Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Podcasts
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Poetry for a Pound
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Poems
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Poems

Find poems

Search from over 3,000 selected poems on this site or explore our full collection in our online catalogue

  • Search our website
  • Browse categories
  • SPL online catalogue

Browse by Category

Language
  • British Sign Language (BSL)
  • Cornish
  • English
  • Gaelic
  • Scots
  • Shetlandic
Mood
  • Courage
  • Despair & Loneliness
  • Grief & Sorrow
  • Homesickness
  • Love
  • Optimism & Happiness
Occasion
  • Birth
  • Burns Night
  • Christmas
  • For Funerals
  • For Weddings
Place
  • Dumfries & Galloway
  • Edinburgh
  • Fife & Angus
  • Glasgow
  • Highlands & Islands
  • Scotland
Curriculum Level
  • SQA Higher texts
  • SQA National 5 texts

Poem Tags

A

  • Aberdeen (6)
  • absence (3)
  • acrostics (2)
  • Addressing the Bard (12)
  • adventure (1)
  • advertising (1)
  • Africa (1)
  • African poetry (43)
  • ageing (70)
  • age of steam (2)
  • air travel (3)
  • alcohol (2)
  • alphabet (1)
  • American poetry (14)
  • ancient history (1)
  • angling (2)
  • anonymous (3)
  • Anstruther (1)
  • Apartheid (1)
  • architecture (4)
  • Argyll (14)
  • art (13)
  • Australian poetry (3)
  • Austrian poetry (1)
  • autism (1)
  • Autumn (19)
  • Ayrshire (3)

B

  • babies (11)
  • bakeries (1)
  • ballads (3)
  • battles (3)
  • BBC Scotland Poet in Residence 2017 (11)
  • bear (1)
  • beauty (1)
  • bedtime (4)
  • beggars (2)
  • being human (11)
  • bereavement (11)
  • Berlin Wall (1)
  • Best Scottish Poems (1)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2004 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2005 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2006 (19)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2007 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2008 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2009 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2010 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2011 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2012 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2013 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2014 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2015 (20)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2016 (19)
  • Best Scottish Poems 2017 (17)
  • bikes (1)
  • bingo (1)
  • birches (1)
  • birds (39)
  • blindness (1)
  • blue (4)
  • Blue Crevasse (11)
  • blues (1)
  • book fairs (5)
  • books (8)
  • book sales (5)
  • borders (2)
  • boxing (1)
  • bread (1)
  • breakfast (1)
  • bridges (4)
  • brotherhood (3)
  • Bulgaria (1)
  • buses (2)

C

  • cafés (3)
  • camping (1)
  • Canada (2)
  • Canadian poetry (15)
  • capitalism (4)
  • carpentry (1)
  • cars (1)
  • Casia Wiliam (1)
  • Catalan (1)
  • cats (10)
  • ceilidhs (1)
  • Central Scotland (4)
  • change (10)
  • charity event (11)
  • childhood (44)
  • children (1)
  • Chilean poetry (1)
  • China (2)
  • Chinese poetry (2)
  • Christianity (5)
  • cities (7)
  • citizenship (3)
  • Classical (7)
  • climate change (1)
  • climbing (2)
  • clothes (6)
  • clouds (1)
  • Clydeside (1)
  • coffee (1)
  • Cold War (1)
  • colonialism (1)
  • colours (7)
  • comic poems (7)
  • communication (8)
  • communities (7)
  • concerts (10)
  • concrete poetry (5)
  • conferences (6)
  • conservation (1)
  • contentment (2)
  • cooking (2)
  • Costa Rica (1)
  • courtship (7)
  • cows (4)
  • crabs (1)
  • craft (1)
  • creativity (5)
  • crime (3)
  • Croatian (2)
  • crows (2)
  • curling (1)
  • cycling (1)
  • Czech (7)

D

  • D/deafness (1)
  • daffodils (1)
  • dancing (5)
  • Danish (5)
  • death (20)
  • death in battle (14)
  • death of a child (1)
  • deer (3)
  • desert (2)
  • desire (12)
  • disability (3)
  • disaster (2)
  • diving (1)
  • doctors (5)
  • Doctor Who (1)
  • dogs (5)
  • Doric (1)
  • dramatic monologue (2)
  • dreams (15)
  • drinking (2)
  • driving (6)
  • drop-in sessions (4)
  • drowning (1)
  • drunkenness (6)
  • Dundee (3)
  • dusk (2)
  • Dutch poetry (1)
  • dying (11)
  • dying in battle (3)

E

  • early 20th century poems (28)
  • earth from above (2)
  • Easter (2)
  • East Lothian (2)
  • eating (1)
  • ecology (1)
  • ecriture feminine (3)
  • eggs (1)
  • elegies (15)
  • Empire (3)
  • enchantment (5)
  • engineering (2)
  • Estonian (13)
  • estuaries (2)
  • ethics (2)
  • europe (1)
  • evening (2)
  • everyday life (21)
  • evolution (3)
  • exhibition (1)
  • exile (10)
  • existence (8)

F

  • fables (1)
  • Facebook (1)
  • failing memory (3)
  • fairy tales (1)
  • falling in love (8)
  • fame (1)
  • families (31)
  • farming (11)
  • fast food (1)
  • fate (8)
  • fatherhood (3)
  • fathers (14)
  • fear (2)
  • feminism (7)
  • film (7)
  • Finnish (5)
  • fire (3)
  • fireworks (1)
  • fish (4)
  • fishing (14)
  • floods (1)
  • flotsam and jetsam (1)
  • flowers (9)
  • flying (5)
  • fog (1)
  • food (28)
  • football (8)
  • for baby-namings (2)
  • forests (2)
  • former loves (5)
  • Forth (1)
  • fragility (5)
  • France (1)
  • freedom (16)
  • Freedom Come All Ye (1)
  • French (17)
  • friendship (7)
  • frogs & toads (1)
  • frost (2)
  • fruit (3)
  • fundraising (8)

G

  • games (8)
  • gardening (4)
  • gardens (1)
  • geese (2)
  • gentleness (1)
  • geography (1)
  • geology (5)
  • German (17)
  • ghosts (4)
  • giving (2)
  • God (5)
  • golf (3)
  • grace (4)
  • graces & toasts (3)
  • Grampians (11)
  • grandparents (4)
  • graveyards (2)
  • Greek (3)
  • Greenock (2)
  • growing up (1)
  • Guatemalan poetry (2)
  • guilt (2)

H

  • haggis (4)
  • haiku (10)
  • hair (1)
  • Halloween (3)
  • happiness (1)
  • hares (3)
  • heartbreak (1)
  • heat (1)
  • Hebrides (1)
  • hedgehogs (2)
  • heroes & villains (8)
  • heron (1)
  • herring (1)
  • high-rise flat (1)
  • historians (1)
  • hobbies (3)
  • holiday (3)
  • home (39)
  • hope (10)
  • Horace (1)
  • horses (6)
  • hospitals (11)
  • housing estates (1)
  • Hungarian (3)
  • hunting (5)

I

  • ice (3)
  • Icelandic (7)
  • identity (37)
  • illness (31)
  • imagination (4)
  • immigrants (3)
  • India (1)
  • Indian poetry (1)
  • industry (2)
  • innocence (2)
  • insects (9)
  • interiors (3)
  • intimacy (2)
  • Iraq (1)
  • Ireland (1)
  • Irish Gaelic (2)
  • Irish poetry (12)
  • islands (25)
  • Italian (3)

J

  • jobs (1)
  • journeys (3)
  • judgement (2)

K

  • Kintyre (1)
  • kissing (1)
  • knitting (2)
  • Kurdish (1)

L

  • lakes (1)
  • lamplighter (2)
  • Lanarkshire (3)
  • landscape (43)
  • language (24)
  • late love (9)
  • Latvian (3)
  • laughter (1)
  • Laureate poems (3)
  • leaves (4)
  • libraries (5)
  • light (19)
  • listening (4)
  • list poems (3)
  • Lithuanian (2)
  • lochs (6)
  • London (3)
  • loneliness (2)
  • long distance relationships (1)
  • longing (6)
  • loss (17)
  • Lothians (4)
  • Love & Valentines (15)
  • love of country (11)
  • lullabies (4)

M

  • Malta (1)
  • manufacture (1)
  • marginalia (1)
  • markets (2)
  • marriage (7)
  • masculinity (1)
  • medicine (13)
  • meditation (4)
  • melancholy (2)
  • memory (43)
  • men & women (2)
  • mental health (2)
  • mermaids (2)
  • metamorphosis (3)
  • mice (3)
  • Micronesia (1)
  • middle age (3)
  • milk (3)
  • mining (4)
  • moles (1)
  • money (5)
  • monsters (4)
  • morality (3)
  • morning (2)
  • mortality (19)
  • motherhood (1)
  • mothers (28)
  • mountains (6)
  • multilingualism (3)
  • music (9)
  • Mythology (1)
  • myths (15)

N

  • National poet poems (1)
  • National Poetry Day 2004 (7)
  • National Poetry Day 2005 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2006 (6)
  • National Poetry Day 2007 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2008 (6)
  • National Poetry Day 2009 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2010 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2011 (7)
  • National Poetry Day 2012 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2013 (7)
  • National Poetry Day 2014 (8)
  • national poetry day 2015 (8)
  • national poetry day 2016 (8)
  • National Poetry Day 2017 (7)
  • National Poetry Day 2018 (13)
  • National Poetry Day 2019 (4)
  • nature (26)
  • Navy (2)
  • news (1)
  • New Year (2)
  • New Zealand poetry (16)
  • night (16)
  • Noah's Ark (1)
  • North-East Scotland (5)
  • Norwegian (10)
  • nothingness (1)
  • nursery rhymes (2)

O

  • octopus (1)
  • odes (1)
  • omens (2)
  • Orkney Islands (14)
  • Orpheus (1)
  • otters (1)
  • owls (1)

P

  • pain (2)
  • painting (4)
  • paradise (1)
  • parenthood (2)
  • parents (4)
  • parodies (1)
  • parties (1)
  • parting (3)
  • peace (8)
  • perception (7)
  • perseverance (3)
  • persistence (1)
  • perspective (4)
  • Perthshire (3)
  • pessimism (2)
  • pets (2)
  • philosophy (6)
  • photography (3)
  • physics (1)
  • Picasso (1)
  • pity (3)
  • Placebook Scotland (46)
  • planet (3)
  • pleasure (1)
  • poems about poets (15)
  • poems by young people (4)
  • poems inspired by paintings (6)
  • poems of conscience (5)
  • poems on postcards (68)
  • Poetry By Heart Scotland post-1914 (89)
  • Poetry by Heart Scotland pre-1914 (24)
  • poetry readings (2)
  • Polish (15)
  • politicians (15)
  • politics (33)
  • ports & harbours (6)
  • Portuguese (1)
  • possibility (1)
  • post (2)
  • poultry (1)
  • poverty (4)
  • praise poems (1)
  • prayers (5)
  • prehistoric remains (3)
  • pride (2)
  • prisoners (2)
  • promises (1)
  • prose poems (3)
  • puberty (1)
  • publishing (2)
  • pubs (1)

Q

  • questions (2)
  • quietness (2)

R

  • race (1)
  • rain (19)
  • rape (1)
  • reading (6)
  • reading poetry (6)
  • rebirth (1)
  • reciprocity (2)
  • regrets (5)
  • relationships (4)
  • religion (9)
  • remembrance (5)
  • renewable energy (1)
  • Renfrewshire (3)
  • restoration (1)
  • riddles (4)
  • rivers (10)
  • River Tay (1)
  • River Thames (1)
  • River Tweed (1)
  • roads (1)
  • Robert Burns (21)
  • Robert Louis Stevenson (7)
  • Robert the Bruce (1)
  • romance & chivalry (1)
  • Romanian (2)
  • Roman poetry (1)
  • Romantics (10)
  • rooms (2)
  • roses (1)
  • ruins (2)
  • Russian (4)

S

  • sailing (6)
  • sailors (1)
  • saints (4)
  • Sami poetry (1)
  • scarecrows (1)
  • school (4)
  • School of Poets (15)
  • school teachers (1)
  • science fiction (4)
  • Scots recitals for children (36)
  • Scottish anonymous (7)
  • Scottish Borders (31)
  • Scottish Parliament (17)
  • scottish poems (198)
  • sea (27)
  • seashore (11)
  • seasons (6)
  • seaweed (3)
  • Second Wind (9)
  • senses (4)
  • sensuality (10)
  • sexuality (2)
  • Seychelles (1)
  • Shakespeare (3)
  • sheep (5)
  • Shetlandic (5)
  • Shetland Islands (10)
  • ships & boats (10)
  • ships and boats (2)
  • shopping (2)
  • short poems (2)
  • sight (2)
  • silence (1)
  • sisters (4)
  • skating (1)
  • skipping (2)
  • sky (5)
  • Skye (3)
  • sleeping (7)
  • Slovenian (7)
  • snow (8)
  • social deprivation (2)
  • social work (1)
  • society (1)
  • soldiers (14)
  • solitude (3)
  • songs (10)
  • sonnets (14)
  • sound poetry (2)
  • soup (1)
  • South African poetry (1)
  • South American poetry (14)
  • space travel (1)
  • Spanish (1)
  • spiders (3)
  • sport (17)
  • spring (27)
  • springs (1)
  • SQA Set Texts (34)
  • St Andrews (2)
  • stars (12)
  • starting afresh (2)
  • stereotypes (3)
  • Stirling (1)
  • stone (4)
  • strawberries (3)
  • streams (5)
  • strength (1)
  • suicide (1)
  • suitable for children (97)
  • summer (8)
  • Sunday (2)
  • supernatural (6)
  • surfing (1)
  • Surrealism (2)
  • swallows (1)
  • swans (1)
  • Swedish (6)
  • sweets (1)
  • swimming (1)

T

  • talk (7)
  • technology (1)
  • teeth (1)
  • telephones (2)
  • television (4)
  • tenderness (2)
  • Thailand (1)
  • the afterlife (3)
  • theatre (1)
  • the body (8)
  • the commonplace (8)
  • the dead (13)
  • the future (8)
  • The Hand that Sees (24)
  • the moon (12)
  • theology (1)
  • the subliminal (4)
  • the unknown (4)
  • The Weaver's Task (12)
  • time (13)
  • time passing (9)
  • Tools (2)
  • Tools of the Trade (47)
  • Tools of the Trade editors' selection (8)
  • tourism (3)
  • trains (8)
  • transcendance (2)
  • transience (20)
  • translation (2)
  • travel (3)
  • trees (18)
  • troglodyts (1)
  • trust (1)
  • truth (1)
  • tweed (1)

U

  • unease (1)
  • universe (2)
  • unrequited love (3)

V

  • vegetables (1)
  • villanelles (1)
  • visitors (1)
  • visual poetry (20)

W

  • walking (8)
  • Walt Disney (2)
  • war (33)
  • war memorials (5)
  • washing clothes (1)
  • water (12)
  • waterfalls (1)
  • waves (1)
  • weather (10)
  • Welsh (21)
  • Western Isles (15)
  • whales (1)
  • whisky (3)
  • white (1)
  • wildflowers (6)
  • wildlife (22)
  • wind (4)
  • winter (37)
  • witches (3)
  • wolves (3)
  • women (11)
  • woods (2)
  • wordplay (6)
  • words (2)
  • work (27)
  • World War I (83)
  • World War II (11)
  • writing poetry (45)

Y

  • yachting (1)
  • Yeman (1)
  • youth (6)

0-9

  • 15th century poems (2)
  • 16th century poems (5)
  • 17th century poems (9)
  • 18th century poems (31)
  • 19th century poems (79)
  • 20th century poems (36)
  • 21st century poems (105)

Share our poem of the moment...

Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day, and begin again.
Continue reading New Every Morning
More from Susan Coolidge
Share poem on Facebook Share poem on Twitter Share poem on Pinterest
Sunshine by hello pedestrian, under a Creative Commons licence
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2020.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

Due to UK Government advice relating to the pandemic, the library will be closed until the end of June. Dismiss