7 Transformative Poems About Life Everyone Should Know
Let’s face it. Sometimes, life can get confusing and difficulty. In such times, it can be useful to run to the wisdom of poetry. Poetry has a way of making us feel understood — it can make us feel empowered, hopeful, and remind us why life is worth living.
So, in this article we’ve put together a list of the 40 greatest poems about life.
From classics like Robert Frost and Rumi to the more contemporary Rupi Kaur, you are guaranteed to find something that resonates with what you’re feeling.
Poems About Life
Here are top poems about life:
1. “Risk”, by Anaïs 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.
A single sentence broken up into 8 small lines, Anaïs Nin’s “Risk” uses a flower as a metaphor, to remind us that there will come a day when the pain of complacency will exceed the pain of actually daring to make a change.
The poem serves as an understated call to action — make the change now, no matter how scary.
2. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, by Robert Frost
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Reading out like a heartbeat, Frost’s most famous work draws from nature to explore the human conflict of being torn between life’s beauty and its responsibilities.
With the repetition of ‘and miles to go before I sleep’ closing out the poem, Frost expertly captures the feeling of a moment we’ve all experienced — one where we’re weary of life and its challenges.
3. “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”, by Emily Dickinson
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
The evocative extended metaphor at the heart of this work has helped to cement “Hope is a thing with feathers” as perhaps the best-loved of Dickinson’s 1,800 poems.
In the last stanza, Dickinson beautifully captures the ever-giving, selfless nature of hope— the bird of hope sings in the harshest, most adverse times in our lives, never asking for anything in return.
4. “The Peace of Wild Things”, by Wendell Berry
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.
Written in free verse, “The Peace of Wild Things” intentionally slips the shackles of a standard meter and rhyme scheme.
The loose structure of the poem mirrors the uncontrolled, free-flowing beauty of nature when left to its own devices.
Berry admires the power of nature’s simplicity, reminding us that we can always turn to ‘the grace of the ‘”world’ to soothe an ever-worrying, overthinking human mind.
5. “The Summer Day”, by Mary Oliver
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 do
with your one wild and precious life?
Reflecting on the futility of life, Oliver’s “The Summer Day” shakes the reader by the shoulder, offering a jolt of inspiration. As everything dies ‘at last’ and ‘too soon’, the poem encourages us to live our one life intentionally.
By asking the reader what you plan to do with ‘your one wild and precious life’, the poem serves as a reminder that it’s ultimately our job to fill our own lives with meaning (whatever that might mean for each one of us!).
So, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
6. “The Guest House”, by Rumi
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Written by the great 13th-century Persian poet, “The Guest House” is a call for acceptance — one that is, unsurprisingly, often invoked in mindfulness circles. Rumi uses the metaphor of a guest house, likening it to the mind.
Much like guests in a lodge, thoughts arrive in our head one after another— some making us happy, sad, and even uncomfortable.
This poem serves as a reminder to not resist life’s painful thoughts, but to welcome them with warmth and good grace.
7. “From Milk and Honey”, by Rupi Kaur
what is stronger
than the human heart
which shatters over and over
and still lives
Inward-looking in style, Rupi Kaur’s collection of poems, from Milk and Honey, centers around the theme of self-love (which is also a form of introspection).
Kaur’s poems ironically remind us that the emotional attention and love that we crave and desire is not something that can be sought in the outside world.
Her clarion call to prioritize one’s self and begin living intentionally is one that resonates deeply with today’s increasingly alienated generation.