Poems about abuse can be some of the rawest and most powerful works of art, capturing the pain, confusion, and desperation that survivors of abuse often feel. These poems can take many forms, from stark confessions to subtle metaphors, but they all share a common thread of exploring the aftermath of trauma.
Many poets use their work to process their own experiences of abuse or to give voice to the experiences of others. They may delve into topics such as domestic violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, or the lasting impact of childhood abuse. In doing so, they often confront uncomfortable truths and challenge societal norms around victim blaming and the silence that often surrounds abuse.
‘Eat Me’ by Patience Agbabi tells the story of an incredibly unhealthy relationship based around control, one-sided lust, and food.
When I hit thirty, he brought me a cake,
three layers of icing, home-made,
a candle for each stone in weight.
‘Fooled Me for Years with the Wrong Pronouns’ by Gwyneth Lewis explores an abusive relationship, with Lewis writing an anti-love poem.
You made me cry in cruel stations,
So I missed many trains. You married others
In plausible buildings. The subsequent son
Became my boss. You promised me nothing
‘To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage’ by Robert Lowell is a memorable, confessional poem. In it, lol taps into the life experiences of a wife who is fearful of her lustful husband.
“The hot night makes us keep our bedroom windows open.
Our magnolia blossoms. Life begins to happen.
My hopped up husband drops his home disputes,
and hits the streets to cruise for prostitutes,
‘Hard Rock Returns to Prison’ is an allegory of oppression and forced submission of Black inmates in America.
Hard Rock / was / “known not to take no shit
From nobody,” and he had the scars to prove it:
Split purple lips, lumbed ears, welts above
His yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut
‘Red Roses’ by Anne Sexton is a story of child abuse told by a narrator, but with the vernacular, that represents the emotions and thoughts of the child undergoing the abuse.
Tommy is three and when he's bad
his mother dances with him.
She puts on the record,
"Red Roses for a Blue Lady"
Derek Walcott’s ‘Ruins of a Great House’ combines themes of historical and cultural abuse with factual reasoning and literary references to bring together a massive emotional conflict in the Speaker’s perception.
Stones only, the disjecta membra of this Great House,
Whose moth-like girls are mixed with candledust,
Remain to file the lizard’s dragonish claws.
‘Duplex’ by Jericho Brown explores physical and mental abuse, looking at how memory can impact a person.
A poem is a gesture toward home.
It makes dark demands I call my own.
Memory makes demands darker than my own:
My last love drove a burgundy car.
‘The Hands that Signed the Paper’ is a war protest poem that derides the appalling apathy and ruthlessness of the rulers toward ordinary citizens.
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
‘Beautiful’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores the physical and mental damage that can come from beauty by tracing the lives of four women.
She was born from an egg,
a daughter of the gods,
divinely fair, a pearl, drop-dead
gorgeous, beautiful, a peach,
‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath uses emotional, and sometimes, painful metaphors to depict the poet’s own opinion of her father.
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
‘The Snowman on the Moor’ explores the turbulent and abusive relationship between the speaker (presumably Plath herself) and her male spouse.
Stalemated their armies stood, with tottering banners:
She flung from a room
Still ringing with bruit of insults and dishonors
‘Rehabilitation’ explores the pain of the refugees after the Partition of Bengal. With stark imagery, it delves into the lasting impact of this tragic event.
Whatever I had around me
Grass and pebbles
Reptiles
Broken temples
‘The Wound’ by Ruth Stone describes with unflinching detail the harmful ways in which some words can inflict lasting hurt.
The shock comes slowly
as an afterthought.
First you hear the words
and they are like all other words,
‘Cahoots’ by Carl Sandburg delves into the dark underbelly of a corrupt city, exposing the collusion and exploitation that thrive within its power structures.
Play it across the table.
What if we steal this city blind?
If they want any thing let 'em nail it down.
Harness bulls, dicks, front office men,
‘A Picture of Otto’ by Ted Hughes is addressed to Sylvia Plath’s father, Otto. It contains Hughes’ disagreements about how he and Otto were depicted in Plath’s work.
Be perfect, make it otherwise.
Yesterday is torn in shreds.
Lightning’s thousand sulfur eyes
Rip apart the breathing beds.
‘Amethyst Beads’ by Eavan Boland alludes to Greek mythology and the suffering of a child, Persephone, after she was separated from her mother, Demeter.
‘Anniversary’ by Louise Glück contains the words of a cold male speaker to his female partner. These lines, taking place on their anniversary, convey a troubling relationship dynamic.
‘Middle Passage’ by Robert Hayden is a narrative poem written in the 1940s. It describes the happenings of the Atlantic Slave Trade, as told from the perspective of several white narrators.
Sonia Sanchez’s ‘Poem at Thirty’ describes a speaker’s journey from being wounded to growing stronger. The pain reminds her of the metaphorical “midnight” of her life and her community.
‘Sonnet 133,’ also known as ‘Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan,’ is a poem about the speaker’s toxic relationship with the Dark Lady. He tries to find a way to improve his circumstances but admits he’s trapped.
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!
Is't not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be?
Duffy’s ‘Stafford Afternoons’ is all about a child losing her way in the adult world and coming across an offensive scene that would leave its dark imprints in her mind.
Only there, the afternoons could suddenly pause
and when I looked up from lacing my shoe
a long road held no one, the gardens were empty, an ice-cream van chimed and dwindled away.
‘These Yet To Be United States’ by Maya Angelou explores the complexities of the United States. The poet suggests that the country has not lived up to its potential.
Tremors of your network
cause kings to disappear.
Your open mouth in anger
makes nations bow in fear.
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