Great poems about life not only give us a window into the heart of the poet, but they also compel us to explore our own inner worlds and longings.
Poetry can trigger profound moments of self-awareness or take you to another place and time, expanding your view of the world around you.
Most beautiful poems about life have a distinctive and elegant style and rhythm which elevate the sentiments expressed and invite us to respond on a soul level.
We’ve curated some of the best poems about life to uplift you.
25 Exquisitely Beautiful Poems about Life
One’s taste in poetry is subjective, and what might move or inspire you, might not touch others the same way. However, most poetry about life has a universal quality to it. The themes reflected in the poet’s language speak to truths we all recognize. If you are new to poetry, let’s start with some shorter poems that speak volumes in just a few words.
Short Poems about Life
Risk, by Anaïs Nin
And then the day came,when the riskto remain tightin a budwas more painfulthan the riskit tookto blossom.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers, by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –And sore must be the storm –That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm – I’ve heard it in the chillest land –And on the strangest Sea –Yet – never – in Extremity,It asked a crumb – of me.
The Dust of Snow, by Robert Frost
The way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock tree Has given my heartA change of moodAnd saved some partOf a day I had rued.
The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind starswaiting with their light. For a timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.
Inspirational Poems about Life
The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?Who made the swan, and the black bear?Who made the grasshopper?this grasshopper, I mean—the one who has flung herself out of the grass,the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.I do know how to pay attention, how to fall downinto the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,which is what I have been doing all day.Tell me, what else should I have done?Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?Tell me, what is it you plan to dowith your one wild and precious life?
The Guest House, by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.A joy, a depression, a meanness,some momentary awareness comesas an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all!Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,who violently sweep your houseempty of its furniture,still, treat each guest honorably.He may be clearing you outfor some new delight.The dark thought, the shame, the malice.meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.Be grateful for whatever comes.because each has been sentas a guide from beyond.
Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wellsPumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops,Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you?Don’t you take it awful hard’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold minesDiggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I’ve got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shameI riseUp from a past that’s rooted in painI riseI’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that’s wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise. 31 Of The Best Answers To The Question: What Is The Point Of Life? 17 Red Flags In Friendships That Change Everything The Ultimate List Of 99 Life Lessons You Must Learn
Warning, by Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purpleWith a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer glovesAnd satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tiredAnd gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bellsAnd run my stick along the public railingsAnd make up for the sobriety of my youth.I shall go out in my slippers in the rainAnd pick flowers in other people’s gardensAnd learn to spit. You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fatAnd eat three pounds of sausages at a goOr only bread and pickle for a weekAnd hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dryAnd pay our rent and not swear in the streetAnd set a good example for the children.We must have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practice a little now?So people who know me are not too shocked and surprisedWhen suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
One, by Shawnee Kellie
One word can spark a moment,One flower can wake the dream;One tree can start a forest,One bird can herald Spring. One smile can bring a friendship,One handclasp can lift a soul;One star can guide a ship at sea,One cheer can obtain a goal. One vote can change a Nation,One sunbeam can lift a room;One candle wipes out darkness,One laugh will conquer gloom.One look can change two lives;One kiss can make love bloom. One step must start each journey,One word must start each prayer;One hope can raise our spirits,One touch can show you care. One voice can speak with wisdom,One heart can know what’s true;One life can make a difference,One life is me and you… Copyright © 1980 Shawnee Kellie. All rights reserved.
Poems about Life and Love
Love After Love, by Derek Walcott
The time will comewhen, with elationyou will greet yourself arrivingat your own door, in your own mirrorand each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat.You will love again the stranger who was your self.Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heartto itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignoredfor another, who knows you by heart.Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes,peel your own image from the mirror.Sit. Feast on your life.
Sonnet 29, by William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,I all alone beweep my outcast state,And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,And look upon myself and curse my fate,Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scopeWith what I most enjoy contented least;Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,Haply I think on thee, and then my state,(Like to the lark at break of day arisingFrom sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;For thy sweet love remembered such wealth bringsThat then I scorn to change my state with kings.
#34 from Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
most importantly lovelike it’s the only thing you know howat the end of the day all thismeans nothingthis pagewhere you’re sittingyour degreeyour jobthe moneynothing even mattersexcept love and human connectionwho you lovedand how deeply you loved themhow you touched the people around youand how much you gave them
When I Die I Want Your Hands on My Eyes, by Pablo Neruda
When I die I want your hands on my eyes:I want the light and the wheat of your beloved handsto pass their freshness over me one more timeto feel the smoothness that changed my destiny. I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,I want for your ears to go on hearing the wind,for you to smell the sea that we loved togetherand for you to go on walking the sand where we walked. I want for what I love to go on livingand as for you I loved you and sang you above everything,for that, go on flowering, flowery one, so that you reach all that my love orders for you,so that my shadow passes through your hair,so that they know by this the reason for my song.
Make Me Feel, by Mariah Chandan
Take my heart; I’ll give it with ease.Take my hand and walk this journey with me.Take these scars and heal them all up.Take these fears and make them vanish when things get tough.Take this smile and make it stretch so wide.Take these arms and hold me oh so tight.Take these feelings and make them real.At the end, show me how to feel.
Sad Poems about Life
Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane.I have passed by the watchman on his beatAnd dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feetWhen far away an interrupted cryCame over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say goodbye;And further still at an unearthly height,One luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.I have been one acquainted with the night.
Her Kind, by Ann Sexton
I have gone out, a possessed witch,haunting the black air, braver at night;dreaming evil, I have done my hitchover the plain houses, light by light:lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.A woman like that is not a woman, quite.I have been her kind. I have found the warm caves in the woods,filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,closets, silks, innumerable goods;fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:whining, rearranging the disaligned.A woman like that is misunderstood.I have been her kind. I have ridden in your cart, driver,waved my nude arms at villages going by,learning the last bright routes, survivorwhere your flames still bite my thighand my ribs crack where your wheels wind.A woman like that is not ashamed to die.I have been her kind.
Time Does Not Bring Relief, by Edna St. Vincent Milay
Time does not bring relief; you all have liedWho told me time would ease me of my pain!I miss him in the weeping of the rain;I want him at the shrinking of the tide;The old snows melt from every mountain-side,And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;But last year’s bitter loving must remainHeaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.There are a hundred places where I fearTo go,—so with his memory they brim.And entering with relief some quiet placeWhere never fell his foot or shone his faceI say, “There is no memory of him here!”And so stand stricken, so remembering him.
A Question, by Robert Frost
A voice said, Look me in the starsAnd tell me truly, men of earth,If all the soul-and-body scarsWere not too much to pay for birth.
Haiku Poems about Life
All Is Not Lost, by Barrie Davenport
The moments of birth A slick baby cries in awe: No, all is not lost . . .
Haiku Triad, by Millard Lowe
A World of Dew, by Kobayashi Issa
A world of dew, And within every dewdrop A world of struggle.
This Tea, by Barrie Davenport
why should I struggle to seize life when all I need is this cup of tea?
Lines on a Skull, by Ravi Shankar
life’s little, our heads sad. Redeemed and wasting clay this chance. Be of use.
Care, by Barrie Davenport
The world spins and turns Slowly — but without mercy Or care. A leaf falls. How will you use the poems about life? In addition to the 25 we’ve collected here, you can find hundreds of life poems online or in anthologies of poetry. And there are so many ways to enjoy poetry. You clearly enjoy famous poems about life (or you wouldn’t be here), but there are so many themes to explore in poetry. These might include poems about life struggles or poems about life lessons. Other themes are: Find the type of poetry that most resonates with you. Explore different poets whose works you enjoy. Buy an anthology of poets to explore different styles. Read both classic and modern poetry. Read poems out loud to yourself or write them down in a journal of your favorites. Use specific lines from poems you love as daily affirmations. Make it a goal to read a poem a day and share your love of poetry with others. You may find that reading poetry inspires you to write your own.
