15+ Notable Poems about the Death of a Father

(15 to start, 25+ to explore)

Poems about the death of a father often explore the complex relationship between father and child. They may touch upon unresolved conflicts, unspoken words, or missed opportunities for connection. These poems provide an opportunity for reflection, forgiveness, and healing, allowing the poet to come to terms with their emotions and find closure.

They may also acknowledge the profound impact of a father’s absence and the journey of navigating life without his guidance. In essence, poems about the death of a father serve as a poignant tribute to the deep bond between fathers and their children. They provide a space for expression, healing, and remembrance, capturing the complex emotions and the enduring impact of a father’s presence and absence.

Poems about Death of a Father Visual Representation

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"> 93/100

Memory of My Father

by Patrick Kavanagh

Kavanagh’s poem portrays feelings of grief with startling potency by emphasising the presence of the speaker’s deceased father.

The death of the speaker's father, likely inspired by the death of Kavanagh's own father, is central to the entire poem. Kavanagh’s brilliance lies in his ability to make the father’s presence felt everywhere the speaker goes, showing how grief lingers and colors every experience. The way the father’s memory appears in strangers emphasizes how loss interrupts the present, making everyday moments reminders of absence. This gives the poem a deep and lasting emotional impact.

Every old man I see

Reminds me of my father

When he had fallen in love with death

One time when sheaves were gathered.

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"> 85/100

The Portrait

by Stanley Kunitz

‘The Portrait’ by Stanley Kunitz is a sad poem about the speaker’s ill-fated attempt to learn more about their deceased father.

One of the main focuses of the poem is the consequences of the father's suicide. For his widowed wife there is nothing left but anger at the loss, which drives her to erase his memory. But for the speaker there's a void left behind they try to fill despite their mother's refusal to even speak his name.

My mother never forgave my father

for killing himself,

especially at such an awkward time

and in a public park,

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"> 81/100

Electra on Azalea Path

by Sylvia Plath

‘Electra on Azalea Path’ by Sylvia Plath reflects her visit to her father’s grave, mixing her personal sadness with Greek mythology to look at mourning, memory, and the deep emotions tied to her father’s death.

The poem centers on Sylvia Plath's deep sadness over her father's death. She visits his grave and feels the pain all over again. The neglected cemetery and fake flowers show how his death left things unfinished. Plath's emotions are strongly tied to this loss. The poem shows how the death of a father changes everything and leaves a lasting impact.

The day you died I went into the dirt,

Into the lightless hibernaculum

Where bees, striped black and gold, sleep out the blizzard

Like hieratic stones, and the ground is hard.

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is Dylan Thomas’s most famous work, penned in response to his father’s death. This powerful poem urges resistance against the inevitable nature of death, encapsulating Thomas’s rich imagery and universal themes.

This poem was written by Dylan Thomas in response to the impending death of his own father. The poem is a deeply personal meditation on the pain and loss that comes with the death of a parent.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Fathers and Daughters

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Daddy

by Sylvia Plath

‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath uses emotional, and sometimes, painful metaphors to depict the poet’s opinion of her father and other men in her life.

Sylvia Plath's poem 'Daddy' explores the complicated and troubled relationship between a father and daughter. The speaker describes her father in powerful and oppressive terms, suggesting a sense of both love and hate. This piece was written after her father died.

You do not do, you do not do

Any more, black shoe

In which I have lived like a foot

For thirty years, poor and white,

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Obituary

by A. K. Ramanujan

‘Obituary’ by A.K. Ramanujan explores the universal toll a parent’s passing can have on a child and all the ways that their memory remains even after their death.

The poem focuses on a son dealing with his father’s death, but instead of showing deep sorrow, it presents the loss in a very ordinary way. The father dies, leaving behind debts, forgotten papers, and family responsibilities. His cremation is done as expected, and his obituary is barely noticed. The speaker does not dwell on emotions but instead shows how death is just another event in life that people must accept.

Father, when he passed on,

left dust

on a table of papers,

left debts and daughters,

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Poem at Thirty-Nine

by Alice Walker

‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ by Alice Walker describes the speaker’s father’s life. She admits how much she misses him and how she wishes he hadn’t had such a hard life.

The poem is deeply connected to the loss of the poet’s father. She misses him and thinks about how much he influenced her life. His absence is something she feels every day, and she looks back on their time together with both sadness and appreciation. Even though he is gone, she carries his lessons with her, keeping his memory alive in everything she does.

How i miss my father.

I wish he had not been

so tired

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Traveling Light

by Alice Fulton

‘Traveling Light’ by Alice Fulton is a powerful poem that weaves together images of the present and the past. Throughout, readers can explore Fulton’s understanding of her relationship with her father and her current relationship with the landscape around her.

The poem centers on the poet's father, who passed away. She reflects on her last visit to him in the hospital. This topic explores her feelings of loss and longing. It shows the deep impact his death had on her. The memories of her father are a key part of the poem.

Every restaurant boarded up in softwood,

bars strung with tipsy blinkers, smudgefires

against the dusk-

like day: who could have imagined the light

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from Maud (Part I.xxii)

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tennyson’s ‘Maud (Part I)’ uses nature’s imagery to express deep love and anticipation for Maud, highlighting the speaker’s emotional wait.

The speaker in ‘Maud’ deals with the emotional pain of losing his father, which shapes his perspective throughout the poem. This loss is felt deeply, and the speaker’s grief is expressed in his longing for Maud and his intense emotional state. His father’s death adds a layer of sorrow to his feelings, blending mourning with his desire and making his emotions even more complex.

Come into the garden, Maud,

For the black bat, night, has flown,

Come into the garden, Maud,

I am here at the gate alone;

#10

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Duplex: Cento

by Jericho Brown

‘Duplex: Cento’ explores the cyclical nature of love, conflict, and inherited emotional patterns. It touches on how past relationships, particularly with family, shape the way we love, argue, and deal with pain.

The poem poignantly addresses the death of a father, capturing the emotional complexities of loss and reflection. The speaker recounts memories that balance love, regret, and reverence, exploring how a father’s absence reshapes identity and perspective. It illustrates the universal experience of grappling with mortality, offering a deeply personal yet relatable narrative about how grief lingers and transforms over time.

My last love drove a burgundy car,

Color of a rash, a symptom of sickness.

We were the symptoms, the road our sickness:

None of our fights ended where they began.

#11

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Long Distance II

by Tony Harrison

‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison is an elegiac poem that describes a father’s way of grieving the death of his wife and his child’s reaction to his futile actions.

By the very end of the poem, the speaker addresses his dead father and describes how he still calls his father’s number with the hope that he will pick it up.

Though my mother was already two years dead

Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,

put hot water bottles her side of the bed

and still went to renew her transport pass.

#12

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Winter Stars

by Larry Levis

‘Winter Stars’ by Larry Levis tries to reconcile the estranged relationship between a son and their dying father.

The poem hones in on a father's impending death, giving an emotional recollection via the son's memories of their distant relationship. But it also wrestles with the way such a proximity to mortality (especially that of a parent) has of reconfiguring our thoughts and personal narratives.

My father once broke a man’s hand

Over the exhaust pipe of a John Deere tractor. The man,

Rubén Vásquez, wanted to kill his own father

With a sharpened fruit knife, & he held

#13

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To My Father, Who Died

by Dawn Garisch

Dawn Garisch’s poem ‘To My Father, Who Died’ is about the relationship of the poet’s father with the sea. It depicts the cycle of life and death through the metaphor of the sea.

The poem deeply reflects the emotional experience of losing a father, as the speaker meditates on her father's passing and her memories of him. She sits by the sea, where the waves and tides remind her of his presence and his absence. The father’s death impacts her thoughts, emotions, and her connection to nature. His memory is present, but his physical absence is keenly felt. The poem explores how loss shapes her view of the world.

On shimmering beaches you come to

me and sit in the caves of my sockets,

taking a long look out along the wash

to where the sea breathes white and ash

#14

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Cross

by Langston Hughes

‘Cross’ by Langston Hughes uses a stereotypical image of a biracial man to explore identity and the inequalites one might encounter.

The death of the speaker's white father in ‘Cross’ highlights racial disparities in life and death. His father’s comfortable passing contrasts sharply with his mother’s difficult death, reflecting societal privileges often afforded to white individuals. This difference in their deaths forces the speaker to confront racial divides and his own identity.

My old man’s a white old man

And my old mother’s black.

If ever I cursed my white old man

I take my curses back.

#15

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Lullaby

by Fatimah Asghar

In ‘Lullaby,’ Fatimah Asghar recalls a story her sister told after their parents’ death, blending grief and fantasy to imagine their reunion beyond death.

This poem deals with the death of a mother and father. The poet misses them, and the lullaby is a fantasy that is used to comfort them, allowing them to imagine a situation where the two parents can be together again, despite the fact that they are buried in different places.

When the sadness comes

My sister tells me a story -

A man buried in Pakistan

A woman buried in New York City

Home » Collection » Poems about Death of a Father

15+ Notable Poems about the Death of a Father

(15 to start, 25+ to explore)

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15+ Notable Poems about the Death of a Father

(15 to start, 25+ to explore)

by Patrick Kavanagh

by Stanley Kunitz

by Sylvia Plath

by Dylan Thomas

by Sylvia Plath

by A. K. Ramanujan

by Alice Walker

by Alice Fulton

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

by Jericho Brown

by Tony Harrison

by Larry Levis

by Dawn Garisch

by Langston Hughes

by Fatimah Asghar

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