In this Collection, we've gathered a selection of poems focused on themes related to Family & Home. Through rhyme and verse, the poets represented in this Collection muse and lament upon themes that include the complexities of familial relationships and love, childhood nostalgia, and the concept of home.
Publication year 1922
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Grief
Tags Lyric Poem
Publication year 2020
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance
Tags Lyric Poem, Grief / Death, American Literature
Publication year 2017
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Identity: Race, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Life/Time: The Future, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Emotions/Behavior: Fear
Tags Lyric Poem, Race / Racism, Trauma / Abuse / Violence, Black Lives Matter, African American Literature
Publication year 1919
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Family, Relationships: Fathers, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia
Tags Lyric Poem, Parenting, Mythology
“A Prayer for my Daughter” by William Butler (W.B.) Yeats was originally published in his collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921. This book also includes one of Yeats’s most famous poems—“The Second Coming”—and was Yeats’s eighth collection of lyrical poems. “A Prayer for my daughter” was written in 1919, a year that marked the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. The war lasted until 1921 and heavily influenced Yeats. The poem’s location... Read A Prayer for My Daughter Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Society: Economics, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Science & Technology, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Society: Community, Society: Nation
Tags Narrative / Epic Poem, Finance / Money / Wealth
Publication year 1990
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Society: Class, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Relationships: Family
Tags Lyric Poem, Arts / Culture, Climate Change
Publication year 1990
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Identity: Race, Life/Time: Birth, Life/Time: The Past, Relationships: Family
Tags Lyric Poem, History: U.S., Trauma / Abuse / Violence, African American Literature, Science-Fiction / Dystopian Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Religion / Spirituality
Marilyn Nelson is part of a coterie of writers who published in the late-1970s and 1980s after the revolutionary fervor of the Black Arts Movement. Though the period during which Nelson wrote is less acknowledged than those aforementioned, it was a time when diverse Black poetic talents emerged. Nelson’s contemporaries included Afaa Michael Weaver, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, Ntozake Shange, Melvin Dixon, and Essex Hemphill. Their work grappled with the aftermath of the Vietnam War... Read Chosen Summary
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Relationships: Fathers, Society: Education, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Life/Time: The Past, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia
Tags Relationships, Agriculture, Lyric Poem, Education, Education
Publication year 1986
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Relationships: Family
Publication year 1717
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Apathy
Tags Narrative / Epic Poem, Love / Sexuality, Relationships, Religion / Spirituality, Age of Enlightenment, British Literature, Medieval Literature / Middle Ages, Gothic Literature, History: World, Drama / Tragedy, Romance, Classic Fiction
“Eloisa to Abelard” is a poem published in 1717 by Alexander Pope. The poem discusses the ill-fated love affair of a real-life couple from 12th-century France: Heloïse d’Argenteuil, a gifted 18-year-old student, and Peter Abelard, a renowned French scholar, philosopher, and poet of the Medieval era who was 20 years older than Heloïse. The poem is a heroic verse epistle, which is a genre first made famous in Ovid’s Heroides. Pope adopts Eloisa’s persona and... Read Eloisa to Abelard Summary
Publication year 1989
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Memory
Tags Lyric Poem, African American Literature
Publication year 1986
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Natural World: Environment, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance
Tags Lyric Poem, American Literature, Food
Publication year 2016
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Relationships: Family
Tags Free verse, Parenting, Science / Nature, Gender / Feminism
Publication year 2006
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: Family
Tags Lyric Poem, Grief / Death
Publication year 1975
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Identity: Gender, Identity: Mental Health, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Relationships: Family
Tags Lyric Poem, Allegory / Fable / Parable, Mental Illness, Gender / Feminism, Arts / Culture, Mythology
Louise Glück is among the most lauded poets in the American canon. Glück’s writing is often surgically precise in terms of formal craft, and reveals a deep emotional complexity. She addresses sadness, mourning, trauma, and individual suffering metaphorically through the natural world, mythology, autobiographical events, or universal truths. She is known for alluding to cultural myths and personas in her work, some of which appear in “Gretel in Darkness” through the perspective of young Gretel... Read Gretel in Darkness Summary
Publication year 1959
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Identity: Mental Health, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Relationships: Family
Tags Narrative / Epic Poem, Confessional
Publication year 1986
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Identity: Race, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance
Tags Lyric Poem, Immigration / Refugee, Mythology
Publication year 2004
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Relationships: Fathers, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth
Tags Gender / Feminism, Parenting, Trauma / Abuse / Violence
Publication year 1961
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Identity: Femininity, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Relationships: Mothers, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Regret, Identity: Gender
Tags Lyric Poem, Parenting, Gender / Feminism
Publication year 1939
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Life/Time: Aging, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Relationships: Family
Tags Lyric Poem