Inspirational Poems About Death

Here are some inspirational poems about death that approach death from a transcendental point of view.

When we think about death, we don’t usually have positive feelings towards the subject. On the contrary, in most cases fear and anxiety overcome us … It doesn’t have to feel that way. I refuse to believe that I am only a body that will decay and eventually disappear...

There is a life within me that has no ending that life is who I really am.

"And Death Shall Have No Dominion "

And Death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Dylan Thomas
(Welsh Poet)

More inspirational poems about death:

"For the Anniversary of My Death "

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And bowing not knowing to what

W. S. Merwin
(American Poet)

"The Time Before Death"

(Version by Robert Bly)

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think... and think... while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time
before death.

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the
City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next
life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that
does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

Kabir
(Mystic Poet born in India)

Living in the Moment

I hope you enjoyed these inspirational poems about death and as this beautiful last poem by Kabir tells us, life is to be lived now.

We have to seize every moment, or at least this present moment and make the best out of it. Life passes by fast and will slip from our hands when we least suspect it.

And what is the secret to make the best out of life?
Love yourself, love others, love this moment!!!

Return from Inspirational Poems About Death to Inspirational Poems


Return from Inspirational Poems About Death to Anxiety and Depression Home