15+ Inspirational Short Poems About Life And Struggles

Life is a rollercoaster ride full of twists and turns. If you are looking for some beautiful poems about life, this post is for you. A good poem gives you different perspectives on life through the poet’s experience or imagination. Reading poetry helps you make sense of the world in a novel way. In this post, we have combined several moving poems about life by some influential poets. Read them and get inspired to live your best life.

In This Article

Inspirational Poems About Life

These poems have a deeper understanding and a meaningful insight towards life, and the poets convey their experiences and lessons that life has taught them through this form of literature.

protip_icon 你知道吗?
Reading poems improves your concentration, memory, and critical thinking. So read one poem a day and have a short discussion about it with your family or friends to stay focused and strong even on a bad day.

Short Poems About Life

As one of the powerful forms of expression, poetry provides advice, suggestions, gives courage, and motivates to move forward in life. So let us read through some short, meaningful verses here.

1. Shine

Follow your passions, and you wiil be fine

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Life is something we all share,
Just like oxygen in the air.
The way we live it, is up to us,
With a negative or with a plus.

Life is something we should cherish,
We never know when we’ll perish.
Live each and every single day,
气味流ers, stop and play.

Life is something we’ve been blessed,
Choice is yours; choose your quest.
Follow your passions, and you’ll be fine,
With the right attitude, you will shine.

— Unknown

2. Perseverance

We must not hope to be mowers,
And to gather the ripe, golden ears,
Unless we have first been sowers,
And watered the flowers with tears.

It is not just as we take it,
This wonderful world of ours
Life’s field will yield as we make it
A harvest of thorns or of flowers.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

3. Unity

If I were told that I must die to-morrow,
That the next sun
Which sinks should bear one past all fear and sorrow
For anyone,
All the fight fought, all the short journey through:
What should I do?
I do not think that I should shrink or falter,
But just go on,
Doing my work, nor change, nor seek to alter
Aught that is gone;
But rise and move and love and smile and pray
For one more day.

— Susan Coolidge

4. Struggles Come Your Way

Life is better when we support and love

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Just because struggles come your way
Doesn’t mean it can ruin your day
The good and the bad are a way of life
Don’t get down; move beyond the strife.

We must live life, taking things in stride
Helping each other, stoping any divide
Life is better when we support and love
And that is what’s expected from above.

You see, we were given choices to make
We are not robots; we are not fake
So if you’re faced with a trial or two
Don’t give up; let others help you through.

— Catherine Pulsifer

5. A Life Built

A life built on the sands of celebrity
Can be wrecked by the rains of reverses.

A life built on the sands of materialism
Can be destroyed by the floods of adversity.

A life built on the sands of pleasure
Can be blown down by the winds of disillusionment.

Only the life that is built on the rock of character
Can withstand the tempests of time.

— William Arthur Ward

protip_icon 你知道吗?
Poetry therapy is a subtype of bibliotherapy where poetry is incorporated into the treatment to help a person better comprehend their feelings and those of others and improve their quality of life.

6. Paint Your Life

Life is like a piece of art,
It requires lots of heart.
Choose your paint and your brush,
Take your time, avoid the rush.

Before you paint, choose your theme,
Don’t be afraid to follow your dream.
It’s alright to make a mistake.
Your painting is real; it’s not fake.

Look at your painting, don’t be crying,
Begin again; keep on trying.
Your painting is never fully complete,
Enjoy the process; make sure it’s sweet.

— Unknown

7. When Does Life Begin

Poems about life

Image: IStock

Does life begin when you obtain more things?
Or does life begin when you make big earnings?
生活开始当明天的黎明吗
Or does tomorrow just make you yawn?

The only life we have to live
Is today the day we have to give
Don’t wait for a certain thing
For happiness to bring.

Live each day and live it full
Don’t waste it and be a fool
Begin each day and be thankful for
All that the day has in store!

— Catherine Pulsifer

8. Time Is Swift

Pluck the rose while blooming;
Now ’tis fresh and bright;
Wait not till to-morrow;
Time is swift in flight.

Do thy deeds of kindness.
Ere to-morrow’s light;
什么马y come, we know not;
Time is swift in flight.

Would’st thou makes life useful.
Work before ’tis night;
Else thou’llt be regretting.
Time is swift in flight.

— Unknown

9. Bumpy Ride

Life has many ups and downs,
Loving smiles and also frowns.
Good events and some are bad,
Happyemotions, others mad.
It can be a bumpy ride,
How you handle it, you decide!

— Unknown

Deep Poems About Life

The poems demonstrate life’s profound insights and complexities, including its challenges, joys, and moments of contentment. They also offer a space for reflection on life’s journey. Although time passes quickly, it also has the power to heal and inspire us to overcome obstacles and keep going.

Famous Poems About Life

These poems showcase different values and beliefs in the society, such as gratitude, wisdom, fulfillment, facing challenges, spirituality, mortality, and more. As a result, they offer valuable guidance on handling different life situations.

10. The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves, no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

— Robert Frost

11. Life

Carnival of careless joys

Image: IStock

CHILDREN, ye have not lived, to you, it seems
Life is a lovely stalactite of dreams,
Or carnival of careless joys that leap
About your hearts like billows on the deep
In flames of amber and of amethyst.

Children, ye have not lived, ye but exist
Till some resistless hour shall rise and move
Your hearts to wake and hunger after love,
And thirst with passionate longing for the things
That burns your brows with blood-red sufferings.

Till ye have battled with great grief and fears,
And borne the conflict of dream-shattering years,
Wounded with fierce desire and worn with strife,
Children, ye have not lived: for this is life.

— Sarojini Naidu

12. Later Life

Something this foggy day, a something which
Is neither of this fog nor of today,
让我梦想着风,玩吗
Past certain cliffs, along one certain beach,
And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:

Ah, pleasant pebbly strand so far away,
So out of reach while quite within my reach,
As out of reach as India or Cathay!
I am sick of where I am and where I am not,
I am sick of foresight and of memory,
I am sick of all I have and all I see,
I am sick of self, and there is nothing new;

Oh, weary impatient patience of my lot!
Thus with myself: how fares it, Friends, with you?

— Christina Rossetti

13. Life

What is our life? A play of passion,
Our mirth the music of division,
Our mother’s wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for this short comedy.
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is,
That sits and marks still who doth act amiss.

Our graves that hide us from the setting sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest,
Only we die in earnest; that’s no jest.

— Sir Walter Raleigh

14. My Inner Life

Poems about life

Image: IStock

‘Tis true my garments threadbare are,
And sorry poor I seem;
But only I am richer far
Than any poet’s dream.
For I’ve a hidden life no one
Can ever hope to see;
A sacred sanctuary none
May share with me.

Aloof I stand from out the strife,
Within my heart a song;
By virtue of my inner life
I to myself belong.
Against man-ruling, I rebel,
Yet do not fear defeat,
For to my secret citadel
I may retreat.

Oh, you who have an inner life
Beyond this dismal day
With wars and evil rumors rife,
Go blessedly your way.
Your refuge hold inviolate;
Unto yourself be true,
And shield serene from sordid fate
The Real You.

— Robert William Service

15. The Happiest Age

What age is happiest? Had you asked me,
I would have made this plea: the Now is best.
What joy to live with zest each newborn day;
and from the Moment, wrest what Life will give away.
The Past is but a guest who came and went
and left this one behest: to be content.

Think how To-day is blest!
We’ve eyes to see Nature in Beauty drest for you, for me.
什么马tters that the crest of Youth is past.
Youth lives within the breast with joys that last.
The will to do our best, and hands for giving.
Oh! Now’s the happiest, best time for living!

What age is happiest?
Oh! hear my vow, for I have put the test—the happiest’s Now.
Sweet sighs and kindly jest for warmth and cheer; and
Love’s most high bequest to crown the year.

— Wilhelmina Stitch

16. Life’s Progress

Down the mountains, down the hills,
Trickling on for ever;
Gentle springs make little rills,
Little rills the river.

Rivers rolling to the sea.
Lose themselves in ocean,
Bearing on their bosoms free
Noble ships in motion.

Such is life, a constant change,
Still from small to greater;
Let us learn the lesson strange
Taught by our Creator:

Life is giv’n for noble ends,
Lofty thoughts and actions,
Winning to our bosom — friends
Gain’d in life’s transactions.

Ah! soon we’ll reach life’s ocean strand,
Just like the mighty river,
Safe in the hollow of that Hand
Which holds the seas for ever.

— John Imrie

protip_icon Quick tip
You may improve your writing by reading many poems and may draw inspiration to face the struggles. Writing poems can also enhance your self-awareness and can be therapeutic.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are some benefits of reading inspirational poems about life?

Exploring inspiring poems about life can provide an opportunity for personal reflection and a deeper understanding of existence and the world. It can also serve as a source of motivation for individuals to make the most out of their time on this planet.

2. Why do people find solace in inspirational poems about life?

People often find solace in reading inspirational poems since they offer comfort, hope, and encouragement to deal with challenges in life. They also inspire people to persevere through struggles and find their purpose in life through positive contemplations.

A good poem about life can show you a different aspect of life that you may not have explored before. These interesting poems on life can help you develop a broader spectrum of perspectives and make you more accepting of people and their views. They encourage you to learn about through careful observation and analysis. You can use one of these poems to share your experiences, memories, emotions, joys, sorrows, failures, etc. If you are someone who can feel a lot but cannot express and put their feelings in words, you can scout through this post and find a poem that best suits your emotions and philosophy of life.

Infographic: Compose Your Own Life Poem

These were a few inspirational life poems written by famous poets. You could share your life experiences through poems too. If you’re unsure how to get started, our infographic below will help you with your poetic journey. Remember these points while composing your life poem.

be the poet (infographic)

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Get high-quality PDF version by clicking below.

Download Infographic in PDF version Download Infographic
Download Infographic in PDF version


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