Depression Poem

People only see what I let them see.

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Wow, just wow. That's me exactly. I go through my church doors with a smile always on my face, so much so that the youth group nicknamed me Smiley McGee, and I'm so nice to others. I guess...

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Analysis of Form and Technique

Inside Out

Angie M Flores © more by Angie M Flores

Published by Family Friend Poems July 2008 with permission of the Author.

Outside lives a girl with a smile that will brighten up the room,
yet inside hides a girl with a frown full of despair.

Outside lives a girl with eyes of joy that bring you to ease,
yet inside hides a girl shedding tears of sadness.

Outside lives a girl with a beautiful laugh that's contagious,
yet inside hides a girl screaming her lungs out in unwanted anger.

Outside lives a girl with the personality everyone envies,
yet inside hides a girl full of insecurities and shame.

Outside lives a girl who is fearless and tough,
yet inside hides a weak girl who lives in fear.

Outside lives a girl full of life,
yet inside hides a girl full of pain, wanting to die.

Outside lives a girl with a perfect image,
yet inside hides a girl with regrets and mistakes.

Outside lives a girl of innocence,
yet inside hides a girl with tremendous guilt.

Outside lives a girl with goals and aspirations,
yet inside lives a girl lost in confusion.

What you see on the outside is my personal disguise.
What hides underneath, you can't even begin to imagine.

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Analysis of Form and Technique

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Techniques this poem uses:

  • This poem is made up of couplets, which are 2 line stanzas. The couplets in this poem do not rhyme.

    Outside lives a girl with a smile that will brighten up the room,
    yet inside hides a girl with a frown full of despair.

    Read more about stanzas
  • This poem has a strong sense of structure. All but the last couplet follows this pattern:

    Outside lives a girl with...
    yet inside hides a girl...

    Read more about structure in poetry
  • This poem evokes strong emotion, which helps the readers feel the emotions of the author.

    Outside lives a girl with a perfect image,
    yet inside hides a girl with regrets and mistakes.

    Read more about writing with emotion

More Poems with Analysis of Form and Technique

ABOUT THE POET:

I am a girl with a deep passion for writing, my mind can go on and on. My goal in life is to complete my own autobiography. Give me a pen and sheet of paper and leave me to my thoughts. The quiet ones are always the ones who have plenty to say.

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more by Angie M Flores

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Has this poem touched you? Share your story!
  • Augustina by Augustina
  • 4 years ago

I really relate to this. I used to be so happy; then my whole life fell apart. I used to smile and laugh even though I was slowly killing myself mentally. Now I don't care. I'm angry and yell. I'm never really happy. All I wish is to be happy again.

  • Rose Lee Carson by Rose Lee Carson
  • 7 years ago

Wow, just wow. That's me exactly. I go through my church doors with a smile always on my face, so much so that the youth group nicknamed me Smiley McGee, and I'm so nice to others. I guess that my friends say I'm way too nice, and not in a good way. But inside, oh it's bad. I wanna tell them what's really happening. It's burning me inside and only a matter of time before it comes to the outside. My friends would be so shocked if they knew the real me.

  • Akanksha by Akanksha, home
  • 7 years ago

This poem absolutely describes me. I disguise who I am in front of my friends because they can't know how I feel within. They won't understand, and I can't explain it to them. The only person I can be "me" is with my best friend.

  • Ali Glass by Ali Glass
  • 5 years ago

Ash030703, I know how you feel. I always pretend to be happy around others, too. I just want to be happy, but I don't know how. I want to tell my parents how I feel, but they don't care.

  • Alexis Shamilov by Alexis Shamilov
  • 7 years ago

You described me. I seem happy and tough, but I'm really sad and weak.

  • Donbukana by Donbukana
  • 7 years ago

Wow, what a touching poem. Inside I hide my personality but outside nobody (not even a single person) knows what I'm going through.

  • Gianna Rogers by Gianna Rogers
  • 7 years ago

I am going through pretty much the same problem. When I am around my mom, I sometimes can be mean, but around my dad I am a completely different person. <3

  • Lillian Rainey by Lillian Rainey
  • 7 years ago

I am the complete opposite of that. When I'm around my mom, I feel needed in the world, I feel loved. When I'm around my dad, I feel like I'm not at all wanted, like I'm a disgrace to the family name.

  • Gauri by Gauri
  • 7 years ago

Thank you for writing this poem. This is the situation that I am going through. I am not able to share it to anyone else. I understand this situation when we want to show a dual personality. After reading this I feel so relaxed and comforted. Sorry for what you underwent during your high school days, as I understand how it feels when we suppress ourselves…

  • Katie A by Katie A, New York City
  • 9 years ago

About 3 months ago is when I started getting really bad depression. After almost losing my dad due to his appendix and my mom to a very severe brain stroke. After losing my hero, another grandpa and my uncle the day after my birthday. Nothing will be the same. My best friend is currently dying, in high school I was raped and I'm like what do I even do anymore? It is such a horrid feeling to feel like you just want to kill yourself. It is such a horrid feeling to feel worthless, ugly, not wanting to eat, etc. It honestly really sucks.

  • Stephanie Ramos by Stephanie Ramos, Renton Washington
  • 9 years ago

I am really sorry about what horrible things that have happened to you. I hope that your life gets better. I am really sorry about what happened to you in High School. That is probably a really hard thing to go through.

  • Annie Catrone by Annie Catrone, AZ
  • 10 years ago

This poem is one I can relate to because I deal with depression and I put on a fake personality and appearance everyday. My friends don't and cannot understand what it is that I feel or what I go through. I try to just put on the best costume and pull out the best emotion from the chest of emotions and go about my day. I put on this act of that I'm always happy and nothing can phase me and that nothing can get in my way. Yet, when I get home it's so I can go into my room and close the door so I can take off my costume and emotions. I can cry with no one judging me or saying something about me. It's nice to have someone else who can relate to me.

  • Tonia by Tonia
  • 10 years ago

I know the feeling. Sometimes I just want to let my face betray what is going on inside, to scream so others can see I'm not some ever-smiley person who takes whatever comes my way.

Thanks for this descriptive poem. It says it all!!!

  • Rachel by Rachel, Alabama
  • 10 years ago

This poem describes me perfectly!

  • Jenn by Jenn, Texas
  • 10 years ago

Thank you for finally voicing how I feel. This is what I needed.

  • Sugeiry Payan by Sugeiry Payan
  • 10 years ago

This poem is written in such a way that it feels like it was made just for me. I might be young but I've been through a lot of hardship and through my life I've felt like I had no one there to protect me, someone I couldn't lean on for help. I always feel like I'm no good for anyone and if I just be what people want me to be then maybe I won't feel so alone.

  • South Africa by South Africa
  • 10 years ago

I can be whom ever I want to be - THE GIRL OUTSIDE
but the girl INSIDE. - I feel no one understands, reading this makes me believe that there are others that feel exactly the same.
I could have written this poem , that's how much it is "me" ...
So well put !

  • Brooklyn Newyork by Brooklyn Newyork
  • 10 years ago

This is me I put on my face and smile and laugh but inside me I say if you only knew how I felt, I wish I did not feel this way I want to feel normal. I have a fiancé but I do not think he really gets it I try to explain it to him but he truly does not understand. I want to get involved in an online chat group, if any one has any info please let me know

  • Zulaika Manzi by Zulaika Manzi, Durban Bluff
  • 10 years ago

This poem reveals a lot about my life. It is like I'm living a double life where by on the outside I'm this perfect, happy bundle of joy that stands as firm and as strong as a rock. But on the inside I'm really dying. So this poem was an excellent piece for me because it shows you how much most people really suffer on the inside.

  • Alex by Alex
  • 10 years ago

This is so me. I told my friend I was considering suicide and he sat there and laughed, and told all of his friends. No one believed me, and they all laughed. I've kept up this kind of facade for so long that everyone thinks I'm happy. They never understand anything on the inside. Thanks for the poem, I'm not alone.

  • Becca by Becca
  • 11 years ago

Do you ever think about the people who are "so blind to how you feel"? What if that is their mask? Just something to think about.

  • Abilene by Abilene, Kansas
  • 11 years ago

Why would you hide your feelings? Why let everyone judge you by the cover of your appearance? Just be yourself. Don't let others hide who you really are. You may be depressed, and hurt, but let it show in its own way without trying to hide it behind a mask.
You say your full of guilt on the inside, maybe because your not showing yourself, but showing what everybody else wants to see. Just be your own self everyone. Let you emotions fly out of you like fireworks! It is easier to let it than, than to keep it all hidden away in your heart by lock and key. :) "No point in living, if not dangerously!"

  • Janieta Lister by Janieta Lister
  • 11 years ago

I must say, you wrote this poem from y eyes, as I also show people a smile on the outside, but my true wish is that there may be one that can look at me and see not the smile but the pain...

thank you for showing me who you are inside, and I ensure you, that you are not alone... may there be that one that can see beneath you and understand you so that that someone can share light with you...

  • Kiara by Kiara
  • 11 years ago

This a great poem, very relatable. I find it relatable because not one person can see through my mask, unless I allow it. Some people see the me on the inside, but most see the charade I put on.

  • Shawlin by Shawlin
  • 12 years ago

This poem really relates to me. I feel like it tells my life story I just with there was someone I could talk to.

  • Emily by Emily, Midlands
  • 12 years ago

I have read this poem and this is me, I put the game face on every morning, but there are times when even that's not enough. When someone looks at me in such a way I feel they see me, the real me and I run and hide, I don't want people to see my pain I don't need their pity, don't have the strength to be judged. I have a self destruct personality. I have spent the last 37 years fighting myself.

  • Livvy by Livvy, Africa
  • 12 years ago

I relate to this poem very well,
When I was 5 my mother died of breast cancer. 3 years later my dad died. Leaving my 5 brothers and 2 sisters on the streets. As I was the eldest my siblings looked up to me. They called me mum and asked me for food. This went on for about a year, I tried to teach my brothers and sisters to read and write, but I couldn't either.
I finally couldn't take it any longer...Lucy (3 years old) had already become sick and died. And my other siblings were going the same way. So I handed us in to the Housing for the Homeless. Where I went to school. I always made up who I was because I was so afraid that someone might laugh at me and tease me.
The other day I told my closest friend...my only friend. She then told the WHOLE school.
I am now going to a different school. In another state. But I learnt from my mistake. I will NEVER tell anybody about my life again.

  • Tracy by Tracy, Windsor Ontario
  • 12 years ago

I read this poem and it is me to the t. Guilt, sadness, pain on the inside but always have to keep a happy outer shell, I was raised without a father, left home at 14, worked to make a better life never got into drugs or such. Hid my pain in my work and giving to others. I had three daughters failed relationships. I am 42 years old in November and still can't seem to fix me. Broken hearts and pain that will never heal. always sadness. tired.

  • Gp by Gp, Georgia
  • 12 years ago

I can relate to this poem in some way. My family has been hurt because of my father , which caused us to move far away from the home I loved and now my mothers doing things she's never done before. It hurts me to see us like this but I don't want to tell anyone I just want them to notice but they don't think anything's wrong, because I always smile and play around. Though on the inside I want to disappear and cry out loud because everything hurts.

  • Rythm by Rythm, Morbi
  • 12 years ago

Indeed true, love this poem very much. I hide under the cover of my personality... I try to hide my actually personality, but people don't know what exactly happened. WOW..!! an amazing poem.

  • Carina by Carina, New York
  • 12 years ago

This poem says things I never have the strength to admit to anyone else. It's amazing truly. That is exactly the girl I am, one of pretty smiles, crazy jokes, cool outfits, and great confidence but on the inside I feel lost and hopeless and so very sad, insecure, alone and unworthy of love.

  • Briar by Briar, Hertfordshire
  • 12 years ago

So True.
I love this poem, can you carry on writing poems like this? I've been looking all day for a poem the describes me and here it is.

The only thing is I don't want to be different on the inside, I want my outside to be the same as my inside. I think I need to start over. New year is coming so I think I'll change my ways!

  • Steve by Steve
  • 12 years ago

I won't say this poem describes me perfectly as that would be a lie. However, I too cover up who I am, putting on a smile because that's what I want people to see. I have no gift, I don't have the looks or the personality. I'm just a shadow of the man I portray myself to be.

  • Amber by Amber, Fowler
  • 13 years ago

This is exactly how I feel when I'm in school and at home. Your poem describes how a lot of people feel

  • Danielle Wallen by Danielle Wallen
  • 13 years ago

I know how you feel this poem fits me perfectly. I try to hide my actually personality, but people don't know what exactly happened. They say I am just looking for attention but I am not. I just wish people would understand that.

  • Kat by Kat, Michigan
  • 13 years ago

It's how I'm feeling, just like everyone else commenting.
But this part is different. When I don't hide it, people chide me for being needy, and relying on people, for not being self-sufficient.

  • Erica by Erica, NC
  • 13 years ago

Wow! This just describes how I feel. Every day I go to school I put a happy face on and act like nothings wrong, nobody there understands what this feels like. Your poem was so beautiful!

  • Vi by Vi, UK
  • 13 years ago

I agree with the other posts. This is a really beautiful piece of work, which totally sums up the way people perceive me and the stark contrast to the actual reality beneath. I enjoyed reading it :)

  • Elizabeth by Elizabeth, Oregon
  • 13 years ago

Wow. This is...completely my story. I hide under the cover of my personality...

  • Emmalie Ostler-Miller by Emmalie Ostler-Miller
  • 13 years ago

I know what you feel I feel the same and I put out the same. No one ever sees us and how we all feel and when the finally do its too late.

  • M by M
  • 14 years ago

How true it all is
WOW...a poem I can TOTALLY relate to!
Great job!

It constantly amazes me how "blind" SO MANY (if not all) people really are, they have no idea!

God Bless!

  • Sarah by Sarah, NZ
  • 14 years ago

I know how you feel, This Poem Describes Exactly who I am. I Hide but I put on a disguise because it helps me cope, but on the inside I'm alone and broken.

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