By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Sorrow and sadness are common themes for poetry, so choosing just eleven of the very best poems about sadness is going to be tricky. In the selection that follows, we’ve tried to include a range of poems from a variety of poets, moving from the heartfelt and moving to the lighter and more stoic.
But whether the mood is one of overwhelming grief and sadness or a regret to which the poet or speaker is more resigned, whether the poem is an expression of deep sorrow or an acknowledgment of the universality of suffering, all eleven of the following poems tell us something important about what it is to be sad – and they say it beautifully.