Best Poems About
Death Be Not Proud is John Donne's bold challenge to the common belief that death holds great power. He turns the argument on its head: if sleep (essentially a brief taste of death) can be pleasant, then actual death should be even more enj
Buffalo Bill's Defunct is a brief, impactful elegy for the renowned Wild West showman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Cummings employs his signature jumbled typography and rapid rhythm to evoke the brilliance of Cody's performances, only to
A dead sailor named Phlebas floats through the ocean, his body stripped bare by the sea, and all his worldly worries — money, ambition, life itself — vanish entirely. The poem concludes with a stark message to the living: you will face the
Adonais is Shelley's lengthy elegy for the poet John Keats, who passed away in Rome in 1821 at the young age of twenty-five. Shelley holds hostile critics responsible for shortening Keats's life, but gradually moves from intense sorrow to a
Dylan Thomas's poem "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" is a bold declaration that the human spirit endures beyond death in some way — while bones may break and flesh may decay, something vital remains unbroken. Thomas takes the title direct
Adonais is Shelley’s lengthy elegy expressing sorrow for the death of fellow poet John Keats, who passed away in Rome in 1821 at the young age of 25. Shelley envisions Keats as a mythological character — Adonais, the beautiful youth cherish
In this brief poem, the speaker calls out to Atropos — one of the three Fates in Greek mythology — urging her to stop luring a serious, forward-thinking individual and instead direct her distractions toward someone with time to spare. The "
A visiting Indian prince notices the Angel of Death standing outside King Solomon's palace and pleads with Solomon to use his famed control over the wind to carry him to safety. Solomon agrees, sending the prince soaring back to India on a
A woman, caught up in the busyness of her life, is gently picked up by Death, who appears as a courteous gentleman offering her a carriage ride. They pass by moments from her life and pause at her grave, where she comes to understand that s
Longfellow's "Coplas de Manrique" translates and adapts the 15th-century Spanish elegy by Jorge Manrique, which honors his father, Rodrigo Manrique, after his passing. The poem shifts from grand philosophical themes—like the brevity of life
Written near the end of Tennyson's life, "Crossing the Bar" is a brief, serene poem about death — particularly the speaker's wish for death to resemble a ship gliding out to sea, beyond the sandbar at the harbor's entrance. The speaker requ
A young queen has all that life can provide — beauty, love, a crown, and a bright future — yet she passes away just five months after her wedding. Lowell tells her story to pose a tough question: is fate cruel and random, or does it underst
Dylan Thomas urges his dying father to hold on to life and fight until the end. The poem asserts that regardless of your identity or past actions, death deserves to be faced with anger and defiance, rather than passive acceptance. It's a he
Thomas Gray sits in a rural churchyard at dusk, reflecting on the everyday lives of the people buried there — farmers and villagers whose lives went quietly unnoticed. He contemplates what remarkable things they might have accomplished if t
This Latin poem was penned by a young Shelley, translating the well-known epitaph from Thomas Gray's *Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard*. It portrays a young man who passed away without recognition, yet was talented, genuine, and a loya
A dying man dismisses a priest and instead confronts two much harsher judges: the ghost of his Youth and the ghost of his Ideal — the person he might have become. He reflects on his long life and, with painful honesty, realizes that he squa
Felix Randal is a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins that tells the story of a blacksmith named Felix Randal, who has passed away after a prolonged illness. The priest-speaker expresses his sorrow over this loss. Hopkins contemplates how he ca
Written in the early days of World War One, "For the Fallen" is Laurence Binyon's heartfelt tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in battle. It reminds us that the fallen will never age—they remain forever young at the moment of thei
A young American soldier understands that he is likely to die in battle, and instead of fearing this fate, he views it as a romantic appointment — a "rendezvous" — that he feels compelled to honor. The poem shifts between the beauty of spri
A dying person reflects on their last moments: the room is quiet, surrounded by loved ones, all anticipating something profound and sacred. Instead, a lone fly buzzes in and obscures the light, marking the final thing the speaker sees befor
Longfellow's sonnet expresses sorrow over the death of John Keats, the young Romantic poet who passed away at just 25, leaving his talent unrealized. Drawing on images from Keats's own works — like Endymion, the nightingale, and the shepher
Lycidas is John Milton's elegy for Edward King, a friend and fellow student at Cambridge who drowned in 1637. Milton employs the traditional format of the pastoral elegy—where poets and the deceased are portrayed as shepherds—to mourn his f
Longfellow envisions the dying year as an old man—weak, briefly teased by a warm day, and ultimately swept away by a fierce winter storm. The poem transitions from a sense of quiet sadness to a powerful conclusion that links the death of th
Shelley's "On Death" is a brief lyric that urges us to stop fearing death and to view it as a natural return to the peaceful state we experienced before birth. The poem suggests that dying isn't a loss but rather a homecoming to the univers
A traveler shares with the speaker a story about a ruined statue in the desert: a shattered king with a proud inscription, standing alone amidst endless sand. The king believed his power would endure forever, but the poem reminds us that ev