Nevertheless, the final image of Plath riding into the red dawn of the sunrise is inspirational in the extreme.īeing a ‘phenomenal woman’ is not about being a certain size, or a particular shape. Read in this way, ‘Ariel’ can be understood as a powerful, if ambiguous, declaration of self-expression and freedom, albeit freedom desired rather than fully possessed. The poem is often viewed as a reflection of Plath’s early morning poetry-writing ritual in the months leading up to her death: she would wake, write poetry, and then spend the rest of the day employed in household chores. This enigmatic poem uses the metaphor of an early morning horse-ride to explore numerous shifting notions of identity. But one of the most powerful ways that poets can inspire us is by taking their own personal suffering and showing how art can arise from it, and ‘Ariel’ is a beautiful example of this. Sylvia Plath – plagued by depression throughout much of her adult life, and eventually taking her own life in 1963 – may also seem an unlikely poet to find in a list of inspiring poems. Here, Larkin reconnects with his childhood self as spring comes into view again, and he feels mysteriously happy. What, Philip Larkin, the poet who famously said that ‘deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth’, appearing on a list of the most inspirational poems? But this quietly happy poem is arguably all the more inspiring and uplifting precisely because it is understated and written by a poet isn’t predominantly known for writing joyously about the world. In just eight short lines, probably the best-known poet of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes (1901-67), gives us words to live by – reminding us that it’s important to ‘hold fast to your dreams’ because a life without them is a ‘barren field’. The poem thus became one of the great inspirational poetic messages of the twentieth century, particularly in the United States. Having drafted the poem in 1921 and registered it for copyright in 1927, Ehrmann then distributed the poem in a Christmas card in 1933.Ī few years later, the psychiatrist Merrill Moore was given a copy of the poem, and he distributed 1,000 copies to his patients and soldiers during World War II. This poem from the 1920s is a little different from others on this list, in that it’s an example of the prose poem. This is summed up well in the reference to meeting with triumph and disaster and ‘treat those two impostors just the same’ – in other words, be magnanimous in victory and success (don’t gloat or crow about it) and be dignified and noble in defeat or times of trouble (don’t moan or throw your toys out of the pram).Ī phrase that is often used in discussion or analysis of ‘If-’ is ‘stiff upper lip’, that shorthand for the typically English quality of reserve and stoicism in the face of disaster. Stoicism looms large in Kipling’s famous poem – that is, the acknowledgment that, whilst you cannot always prevent bad things from happening to you, you can deal with them in a good way. Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,Īnd yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise … If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,īut make allowance for their doubting too If you can keep your head when all about you The poem introduced a couple of famous phrases into the language: ‘bloody, but unbowed’, and the final two lines: ‘I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.’ ‘Invictus’ was partly inspired by Henley’s (pictured right) own struggles as an invalid (he lost a leg when young) and his determination to remain ‘bloody but unbowed’. Clint Eastwood’s 2009 film about the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa is named Invictus after this poem, and for good reason: Nelson Mandela recited the poem to his fellow prisoners while he was incarcerated on Robben Island.
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