gentlest Mother is,…24 lines
- In Drear-Nighted DecemberIn drear-nighted December,…24 lines
- StanzasIN a drear-nighted December,…24 lines
- Evening: Ponte Al Mare, PisaThe sun is set; the swallows are asleep;…24 lines
- RemembranceSwifter far than summer's flight —…24 lines
- From Cocoon forth a ButterflyFrom Cocoon forth a Butterfly…25 lines
- One Sister have I in our houseOne Sister have I in our house,…27 lines
- The Trees like Tassels—hit—and swungThe Trees like Tassels — hit — and swung —…28 lines
- There came a Day at Summer's fullThere came a Day at Summer's full,…28 lines
- Woods in WinterWhen winter winds are piercing chill,…28 lines
- To IrelandBear witness, Erin! when thine injured isle…28 lines
- I have a Bird in springI have a Bird in spring…30 lines
- The SchoolboyI love to rise on a summer morn,…30 lines
- There is a flower that Bees preferThere is a flower that Bees prefer —…32 lines
- ConfessionsWhat is he buzzing in my ears?…36 lines
- On a Bank of FlowersON a bank of flowers, in a summer day,…36 lines
- The AutumnGo, sit upon the lofty hill,…40 lines
- The Jewish Cemetery at NewportHow strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,…60 lines
- Love Among the RuinsWhere the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles…84 lines