41 Delightful Short Poems That Will Haul At Your Emotions

By Ruth Jesse

January 10, 2024   •   Fact checked by Dumb Little Man

A short poem can sometimes explain our feelings better in concise words. And sometimes a short poem can turn into a love song, a movie, art, or even a play. The English language has given us a lot of beautiful poems throughout history by famous poets such as William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, William Blake, and many others.

These famous poets have written many famous short poems that we can read and enjoy. These famous short poems not only reach our hearts but also gives us a lesson and meaning, hidden inside their words. These famous short poems is a blessing for the English Language because it made Poetry famous all over the world.

To write poetry, one has to be creative. Famous short poems are about almost everything, from Love to Nature, from Family to Enemies, from Religions to Beliefs.

Now, we know there are a lot of famous poets who have written many famous short poems for us to enjoy. But I have selected some of the best poems that were written by famous poets for you to read.

So, enjoy a good read below, because a short poem is capable of enlightening you. Who knows, one famous poem can change your life?

☻ Here are the 41 best known famous short poems that get to the heart quickly ☻

😂 Funny Short Poems 😂

Photo Credit: Pexels.com
Photo Credit: Pexels.com

1. Bellybutton by Richard Leavesley

Oh, my beloved belly button.

The squidgy ring in my midriff mutton.

Your mystery is such tricky stuff:

Why are you so full of fluff?

2. Pelican by Dixon Lanier Merritt

A funny old bird is a pelican.

His beak can hold more than his belican.

Food for a week

He can hold in his beak,

But I don’t know how the helican.

3. Creating Haiku by E.Gutierrez

Creating Haiku

Is harder than it appears

This may take a while.

4. “A Word To Husbands” by Ogden Nash

To keep your marriage brimming

With love in the loving cup,

Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;

Whenever you’re right, shut up.

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5. “I Need That!” by Trevor West

Raindrops on this page

Wind blows my paper away

Oh crap! I need that!

🎒 Short poems about love 🎒

Photo Credit: Pexels.com
Photo Credit: Pexels.com

1. “It’s All I Have To Bring Today” by Emily Dickinson

It’s all I have to bring today—

This, and my heart beside—

This, and my heart, and all the fields—

And all the meadows wide—

Be sure you count—should I forget

Someone the sum could tell—

This, and my heart, and all the Bees

Which in the Clover dwell.

2. Margaret Atwood – You Fit Into Me

You fit into me

like a hook into an eye

A fish hook

an open eye

3. “I Know Thou Art Free” by Alice Cary

I know thou art free from earth’s sordid control,

 In the beautiful mansions above—

That sorrow can never be flung o’er the soul

  That rests in the bosom of Love.

I know that the wing of thy spirit is furled

  By the palm-shaded fountains of bliss.

That erst in its strife for the bright upper world

  Was bruised and enfeebled in this.

For oft as I gaze on thy dwelling of light,

  When the glory of stars is on high,

I hear in my visions, as glowingly bright,

  The flutter of wings in the sky:

And in the sweet islands that slumber afar

  From the tomb and the desert and sea,

With glory around thee that nothing can mar.

  My soul hath revealings of thee.

But still like a captive confined from the day,

  My heart doth in bitterness pine;

And sigh for release from its prison of clay.

  And a blissful reunion with thine:

Save when I am come to the heavenly shrine

  To pour supplication and prayer,

For then doth my spirit seem nearer to thine.

  And lay down its mantle of care.

4. “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

5. “If You Forget Me” by Pablo Neruda

You know how this is:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ash

or the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you,

as if everything that exists,

aromas, light, metals,

were little boats

that sail

toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,

if little by little you stop loving me

I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly

you forget me

do not look for me,

for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,

the wind of banners

that passes through my life,

and you decide

to leave me at the shore

of the heart where I have roots,

remember

that on that day,

at that hour,

I shall lift my arms

and my roots will set off

to seek another land.

But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,

in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine.

6. “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was yourself.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for 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.

7. “I Do Not Love Thee With Mine Eyes” by William Shakespeare

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,

For they in thee a thousand errors note;

But ‘tis my heart that loves what they despise,

Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote;

Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,

Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,

Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited

To any sensual feast with thee alone:

But my five wits nor my five senses can

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,

Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,

Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be.

   Only my plague thus far I count my gain,

   That she that makes me sin awards me pain.

Photo credit: Canva.com
Photo credit: Canva.com

💿 Short poems about life 💿

1. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down today.

Nothing gold can stay.

2. “Dreams” by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

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3. “Housekeeping” by Natasha Trethewey

We mourn the broken things, chair legs

wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,

the threadbare clothes. We work the magic

of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes.

We save what we can, melt small pieces

of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones

for soup. Beating rugs against the house,

we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading

across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw

the blinds to cool the rooms, drive the bugs

out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie.

I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,

listen for passing cars. All-day we watch

for the mail, some news from a distant place.

4. “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

5. “Risk” by Anais Nin

And then the day came,

when the risk

to remain tight

in a bud

was more painful

than the risk

it took

to Blossom.

6. “Awaking in New York” by Maya Angelou

Curtains forcing their will

against the wind,

children sleep,

exchanging dreams with

seraphim. The city

drags itself awake on

subway straps; and

I, an alarm, awake as a

rumor of war,

lie stretching into dawn,

unasked and unheeded.

7. “September Tomatoes” by Karina Borowicz

The whiskey stink of rot has settled

in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises

when I touch the dying tomato plants.

Still, the claws of tiny yellow blossoms

flail in the air as I pull the vines up by the roots

and toss them in the compost.

It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready

to let go of summer so easily. To destroy

what I’ve carefully cultivated all these months.

Those pale flowers might still have time to fruit.

My great-grandmother sang with the girls of her village

as they pulled the flax. Songs so old

and so tied to the season that the very sound

seemed to turn the weather.

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8. “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

9. “Church” by Jacqueline Woodson

On Sundays, the preacher gives everyone a chance

to repent their sins. Miss Edna makes me go

to church. She wears a bright hat

I wear my suit. Babies dress in lace.

Girls my age, some pretty, some not so

pretty. Old ladies and men nodding.

Miss Edna every now and then throwing her hand

in the air. Saying Yes, Lord and Preach!

I sneak a pen from my back pocket,

bend down low like I dropped something.

The chorus marches up behind the preacher

clapping and humming and getting ready to sing.

I write the word HOPE on my hand.

📀 Short poems about self-love 📀

Photo credit: Canva.com
Photo credit: Canva.com

1. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

2.“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 Bird

That 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.

3. “Where Is My Self-Love” by deity

I’m falling out of

I’m trying to find beauty

in my reflection

seems so hard these days

want to love myself again

my one true love

4. “I Am” by John Clare

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:

I am the self-consumer of my woes—

They rise and vanish in oblivious host,

Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes

And yet I am, and live …

5. “On A Columnar Self” by Emily Dickinson

On a Columnar Self—

How ample to rely

In Tumult—or Extremity—

How good the Certainty

That Lever cannot pry—

And Wedge cannot divide

Conviction—That Granitic Base—

Though None be on our Side …

👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 Short poems about family 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

1. “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem is lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

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2. “An Ocean Of Memories” by Kimberly L. Briones

My family is the ocean around us.

My father is the hurricane,

knocking anything and everybody out of his path.

My mother is the sunshine after the storm (my father),

clearing and calming everything else.

My oldest brother is the sand,

kicked and blown away by my dad,

but warmed with care by my mom.

My oldest sister is the breeze in the wind,

cool, quiet, and there when you need her.

My other two brothers are the stingrays,

dangerous,

but also willing to fight anyone who comes along.

And I,

I am an old ship at the bottom of the sea,

lost, abandoned, but full of memories.

3. “We Are Family” by Kelly Roper

We are family,

Not just because we share blood,

But because we share a bond

Built from abiding love.

4. “Exhibitions of Love” by Alison Jean Thomas

A pat on the hand,

A peck on the cheek,

A slap on the back,

A hug.

No need to speak.

Family love is all around

Like air in a room

Invisible but always present.

5. “Family Means Everything” by Kelly Roper

Family members

Are the people who

Make life worth living.

In good times and bad,

Love them first and last because

Your family means everything.

👯 Short poems about friends 👯

Photo credit: Canva.com
Photo credit: Canva.com

1. “A Poison Tree” by William Blake

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.

Till it bore an apple bright.

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,

When the night had veiled the pole;

In the morning glad I see;

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

2. “Tug O’ War” by Shel Silverstein

I will not play at tug o’ war.

I’d rather play at hug o’ war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs,

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses,

And everyone grins,

And everyone cuddles,

And everyone wins

3. Short Poem by Langston Hughes

I loved my friend

He went away from me

There’s nothing more to say

The poem ends,

Soft as it began-

I loved my friend.

4. “1383” by Emily Dickinson

Long Years apart – can make no

Breach a second cannot fill –

The absence of the Witch does not

Invalidate the spell –

The embers of a Thousand Years

Uncovered by the Hand

That fondled them when they were Fire

Will stir and understand –

5. Famous Poem “A Time To Talk” by Robert Frost

When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don’t stand still and look around

On all the hills I haven’t hoed,

And shout from where I am, What is it?

No, not as there is a time to talk.

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall,

And plod: I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit.

👨‍⚕️ Short poems about pandemic 👩‍⚕️

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

1. “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

2. “Finding My Place” by Sydney Jean

I’m going back to school today

After a year behind my door

Ready to embrace the world

A thousand questions blow like the wind

As I open-up to take it in

Excitement building on itself

Waiting for the perfect moment

bursting — releasing streams of energy

Shouting from my core, begging to be heard

Feeling waves of questions, the wind of my fear creates

A vicious storm, blackened skies

On which to pontificate

Each weighted blow of second thoughts pulls me under.

Anchored to existential thoughts of my place, in this place.

And are they smiling behind their mask, I wonder.

3. “Preserve” by Wesley Sudderth

The virus is crawling through the

human files

looking through our lives

spreading violently

But still, we shine light in the

sea of sadness

We give, we receive

Giving light

to those in

Darkness

Bringing light to The world

We, as humans, Persevere

4. “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses, went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.

5. “Hospital In Oregon” by Marilyn Chin

Shhh, my grandmother is sleeping,

They doped her up with morphine for her last hours.

Her eyes are black and vacant like a deer’s.

She says she hears my grandfather calling.

A deerfly enters through a tear in the screen,

Must’ve escaped from those there sickly Douglas firs.

Flits from ankle to elbow then lands on her ear.

Together, they listen to the ancient valley.

✏️ Conclusions ✏️

Words carry power. It can move the hearts of many. And that’s exactly what these famous poets have done for us. Things that we find difficult to explain have been explained by them in a profound way that holds deeper and greater meaning than the actual conversation.

These famous short poems are filled with creativity by famous poets, poet laureate, and amazing authors all over the world that bring us closer to ourselves. As a poet myself, these all poems conclude that life has a deeper meaning than what we see on the surface. If you peek inside yourself, you can find something greater than what meets the eye. An Artist. Everyone is an artist and all it takes is a little bit of creativity to do wonders.

Poems have a way to speak to our hearts and soul. And what you have read has just done that.

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Ruth Jesse

Ruth is a life coach who specialises in relationships and career development. Outside work, she loves writing novels and guides for personal development.

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