The following selection features poems about lost love and the grief of breakups. Poems like “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop and “Wait” by Galway Kinnell remind us that moving on is possible, even though it may be a profoundly painful process. Derek Walcott’s “The Fist” and Robert Frost’s “To Earthward” treat the pain of heartbreak differently. For Walcott, that pain is a crucial marker of survival. In Sara Teasdale’s “After Love” and Jack Spicer’s “A Book of Music,” love ends quietly, fizzling out and fading away. In the following poems, you will find passion and tenderness, sorrow and rejuvenation. We hope they offer you new perspectives on love and comfort in times of heartbreak.
Check out the “breakups” tag or the poets’ pages for more poems.*
“Seven Stones” by Marjorie Agosín
Today I picked up...
“The More Loving One” by W. H. Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well…
“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master…
“In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever” by Wanda Coleman
we were never caught...
“To Earthward” by Robert Frost
Love at the lips was touch...
“Wait” by Galway Kinnell
Wait, for now…
“Footprint on Your Heart” by Gary Lenhart
Someone will walk into your life…
“Are You Going to Stay?” by Thomas Meter
What was it I was going to say?...
“Love Elegy in the Chinese Garden, with Koi” by Nathan McClain
Near the entrance, a patch of tall grass…
“Washington Mews” by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
I won’t ever tell you how it ended…
“A Memory” by Lola Ridge
I remember…
“Brokeheart: Just like that” by Patrick Rosal
When the bass drops on Bill Withers'...
“After Love” by Sara Teasdale
There is no magic anymore…
“How I Might Sound if I Left Myself Alone” by Lisa Russ Spaar
Turning to watch you leave...
“The Deserter” by Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr.
I know not why or whence he came...
“A Book of Music” by Jack Spicer
Coming at an end, the lovers...
“Sonnet XLII” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why...
“The Fist” by Derek Walcott
The fist clenched round my heart…
“real poem (personal statement)” by Rachel Zucker
I skim sadness like fat off the surface…
Find more poems curated by theme on our Poems for Kids page, which features poems also suitable for teen readers.
*Explanatory text and curation by Josh Rabinovitz