Famous Sad Poems

The Saddest Classic Poems
Coping with sadness can be quite a challenge. Many famous poets understood that whether one feels sadness because of a breakup, the loss of a loved one, illness, or another of life's many injustices, one of the best ways to vent this complicated emotion is through poetry. Many famous poets used their words to turn sadness into something tangible, making it easier to understand. Poems that deal with sadness have often helped their writers to identify the true source of their sadness. They can also help readers to feel understood and less alone.
30 Poems about Sadness and Depression by Famous Poets
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1. Solitude
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
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Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.Featured Shared StoryThis poem, in my own eyes, represents things I have already heard. A sum up of this poem, for any and all that wish to understand the dark yet true meaning behind this poem, Ella states that...
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2. We Wear The Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
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It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,Featured Shared StoryA wonderful poem Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote many years ago, after slavery was abolished. How it must have hurt to know his parents had been slaves... Imagine the pain that slavery...
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3. Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
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We have no time to stand and stare
No time to stand beneath the boughs,Featured Shared StoryThis is a wonderful poem and has always been one of my favourites. At this time of lockdown restrictions and protecting ourselves, we have that time to stop and look at the world - to enjoy...
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4. The Genius Of The Crowd
There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
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Human being to supply any given army on any given day
And the best at murder are those who preach against it -
5. Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
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When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;Featured Shared StoryIf Paul Laurence Dunbar were still here on earth, I'd tell him how wonderful those words were in his poem called Sympathy. A bird needs to feel the wind beneath its wings, for the freedom...
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6. Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
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We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.Featured Shared StoryI read this poem as one of the mandatory literary pieces while in High School. Even at that tender age something about the absurdity of life struck me and it continued to haunt me. I tried to...
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7. One Art
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
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so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
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8. Acquainted With The Night
I have been one acquainted with the night.
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I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
Featured Shared StoryEach word of the poem is uttering its deep pain in the darkness of night. Highly weighted poem like any other poem of him. Only the one who has gone through this sea of sorrow can understand...
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9. This, Too, Will Pass
This, too, will pass.
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O heart, say it over and over,
Out of your deepest sorrow,
out of your deepest grief, -
10. Defeat
Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness;
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You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,
And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.
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11. Never Shall I Forget
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
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Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for ever. -
12. Bluebird
there's a bluebird in my heart that
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wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going -
13. Tulips
The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
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Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands. -
14. Windows
I looked through others' windows
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On an enchanted earth
But out of my own window--
solitude and dearth. -
15. Winter Stars
I went out at night alone;
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The young blood flowing beyond the sea
Seemed to have drenched my spirit’s wings—
I bore my sorrow heavily. -
16. A Dream Within A Dream
Take this kiss upon the brow!
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And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deemFeatured Shared StoryMost of what we learn we learn from others. It is the moments we ourselves have to live and learn that we realize most of what we are taught or preached have been lies. We all have to live...
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17. Work
Let me but do my work from day to day,
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In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
Let me but find it in my heart to say, -
18. Alone
From childhood’s hour I have not been
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As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—Featured Shared StoryThis poem has always had a special place in my heart. I get to connect with it; my childhood is different from others, so most things in my life that I got to love I most definitely have come...
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19. I Sit And Look Out
I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
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oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with
themselves, remorseful after deeds done; -
20. Circus In Three Rings
In the circus tent of a hurricane
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designed by a drunken god
my extravagant heart blows up again
in a rampage of champagne-colored rain
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