Adversity poems deal with topics including loss, economic hardship, social inequity, racial prejudice, and much more. Some, which address the topics from an optimistic point of view, present ways that characters and writers have overcome these obstacles, while others are far darker.
‘Something Told the Wild Geese’ by Rachel Field discusses geese, and other animals, reactions to signs of winter. The poem takes place in summer and warns against being unprepared and dwelling on unhappiness.
‘Sonnet 20’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, also known as ‘Beloved, my Beloved, when I think’ explores the ways that a new love changed a speaker’s life.
‘Sonnet 35’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses the speaker’s worries about the changes in her life. She embarks on a new life with her beloved and hopes he’s ready to accept her in the same way she’s accepting him.
‘Sonnet 7’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a love sonnet that is dedicated to the poet’s husband, Robert Browning. It expresses her happiness that he came into her life and changed her outlook as he did.
‘Success is counted sweetest’ by Emily Dickinson is a thoughtful poem about success. It emphasizes the fact that one must lose something in order to truly appreciate it.
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
‘That it will never come again’ by Emily Dickinson is a short and thoughtful poem. In it, the poet presents a relatable opinion of life, its brevity, and its importance.
That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
Believing what we don't believe
Does not exhilarate.
‘The Bustle in a House’ by Emily Dickinson is a short poem about the effects of death. It describes the “bustle” in a home the morning after an important loss.
The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted opon Earth –
In this heartbreaking poem, Friedmann writes about the last butterfly he saw and uses it as a symbol for loss and approaching death during the Holocaust.
He was the last. Truly the last.
Such yellowness was bitter and blinding
Like the sun’s tear shattered on stone.
That was his true colour.
‘The Forsaken Merman’ by Matthew Arnold is a melancholy poem in which the speaker, a merman, grieves the loss of his human wife. He’s left alone with their children without the woman he loves.
‘The Highwayman’ was first published in August of 1906 in Blackwood’s Magazine. It was included the following year in Forty Singing
‘The last Night that She lived’ by Emily Dickinson is a poem about a dying woman’s final moments and how a specific observer felt about her death.
The last Night that
She lived It was a Common Night
Except the Dying-this to Us
’The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ is about a man who has seen the great ages of the world alongside the banks of the most important rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
‘The Railway Children’ by Seamus Heaney is a beautiful poem about the imagination of children. Specifically, Heaney conveys and experience from his youth.
‘The Sick Rose’ by William Blake describes the loss of a woman’s virginity through the metaphor of a rose and invisible worm.
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
‘The Stare’ by Sujata Bhatt describes an interaction between a human child and a monkey child at a zoo. It conveys the peaceful curiosity the two show towards one another.
‘The Stinking Rose’ by Sujata Bhatt describes the way that garlic is judged based on its name and how a changed name might influence that fact.
‘The Underground Baby Case’ by Jackie Kay conveys the feelings and choices of a woman who lost her own child and stole someone else’s.
‘There came a Day—at Summer’s full’ by Emily Dickinson depicts two lovers in a tricky situation that keeps them apart. But, they know they’ll be reunited in the next life.
There came a Day—at Summer's full,
Entirely for me— I thought that such—
were for the Saints—
Where Resurrections—be—
In ‘There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House’ Emily Dickinson explores themes of death and community. Through the use of a male speaker, she examines the actions of a small town after a death.
There's been a Death, in the Opposite House,
As lately as Today —
I know it, by the numb look
Such Houses have — alway —
In this poem about perseverance and God’s guiding hand, William Cullen Bryant’s ‘To a Waterfowl’ depicts what it means to walk with strength and determination through life.
Whither, 'midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?
‘Vermilion Flycatcher, San Pedro River, Arizona’ by Margaret Atwood discusses the ways that nature changes and doesn’t change over time as well as humanity’s impact (or lack thereof).
‘Void in Law’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning depicts the scuffle many Victorian women endured after getting married. The woman has been left alone with no real resources by a husband who prefers to spend time with his mistress.
‘Waking in Winter’ by Sylvia Plath tells the story of hotel residents. They’re living different lives but are unified through their hopelessness.
I can taste the tin of the sky —- the real tin thing.
Winter dawn is the color of metal,
The trees stiffen into place like burnt nerves.
All night I have dreamed of destruction, annihilations —-
“What Depression Feels Like”, written by Elizabeth Jennings, is a superb lyric that fathoms deep into the foggy realm of a depressed mind.
‘White Roses’ by Gillian Clarke is a heart-wrenching poem and true story about a sick child who bravely contends with pain during his short life.
‘Winter Landscape, with Rooks’ by Sylvia Plath depicts a dark landscape. It’s used to symbolize how the speaker, and perhaps the poet, was feeling.
Water in the millrace, through a sluice of stone,
plunges headlong into that black pond
where, absurd and out-of-season, a single swan
floats chaste as snow, taunting the clouded mind
‘Wodwo’ by Ted Hughes is a dramatic monologue that depicts a “Wodwo” or fictional human-like creature. The creature investigates his surroundings and repetitively questions his existence.
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom
