collection

Poems of Sorrow and Grieving

Classic and contemporary poems about ultimate losses.
Illustration depicting sorrow and grief.
REMEMBERING A PARENT
  • Naomi Shihab Nye

    I who did not die, who am still living,
    still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,
    clenching and opening one small hand.

  • Lucille Clifton

    oh antic God
    return to me

  • Meghan O’Rourke

    And did you still create me
    And what was I like on the first day of my life

LOVE LOST
  • Robert Burns

    Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
    Ae fareweel, and then forever!

  • Lord Byron (George Gordon)

    And thou art dead, as young and fair
    As aught of mortal birth;

  • Edna St. Vincent Millay

    I know what my heart is like
    Since your love died:

  • Ben Jonson

    Wouldst thou hear what man can say
    In a little? Reader, stay.

DEATH OF A CHILD
  • Linda Gregerson

    The world’s a world of trouble, your mother must have told you
    that. Poison leaks into the basements

  • Robert Herrick

    Dull to myself, and almost dead to these
    My many fresh and fragrant mistresses

  • John Clare

    He could not die when trees were green,
    For he loved the time too well

GRIEVING THE DEATH OF A FRIEND
REGRET & DEPRESSION