Poems about humanity explore the multifaceted nature of the human experience, celebrating our shared humanity and the diversity that exists within it.
These poems delve into the depths of human emotions, relationships, and the intricate tapestry of our existence. They may touch upon themes such as love, compassion, resilience, joy, sorrow, and the pursuit of meaning.
Poems about humanity often highlight our capacity for empathy, understanding, and connection, reminding us of our shared struggles, aspirations, and the importance of embracing our commonalities. They invite introspection, reflection, and a deeper appreciation for the beauty and complexity of being human.
Wordsworth’s ‘The Tables Turned’ asks readers to quit books and rediscover the natural world’s beauty and wisdom.
'The Tables Turned' discusses multiple concepts of humanity. First, humanity is ruining education by detailing it so finely that the original idea is unseen. Second, that nature, specifically a forest during springtime, can show someone more about humanity than any professor could teach. Both concepts interconnect with the persuasion to change from books to nature as the reader's true teacher.
‘Keeping Quiet’ by Pablo Neruda is an incredibly thoughtful poem that stands out among Neruda’s many love poems. It takes a unique approach to the human condition and how “we” don’t understand ourselves.
This poem is primarily focused on humanity's issues. The poet alludes to the various occupations people find themselves engaged in and how the 12 second pause would allow them to connect more deeply with one another.
‘A Swarm Of Gnats’ by Hermann Hesse is a devastating poem that presents a group of insects as a compelling foil for humanity.
One of the topics that Hermann Hesse's poem explores deeply and depressingly is humanity. The poem at first starts out focused on the swarm of gnats, but soon shifts to juxtapose the insects with the rise and fall of various human civilizations. Ultimately, the speaker firmly believes we have yet to come anywhere close to the passion exhibited by such creatures.
‘Strange Meeting’ by Wilfred Owen explores soldiers’ disillusionment with war, their moral dilemma, and shared humanity.
The poem transcends the traditional representation of war enemies, delivering a humanistic perspective. In the afterlife, the soldiers from opposing sides share collective suffering, dilemmas, and sorrow, suggesting similar human experiences and grief. The soldiers' conversation as humans who suffered identical fates emphasizes the futility and dehumanizing aspects of the war, pointing to its immense human cost while prompting reflection on our lost humanity. Only dead soldiers can express their humanity and transcend the coerced boundaries drawn by a questionable war.
‘What Were They Like?’ by Denise Levertov criticizes the Vietnam War, presenting the suffering of Vietnamese people while imagining genocide.
The poem focuses on the basic humanity of the Vietnamese people and the annihilation of innocent lives. It shows the ordinary activities of everyday life before the war, such as fathers telling old tales to their sons and water buffaloes grazing peacefully. However, the abrupt destruction caused by war shatters this idyllic existence, not leaving time for even screams. By presenting the humanness of the peasants affected by the war, the poet urges readers to acknowledge the inhumanity of conflict and the unjust suffering endured by civilians who often bear the war's horrors.
‘Nocturne’ perceives the pain, love, fear, and hate in the hearts of two parents desperate to keep their only child safe from harm.
Spender's poem paints a dually bleak and hopeful portrait of humanity. With agonizing truthfulness, it reveals that, no matter how fervently sincere, love is vital but ultimately limited in its ability to bring one comfort. There are some things, like war, that are far too overwhelming to make you feel anything but helpless in their wake. However, to succumb to that hopelessness is to find oneself consumed by fear turned to hate, which leads only to more self-inflicted violence on humanity's part.
‘Every Man A King’ by Timothy Thomas Fortune is a passionate poem that calls for ideals like liberty to be distributed equally amongst all people.
Fortune's poem addresses a series of issues that plague humanity. For one, there is a serious imbalance of power that exists between populations of people and those that rule over them. Another is the ways in which laws and conquests are used to infringe on the human rights of the people.
‘jasper texas 1998’ by Lucille Clifton is a devastating poem that illustrates both the poet’s frustrated fury over and the dehumanizing barbarity of systemic racial violence against Black people in the United States.
A topic addressed in Lucille Clifton's poem is the idea of humanity; as the target of white supremacists, James Byrd Jr. is dehumanized and murdered because they don't see him as a person. Yet this lack of respect for the life of another human being reveals their own vacant humanity; to inflict such cruelty is revealed as incongruent with possessing humanity.
‘Insensibility’ by Wilfred Owen explores the psychological trauma and dehumanization experienced by soldiers during World War I.
'Insensibility' engages with humanity by exploring the decline of empathy and emotional connection in the face of war's brutality, leading to dehumanization. The lack of feeling in soldiers works as a coping mechanism to survive and continue fighting while they lose touch with their own humanity. On the other hand, society and decision-making powers at large lack empathy and humanity toward the young lives being sacrificed on the battlefields. The poem challenges the notion of war as a noble endeavor, emphasizing its toll on humanity.
‘Any Human to Another’ by Countee Cullen connects humans through the shared experience of sorrow, advocating empathy and compassion.
This poem advocates for sharing each others' sorrows while practicing empathy, compassion, and unity among humanity. It evokes the interconnectedness of humans through the individually distinct yet equally hurtful universal experience of grief and the ensuing emotional pain. The speaker repeatedly emphasizes that empathy 'must' emerge towards others' sorrows; the use of 'must' implies that empathy and compassion are innate human characteristics bound to occur, and if they do not, the essential humanness is lacking. Thus, understanding each others' pain and yielding support keeps humanity's humanness alive.
‘Memory Sack’ by Joy Harjo is a poignant poem that reveals human memory as a uniting characteristic of our existence.
Joy Harjo's poem touches on a variety of things that unite us as people—presenting our memories as a defining part of our humanity and our ability to connect with one another. Her use of imagery and symbolism offers a poignant understanding of life and how important our memories truly are to our respective journeys through life.
‘Leisure’ is one of the best-known poems written by the Welsh poet W. H. Davies. In this poem, Davies highlights how modernity alienated us from simplicity.
Humanity is a primary theme in this piece. The poem focuses on humanity's nature and how that appears to be changing, and not for the better (the poet thinks) as greater technological progress is made.
Cummings’ ‘what if a much of a which of a wind’ presents different fragmented apocalyptic visions in an experimental language.
The poem delves into different aspects of humanity, from its resilience and ability to rebuild the ruins to its self-annihilating dark tendencies. The first stanza notes that after all-consuming destruction, 'the single secret will still be a man,' indicating humans' resilience. However, the last stanza depicts humanity's dark side, likely alluding to a human-made catastrophe; particularly, the poem's last line suggests the universal selfishness of humanity wherein we exploit and destroy others for selfish interests justified by the notion that others' destruction is inevitable for survival and progress.
Ros Barber’s ‘Material’ stitches a nostalgic mourning of the shift from hankies to tissues, blending personal grief and societal critique.
Capitalist culture has dehumanized the world, replacing warm, personal interactions with mechanized, cold professionalism epitomized by malls and self-billing systems, eroding the simple, intimate, and interconnected way of life. The shift to disposable tissues represents a materialistic, mass-produced culture where everything, including human interactions, has become indifferent, impersonal, or 'scratchy' like tissues. The poem laments the loss of small family businesses and intimate human connections, like the butcher 'who'd 'slip an extra sausage in.'
Dickinson’s ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’ captures snakes’ unsettling presence, reflecting fear and human vulnerability amid nature.
The poem reflects on humanity's complex relationship with the natural world. The speaker's fear and unease towards the snake illustrate human vulnerability and nature's inherent unpredictability. However, the speaker's affinity for other creatures in nature suggests humanity's deeper connection and embeddedness within the natural order, while some aspects of nature continue to remain elusive to humans, underlining humanity's dual role as both an observer and participant in nature.
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