Short poems pack immense power into a few lines, proving that profound emotion and deep insight don’t always require lengthy verses. These compact masterpieces are perfect for when you need to capture a feeling swiftly, offering wisdom, comfort, or joy in a concise package. Whether you’re seeking short poems about life to inspire, beautiful short love poems to share, or memorable short poems for funerals to offer solace, their brevity makes them impactful and easily cherished.
Short Poems About Life
1. Dust of Snow
By Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
2. To a Mouse (Final Stanza)
By Robert Burns
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
3. Success is counted sweetest
By Emily Dickinson
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.
4. Thaw
By Edward Thomas
Over the land half freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed,
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as a flower of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.
Short Love Poems
5. Song
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Tho’ veiled in spires of myrtle-wreath,
Love is a sword that cuts its sheath,
And thro’ the clefts, itself has made,
We spy the flashes of the Blade!
But thro’ the clefts, itself has made,
We likewise see Love’s flashing blade,
By rust consumed or snapt in twain:
And only Hilt and Stump remain.
6. She Walks in Beauty (First Stanza)
By Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
7. A Glimpse
By Walt Whitman
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death
8. Western Wind
By Anonymous (16th Century)
Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!
Famous Short Poems
9. I’m Nobody! Who are you? (First Stanza)
By Emily Dickinson
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d banish us – you know!
10. The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
11. Lighght
By Aram Saroyan
Lighght
Lighght is a minimalism in poetry: Saroyan pushed the boundaries of what could be considered a poem. By adding an extra “gh” to the word light, he created a visual and conceptual disruption that forces the reader to pause and reflect.
The poem became famous (and controversial) when it received a $750 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1960s, sparking debates about what counts as art. It remains one of the most cited examples of experimental American poetry.
12. This Is Just To Say
By William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Short Poems for Funerals
13. Requiem
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
14. Warm Summer Sun
By Walt Whitman
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here;
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.
15. From ‘A Dirge’
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Rough wind, that moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm whose tears are vain,
Bare woods, whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main,—
Wail, for the world’s wrong!
16. Afterglow
Anonymous
I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.
I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun;
Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.
The Power of Brevity
These powerful short poetries remind us that the most profound messages often come in the most concise forms. From illuminating aspects of the human condition to offering poignant words for remembrance, these famous short poems prove that a few carefully chosen lines can resonate deeply, making them perfect companions for reflection, celebration, or solace.