38 Captivating Poem Quotes

In the world of literature, poetry holds a special place, weaving words into emotions that resonate deeply within us. Whether it's capturing the essence of love, the sting of loss, the exhilaration of freedom, or the quiet peace found in nature, poems have the unique ability to mirror our innermost thoughts and feelings. In this collection, you'll explore 38 captivating poem quotes, each carefully selected to inspire, provoke thought, and evoke a myriad of sentiments. Dive into the profound beauty of poetic expression and let these quotes serve as a reminder of the power that lies in well-crafted words.

1. “The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings” - Lewis Carroll

2. “blessing the boats(at saint mary’s)may the tidethat is entering even nowthe lip of our understandingcarry you outbeyond the face of fearmay you kissthe wind then turn from itcertain that it willlove your backmay youopen your eyes to waterwater waving foreverand may you in your innocencesail through this to that” - Lucille Clifton

3. “I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.” - Pablo Neruda

4. “Parting is all we know of Heaven,and all we need of Hell.” - Emily Dickenson

5. “A Woman's QuestionDo you know you have asked for the costliest thingEver made by the Hand above?A woman's heart, and a woman's life---And a woman's wonderful love.Do you know you have asked for this priceless thingAs a child might ask for a toy?Demanding what others have died to win,With a reckless dash of boy.You have written my lesson of duty out,Manlike, you have questioned me.Now stand at the bars of my woman's soulUntil I shall question thee.You require your mutton shall always be hot,Your socks and your shirt be whole;I require your heart be true as God's starsAnd as pure as His heaven your soul.You require a cook for your mutton and beef,I require a far greater thing;A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts---I look for a man and a king.A king for the beautiful realm called Home,And a man that his Maker, God,Shall look upon as He did on the firstAnd say: "It is very good."I am fair and young, but the rose may fadeFrom this soft young cheek one day;Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,I may launch my all on its tide?A loving woman finds heaven or hellOn the day she is made a bride.I require all things that are grand and true,All things that a man should be;If you give this all, I would stake my lifeTo be all you demand of me.If you cannot be this, a laundress and cookYou can hire and little to pay;But a woman's heart and a woman's lifeAre not to be won that way.” - Joshua Harris

6. “Twas the night before Thanksgiving. All the food's in the oven. And I'm in the bedroom performin' self lovin'.” - Craig Ferguson

7. “The only sea I saw Was the seesaw sea With you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy. Let me shipwreck in your thighs.” - Dylan Thomas

8. “The whole idea of it makes me feellike I'm coming down with something,something worse than any stomach acheor the headaches I get from reading in bad light--a kind of measles of the spirit,a mumps of the psyche,a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.You tell me it is too early to be looking back,but that is because you have forgottenthe perfect simplicity of being oneand the beautiful complexity introduced by two.But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.At four I was an Arabian wizard.I could make myself invisibleby drinking a glass of milk a certain way.At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.But now I am mostly at the windowwatching the late afternoon light.Back then it never fell so solemnlyagainst the side of my tree house,and my bicycle never leaned against the garageas it does today,all the dark blue speed drained out of it.This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,time to turn the first big number.It seems only yesterday I used to believethere was nothing under my skin but light.If you cut me I could shine.But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,I skin my knees. I bleed.” - Billy Collins

9. “Down, down, down into the darkness of the graveGently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.” - Edna St. Vincent Millay

10. “A foolish man question: “what is love?” A madman answer: “Love is an omnipresent attribute of human life. Our appetite will always be unfulfilled for love. It is better for us because without it, earth will not rotate, seasons will not change, birds will not sing and life will not exit.” What do you think?” - Santosh Kalwar

11. “Don't be polite.Bite in.Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin. It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are. You do not need a knife or fork or spoon.For there is no coreor stemor rindor pitor seedor skinto throw away.” - Eve Merriam

12. “Sickness awakens sadness sleeps- Moments of aloneness results into peace.” - Santosh Kalwar

13. “Tumbling-hair picker of buttercups violetsdandelionsAnd the big bullying daisies through the field wonderfulwith eyes a little sorryAnother comes also picking flowers” - E. E. Cummings

14. “Some say an army of horsemensome an army on footothers say ships laden for warare the fairest things on earth.But I say the fairest sighton this dark earthis the face of the one you love.Nor is it hard to understand:love has humbled the heartsof the proudest queens.And I would rather see you now stepping over my thresholdthan any soldier greaved in gold or any iron-beaked ship.” - Alison Croggon

15. “أني اجدد يوما مضى لأحبك يوما و أمضي” - محمود درويش

16. “The sun rises bright and beautiful as if it feels no pain.It must not see, it must not hear, it can't possibly or it would not be able to overcome so defiantly.My bed creaks and whines when I leave it behind.I don't know why it tries so hard to hold onto me but yet I continue to try and overcome.I put on my shirt, my pants that fit me, find my socks and glue my heel back to my boot.My gloves are lost, my coat is torn but my scarf still keeps me warm and so I continue to try and overcome.Work has no pride, no place for me but I have no other place to be.My broken dreams continue to rise, my hopes continue to fade but still I try to overcome.A broken window and a gas tank on E, it's not Friday so I have to walk each day for at least another three.And so I walk while the world cries and pleas and tries to swallow me but still I continue and try to overcome.My lock on my door only turns halfway, but I don't have anything to steal anyway.My fridge is bare but my cabinet still holds three so I continue to try and overcome.The news haunts me, the weather threatens to rain down on me but another day has gone by.And I have overcome, I have overcome … I have overcome - the sun has nothing on me.” - Jennifer Loren

17. “Grodekفي المساء غابة الخريف ملآى بأصواتأسلحة الموت، الحقول الذهبيةوالبحيرات الزرقاء، عبر الشمس المظلمةالتي تغرب، الليل يجمع فيهمجندون يحتضرون، الحيوانات تصرخبأفواهها المنفجرة.حتى الغيمة حمراء، حيث الله غاضب،الدم المراق نفسه وصل إلى بيته، بصمتيحشد، رباطة جأش مارس في قيعان الصفصاف،كل الطرقات تمتد إلى القبر الأسود.تحت الأغصان الذهبية في الليل والنجومأخت الظلال تترنح عبر الأيكة المنكمشة،لتحيي أرواح الأبطال، برؤوسهم المدماة،ومن القصب أصوات مزامير الخريف الكئيبة تعلو.أيتها المصيبة الأبية! مذبحك البرونزي،شعلة الروح الملتهبة لقمت اليوم بالمزيد من،أحفاد مقبلون” - Georg Trakl

18. “The.World.Is.Not.A.Safe.Place.” - Jandy Nelson

19. “If I wrote the word flower,would it still grow like a flower?If I wrote a poem concerning a river,would the water still flow in the eyes of the reader?” - Zakariya Amataya

20. “Kamu menulis: "Kita sudah mengatakan A, maka kita harus menyebutkan seluruh huruf." Namun masalah itu sekarang sudah sedemikian luar biasa hingga aku menjadi ragu. Maka, kukutipkan puisi singkat dari Jan Erik Vold mengenai hal itu:"Siapa yang mengatakan ATelah mengatakan A"Kamu mengerti yang kumaksud, kan? Kalau kamu telah mengatakan A, maka kamu telah mengatakan A dan harus menjalani segala resiko yang mengikutinya. Tapi, itu tak berarti bahwa kamu juga harus mengatakan B.” - Jostein Gaarder

21. “Whenever you touch a poem that caresses your soul, breathe it gently for it might be the wind that perfects your life's goal.” - A. Saleh

22. “Nobody really knows herExcept the chosen fewHer secrets are kept hiddenBehind that sun-kissed hue.If I reach out to touch herShe’ll just run awayMy Forever and AlwaysWill have to wait another day.” - Simone Elkeles

23. “If the world stops spinning, slowing to a crawl. I will continue to dream of you. Until, I no longer dream at all.” - Jessica de la Davies

24. “Larry’s such a liar---He tells outrageous lies.He says he’s ninety-nine years oldInstead of only five.He says he lives up on the moon,He says that he once flew.He says he’s really six feet fourInstead of three feet two.He says he has a billion dollars‘Stead of just a dime.He says he rode a dinosaurBack in some distant time.He says his mother is the moonWho taught him magic spells.He says his father is the windThat rings the morning bells.He says he can take stones and rocksAnd turn them into gold.He says he can take burnin’ fireAnd turn it freezin’ cold.He said he’d send me seven elvesTo help me with my chores.But Larry’s such a liar---He only sent me four.” - Shel Silverstein

25. “A poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the –not always greatly hopeful-belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making toward something. Toward what? Toward something standing open, occupiable, perhaps toward an addressable Thou, toward an addressable reality.” - Paul Celan

26. “What is this thing you call substance abuse? All I wanna do is forget and get loose.Drinking and smoking over and overWhat's so great about a life that's sober?There's nothing cool about being youngWhen the monsters of night have stolen the sun.I'm tired of searching for words in the sky.All I wanna do is drink and die. Nothing is real. It's all a big lie. All I wanna do is drink and die. There's nothing cool about being youngWhen the monsters of night have stolen the sun.” - Benjamin Alire Saenz

27. “I listened long to your story,Listened but could not hear.When you chose to walk that path so overgrown,I remained alone with my fear.Cold silence covers the distance,Stretches from shore to shore.I follow in my mind your far-off journeying,But I will walk that path no more.” - Anne Elisabeth Stengl

28. “Unable and crippled I amAs I gaze into the vastnessThe vastness that harbors your praiseAnd glories of the best of creation...If I tried to spell..A drop of ink from your loveMa quill would burn in shamefor your love match no words...ya rasoolullah!” - anila aboo

29. “I know you can't wash in the same river even onceI know the river will bring new lights that you will not seeI know we live slightly longer than a horse and not nearly as long as a crowI know this has troubled people before and will trouble those after meI know all this has been said a thousand times before and will be said after meI didn't know I like the sky cloudy or clearthe blue vault that Andrei watched on his back on the battlefield at Borodino...” - Nâzım Hikmet

30. “Inside my head / or in a distant / Galaxy / Soft I hear it / Calling me." from the song "In the Blackness" in the poetry collection "Terra Affirmative".” - jay woodman

31. “The fusty showman fumbles, must Fit in a particle of dustThe universe, for fear it gainIts freedom from my cube of brain.Yet dust bears seeds that grow to graceBehind my crude-striped wooden faceAs I, a puppet tinsel-pinkLeap on my springs, learn how to think—Till like the trembling golden stalkOf some long-petalled star, I walkThrough the dark heavens, and the dewFalls on my eyes and sense thrills through.” - Edith Sitwell

32. “رائعة صلاح عبد الصبور ، أحلام الفارس القديم” - صلاح عبد الصبور

33. “If, of all words of tongue and pen,The saddest are, 'It might have been,'More sad are these we daily see:'It is, but hadn't ought to be.” - Bret Harte

34. “There is a blue bird in my heart that wants to get out.” - Charles Bukowski

35. “بشنو از نی چون حکایت می کنداز جدایی ها شکایت می کندکز نیستان تا مرا ببریده انداز نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده اندسینه خواهم شرحه شرحه از فراقتا بگویم شرح درد اشتیاقهر کسی کو دور ماند از اصل خویشبازجوید روزگار وصل خویشمن به هر جمعیتی نالان شدمجفت بدحالان و خوشحالان شدمهر کسی از ظن خود شد یار مناز دورن من نجست اسرار منسر من از ناله ی من دور نیستلیک چشم و گوش را آن نور نیستتن ز جان و جان ز تن مستور نیستلیک کس را دید جان دستور نیستآتش است این بانگ نای و نیست بادهر که این آتش ندارد نیست بادآتش عشقست کاندر نی فتادجوشش عشق است کاندر می فتادنی حریف هر که از یاری بریدپرده هایش پرده های ما دریدهمچو نی زهری و تریاقی که دید؟همچو نی دمساز و مشتاقی که دید؟نی حدیث راه پرخون می کندقصه های عشق مجنون می کندمحرم این هوش جز بیهوش نیستمر زبان را مشتری جز گوش نیستدر غم ما روزها بیگاه شدروزها با سوزها همراه شدروزها گر رفت گو: رو باک نیستتو بمان ای آنکه چون تو پاک نیستهرکه جز ماهی ز آبش سیر شدهرکه بی روزیست روزش دیر شددرنیابد حال پخته هیچ خامپس سخن کوتاه باید والسلامبند بگسل باش آزاد ای پسرچند باشی بند سیم و بند زرگر بریزی بحر را در کوزه‌ایچند گنجد قسمت یک روزه‌ایکوزه چشم حریصان پر نشد تا صدف قانع نشد پر د’ر نشد هر که را جامه ز عشقی چاک شد او ز حرص و عیب کلی پاک شد شاد باش ای عشق خوش سودای ماای طبیب جمله علتهای ما ای دوای نخوت و ناموس ما ای تو افلاطون و جالینوس ما جسم خاک از عشق بر افلاک شد کوه در رقص آمد و چالاک شد عشق جان طور آمد عاشقا طور مست و خر موسی صاعقا با لب دمساز خود گر جفتمی همچو نی من گفتنیها گفتمی هر که او از هم زبانی شد جدا بی زبان شد گرچه دارد صد نوا چونکه گل رفت و گلستان درگذشت نشنوی زان پس ز بلبل سر گذشت جمله معشوقست و عاشق پرده ای زنده معشوقست و عاشق مرده ای چون نباشد عشق را پروای او او چو مرغی ماند بی پروای او من چگونه هوش دارم پیش و پس چون نباشد نور یارم پیش و پس عشق خواهد کین سخن بیرون بودآینه غماز نبود چون بود آینت دانی چرا غماز نیست زانکه زنگار از رخش ممتاز نیست” - مولوی

36. “Holding up an oil-paper umbrella,I loiter aimlessly in the long, longAnd lonely rainy alley,I hope to encounterA lilac-like girlNursing her resentmentA lilac-like color she hasA lilac-like fragrance,A lilac-like sadness,Melancholy in the rain,Sorrowful and uncertain;She loiters aimlessly in this lonely rainy alleyHolding up an oil-paper umbrellaJust like meAnd just like meWalks silently,Apathetic, sad and disconsolateSilently she moves closerMoves closer and castsA sigh-like glanceShe glides byLike a dreamHazy and confused like a dreamAs in a dream she glides pastLike a lilac spray,This girl glides past beside me;She silently moves away, moves awayUp to the broken-down bamboo fence,To the end of the rainy alley.In the rains sad song,Her color vanishesHer fragrance diffuses,Even herSigh-like glance,Lilac-like discontentVanish.Holding up an oil-paper umbrella, aloneAimlessly walking in the long, longAnd lonely rainy alley,I wish forA lilac-like girlNursing her resentment glide by.” - Dai Wangshu

37. “Lo que yo quiero, corazón cobarde,es que mueras por mí.Y morirme contigo si te matasy matarme contigo si te mueresporque el amor cuando no muere mataporque amores que matan nunca mueren.” - Joaquin Sabina

38. “ví dù người có phụ tathì ta chỉ nguyện thành ra con bòcon bò rất ít so đoyêu ai chỉ biết lò dò đi theodù cho đứa đó lật kèo” - Nguyễn Thiên Ngân