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These nostalgic and reflective poems journey into the realms of memory and history. They contemplate the power of the past to shape the present and influence the future.
These verses may evoke longing, regret, or appreciation for bygone days. Poets use language to transport readers to moments and places long gone, immersing them in the essence of the past.
These poems become bridges between yesterday and today, reminding us that the echoes of the past continue to resonate within us.
Jean Bleakney’s ‘Consolidation’ is a deeply personal poem about the act of rearranging the cowry shells that the speaker and her children gathered in the past.
Some sunny, empty afternoon
I’ll pool our decade’s worth
and more of cowrie shells
gathered from that gravel patch
‘Carpe Diem’ by Robert Frost is a poem that encourages the reader to live in the present and comments on people’s tendency to focus on the past and the future instead.
Age saw two quiet children
Go loving by at twilight,
He knew not whether homeward,
Or outward from the village,
‘Kinsale’ is a short but powerful poetic rendering of the titular port twon which explores themes of hope and optimism.
The kind of rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say,
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-slue slates are steaming in the sun,
Ros Barber’s ‘Material’ stitches a nostalgic mourning of the shift from hankies to tissues, blending personal grief and societal critique.
My mother was a hanky queen
when hanky meant a thing of cloth,
not paper tissues bought in packs
from late-night garages and shops,
‘Before We Were Married’ laments the exchange of one man’s lofty freedom for the monotonous captivity they believe marriage to be.
BLACKSOIL PLAINS were grey soil, grey soil in the drought.
Fifteen years away, and five hundred miles out;
Swag and bag and billy carried all our care
Before we were married, and I wish that I were there.
‘Never Go Back’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a contemplative poem about the dissonance felt when revisiting past places, highlighting the inevitable changes and the emotional impact of altered memories.
In the bar where the living dead drink all day
and a jukebox reminisces in a cracked voice
there is nothing to say. You talk for hours
in agreed motifs, anecdotes shuffled and dealt
‘New Year’s Eve Midnight’ by Gabriel Okara reflects on passage of time, hopes, and dreams amidst fading memories, and dawn of new beginnings.
Now the bells are tolling –
a year is dead.
And my heart is slowly beating
the Nunc Dimittis
‘They Desire a Better Country’ by Christina Rossetti is an incredibly complex and beautiful poem by the Victorian poet. It’s not one of her better-known, but it does utilize many of the themes and emotions she’s known for.
I would not if I could undo my past,
Tho' for its sake my future is a blank;
My past, for which I have myself to thank,
For all its faults and follies first and last.
‘Scent’ by Jennie S. Redling is a reflective poem that tells us about the speaker’s unrealized ambition that is causing her agony.
My finger
Stroke old artwork,
Programs I designed once to
Align myself with small theatre companies
‘Wild Lemons’ by David Malouf is a powerful poem about the passage of time and how some things remain the same.
Through all those years keeping the present
open to the light of just this moment:
that was the path we found, you might call it
a promise, that starting out among blazed trunks
‘A Poem For Mother’ by Robin S. Ngangom contains the speaker’s regret for how he has lived. He feels his mother should not be proud of him.
Palem Apokpi, mother who gave birth to me,
to be a man how I hated leaving home
ten years ago. Now these hills
‘Just For A Time’ by Maya Angelou shows the difficulty in remembering the past without longing for it to return.
Oh how you used to walk
With that insouciant smile
I liked to hear you talk
And your style
‘Sonnet 3’ is a Procreation Sonnet addressing Fair Youth while emphasizing the significance of procreation.
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,
Now is the time that face should form another,
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
‘Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City’ looks at the nature of love, memory, and human connections, emphasising their value.
Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for
future use with its shows, architecture, customs, traditions,
Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman I casually met
there who detain'd me for love of me,
‘The Map-Woman’ by Duffy explores the deep imprint of past and place on personal identity, depicted through a metaphor of a female body.
A woman's skin was a map of the town
where she'd grown from a child.
When she went out, she covered it up
with a dress, with a shawl, with a hat,
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