Poems about light celebrate the illuminating force that dispels darkness and symbolizes hope and knowledge.
These verses use light imagery to evoke warmth, clarity, and enlightenment. Poets may explore the contrast between light and shadow, representing life’s interplay of joy and sorrow.
Through these poems, writers inspire readers to seek the light within themselves and others, recognizing the power of positivity and compassion to illuminate even the darkest corners of existence.
‘A light exists in spring’ is about the light in spring that illuminates its surroundings. Though this poem is about nature, it has a deep religious connotation that science cannot explain.
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here
‘June’ by James Russell Lowell is a religiously-charged romantic narrative poem about the overwhelming beauty and rejuvenating power of summer.
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
‘California Dreaming’ by Charles Wright, written in 1983, is a poem about Wright’s departure from Laguna Beach, CA, where he lived for six years. In ‘California Dreaming,’ the poet-speaker describes how Californians are similar to another evolution of people from the East.
We are not born yet, and everything’s crystal under our feet.
We are not brethren, we are not underlings.
We are another nation,
‘Lampfall’ by Derek Walcott dives deep into an investigation of thought, dreaming, community and connection while also implying that nature and thought are more meaningful than development.
Closest at lampfall
Like children, like the moth-flame metaphor,
The Coleman's humming jet at the sea's edge
‘Love Cycle’ by Chinua Achebe describes sunrise, sunset, and their effects on Earth using the metaphor of a barely happy couple.
At dawn slowly
the sun withdraws his
long misty arms of
embrace. Happy lovers
‘A jag of lightning’ by Matsuo Bashō is a beautiful and interesting poem that describes lightning and a heron’s scream.
A jag of lightning--
Then, flitting toward the darkness,
A night heron's scream.
‘Dreams’ by Anne Bronte explores the power of dreams as the speaker fantasizes about having a child to call her own.
While on my lonely couch I lie,
I seldom feel myself alone,
For fancy fills my dreaming eye
With scenes and pleasures of its own.
Jeffrey Robin’s ‘Mountain Evening Song’ is a celebration of the campfire. As he looks into its flames, the speaker experiences a profound connection with his companions and the natural world.
Sitting around the campfire
Lo! --- the campfire !
Know --- the campfire is known
‘From time to time’ by Matsuo Bashō is a beautiful haiku that describes clouds parting to reveal the light of the moon, symbolically representing hope and change.
From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders...
‘The light of a candle’ by Yosa Buson captures a moment of beauty and symbolism in the everyday act of lighting a candle.
The light of a candle
is transferred to another candle—
spring twilight.
‘The lamp once out’ by Natsume Sōseki is a beautiful and thoughtful poem about the way that, once a lamp is out, one can actually see more. The stars appear in the window frame, something you can’t see with the lamp on.
The lamp once out
Cool stars enter
The window frame.
‘A Way of Looking’ by Elizabeth Jennings explores the peculiar but often unnoticed ways our perception is guided by more than what is objectively observed.
It is the association after all
We seek, we would retrace our thoughts to find
The thought of which this landscape is the image,
Then pay the thought and not the landscape homage.
‘Try to Praise the Mutilated World’ by Adam Zagajewski focuses on the most important ways that people can find happiness in their everyday lives. They can step out into nature or return to memories.
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrown
‘A Murmur in the Trees— to note’ by Emily Dickinson is a poem about nature’s magic. It includes mysterious images of fairy men, glowing lights in the woods, and the murmuring of trees.
A Murmur in the Trees – to note –
Not loud enough – for Wind –
A Star – not far enough to seek –
Nor near enough – to find –
‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ is a powerful poem about how important it is, despite death’s inevitability, to fight against it until the bitter end.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
‘A drop fell on the apple tree’ by Emily Dickinson is filled with joy. It describes, with Dickinson’s classic skill, images of the summer season and how a storm can influence it.
A drop fell on the apple tree
Another on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,
And made the gables laugh.
‘A Dream’ by Edgar Allan Poe describes a speaker’s waking and dreaming state and the brief moments of light and hope he experiences.
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed—
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
‘Amends’ by Adrienne Rich is a beautiful poem in which the poet depicts the moon. She describes its presence in the sky and the peace it brings to humanity.
Nights like this: on the cold apple-bough
a white star, then another
exlploading out of the bark:
on the ground, moonlight picking at small stones
‘Answers’ by Elizabeth Jennings describes how one speaker compartmentalizes the big questions and answers in life in the back of her mind.
‘Break of Day’ by John Donne is an aubade told from a female perspective. It conveys a woman’s understanding of her relationship with a busy lover.
‘Tis true, ‘tis day, what though it be?
O wilt thou therefore rise from me?
Why should we rise because ‘tis light?
Did we lie down because ‘twas night?
‘Consumption’ by William Cullen Bryant describes the fast-approaching death of a tuberculosis patient and her path to heaven.
‘Darkness and Light’ by Stephen Spender is a complex, abstract poem in which a speaker battles with two sides of himself.
‘Drifting Flowers of the Sea’ by Sadakichi Hartmann describes the presence of white flowers and their relation to perseverance and unspoken dreams.
When the hours of Day are numbered,
And the voices of the Night
Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
To a holy, calm delight;
Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
In ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda,’ Ted Hughes describes his daughter’s observations of the world around her, reflecting on nature and family.
A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket -
And you listening.
A spider's web, tense for the dew's touch.
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