Suicide is a complex and often a taboo subject that has been explored through poetry for centuries. Poets use language to convey the pain, despair, and confusion often accompanying suicidal thoughts and actions. Poems about suicide can be difficult to read but can also be powerful and thought-provoking.
Many famous poets throughout history have written about suicide, including Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Robert Frost. These poets often used their personal experiences with depression, anxiety, and trauma to create moving and honest portrayals of mental health struggles.
While poems about suicide can be intense and emotional, they can also offer a sense of catharsis and healing. Reading and writing poetry about suicide can be a way to process difficult emotions and connect with others who may be going through similar struggles.
It is important to remember that suicide is a serious issue that requires professional help and support: help is available, such as with international suicide hotlines. Still, poetry can be a powerful tool for raising awareness and starting important conversations about mental health.
‘Suicide’s Note’ is a three-line poem that speaks from the perspective of someone who wants to take their own life. They feel the “cool face” of the river asking them for a “kiss.”
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.
‘Suicide in the Trenches’ is an incredibly tragic poem. Siegfried Sassoon explores the mental deterioration of a young soldier in the trenches of WW1 and his suicide.
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
‘Lady Lazarus’ is one of the best poems of Sylvia Plath and an ideal example of Plath’s diction. This poem contains Plath’s poetic expression of her suicidal thoughts.
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——
‘The Suicide’s Soliloquy’ is a dark poem about sorrow and suicide which some believe was written by the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Here where the lonely hooting owl
Sends forth his midnight moans,
Fierce wolves shall o’er my carcase growl
Or buzzards pick my bones.
‘Rowing’ by Anne Sexton is a moving and unforgettable poem about depression. It was written two years before Sexton took her life in 1974.
A story, a story!
(Let it go. Let it come.)
I was stamped out like a Plymouth fender
into this world.
First came the crib
‘Don’t kill yourself today’ by Hannah Dains is a thoughtful and powerful poem about suicide. The poet explores all the reasons someone has to stay alive and expresses her love for those struggling with depression.
Don’t kill yourself today
Because your Netflix free trial still has a week left.
Don’t kill yourself today
because no one else will finish off the chicken in the fridge.
‘The Portrait’ by Stanley Kunitz is a sad poem about the speaker’s ill-fated attempt to learn more about their deceased father.
My mother never forgave my father
for killing himself,
especially at such an awkward time
and in a public park,
‘Bag of Mice’ by Nick Flynn is a powerful poem that describes a speaker’s dream and a listener’s suicide note. It uses short, evocative lines that are easy to read and hard to forget.
I dreamt your suicide note
was scrawled in pencil on a brown paperbag,
& in the bag were six baby mice. The bag
opened into darkness,
Robert Service’s ‘Death in the Arctic’ tells a bleak, dark story in such an evocative way that even after the poem finishes, the reader can’t help but wonder for more.
I took the clock down from the shelf;
"At eight," said I, "I shoot myself."
It lacked a minute of the hour,
And as I waited all a-cower,
‘Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note’ (1961) is the titular poem of Amiri Baraka’s first collection of poems. This piece introduces a depressed narrator engrossed with the thoughts of dying.
Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...
Robert Frost, aka ‘nature boy,’ penned this lovely poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ in 1922, subsequently published with his long poem, ‘New Hampshire’.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
‘Ellen West’ by Frank Bidart is a long poem capturing the life-defining moments of Ellen West, a woman who was the signature case for existential analysis in the 19th century. The poem is narrated majorly by West herself, with her doctor Ludwig Binswanger intermittently rendering a clinical analysis of her behaviour.
I love sweets,—
heaven
would be dying on a bed of vanilla ice cream . . .
But my true self
is thin, all profile
‘Summer Solstice, New York City’ by Sharon Olds is a deeply moving poem that conveys the tender importance of remembering our capacity for human compassion.
By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it,
he went up the iron stairs through the roof of the building
‘Cottage Street, 1953’ by Richard Wilbur is a powerful poem based on the poet’s own experience. It depicts a simple social meeting between his family and the Plaths.
Framed in her phoenix fire-screen, Edna Ward
Bends to the tray of Canton, pouring tea
For frightened Mrs. Plath; then, turning toward
The pale, slumped daughter, and my wife, and me.
‘The Wind in the Dooryard’ by Derek Walcott was written after the death of Eric Roach, a well-respected poet who died by suicide in 1974. This poem is dedicated to his life and work.
I didn't want this poem to come from the torn mouth, I didn't want this poem to come
‘Contusion’ by Sylvia Plath is a memorable, short poem about death and a loss of passion or meaning in one’s life. It is a dramatic monologue written 12 days before the poet’s death.
Color floods to the spot, dull purple.
The rest of the body is all washed-out,
The color of pearl.
‘Henry’s Understanding’ by John Berryman is a chilling and image-rich description of Berryman’s state of mind towards the end of his life as he contemplated suicide.
‘Hitchhiker’ by John Payne is an interesting poem about a speaker’s reaction to loss. They address someone who has passed away and explore what that means for them.
O let the solid ground
Not fail beneath my feet
Before my life has found
What some have found so sweet!
O that ’twere possible
After long grief and pain
To find the arms of my true love
Round me once again!...
The poem ‘Sheep In Fog’ describes Sylvia Plath’s feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and depression.
The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.
‘The Forced Recruit’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning tells the very real story of a brave Italian man who was forced to fight against his country.
In the ranks of the Austrian you found him,
He died with his face to you all;
Yet bury him here where around him
You honor your bravest that fall.
‘The Starry Night’ by Anne Sexton is an ekphrastic that explores Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. It delves into the emotions that a speaker interprets in the painted elements.
‘The View From Halfway Down’ is a short poem included in an episode of Bojack Horseman. It provides readers with a unique insight into the mind of someone who is moments from his death and experiences an intense regret for his choice to end his life.
‘Wanting to Die’ by Anne Sexton is a poem about the poet’s desire to take her own life. It was written close to ten years before she committed suicide.
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