5 Must-Read Poems about Strong Women

Poems about strong women focus on their resilience, courage, and determination. These poems highlight women who challenge societal expectations, overcome adversity, and inspire others with their strength. They often celebrate independence, perseverance, and the power of women to create change in their lives and the world around them.

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Mrs Beast

by Carol Ann Duffy

Belle, as Mrs Beast, corrects the narrative of her story as well as other women’s stories in this masterful poem by Carol Ann Duffy.

This poem places strong women at the forefront of every story. Carol Ann Duffy explores the obscured power held by the women in the world's most beloved stories, liberating them from the role of damsel and victim. The poem carries strong themes of feminism and female power as Duffy seeks to highlight the gender inequality present in popular storytelling. The only men portrayed in the poem are characterized as cruel, whereas the women are praised as queens.

These myths going round, these legends, fairytales,

I’ll put them straight; so when you stare

into my face – Helen’s face, Cleopatra’s,

Queen of Sheba’s, Juliet’s – then, deeper,

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Mothers and Daughters

Strong Women

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Free Verse

Genre: Lyric

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Praise Song For My Mother

by Grace Nichols

‘Praise Song For My Mother’ uses nature metaphors to depict her mother’s vital, nurturing presence in a personal ode.

The speaker characterizes their mother as being a strong woman through comparisons to nature. This imbues her with a formidable resilience, not simply an authority, but a revered figure that a child might look up to in awe. Both the images of "water" and the "sunrise" are meant to evoke the speaker's perceptions of their parent as a source of love, safety, and stability.

You were

water to me

deep and bold and fathoming

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Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

‘Phenomenal Woman’ by Maya Angelou defies the stereotypes women are often faced with today. It is a poem filled with strength and determination.

The speaker represents the idea of a strong woman who is aware of her worth and does not let others define her. Her strength is shown through her confidence, her refusal to change for others, and her pride in what makes her different. This strength is not only physical but emotional and mental as well. The poem becomes a tribute to women who stand tall in their individuality and inspire others to do the same.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

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Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941

by Carol Ann Duffy

‘Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941’ is a haunting portrait of a woman’s fractured mind as she sits in silence, trying to remember who she is in the aftermath of war.

Even though the woman is lost and unsure, she keeps holding on. She does not run or hide. She sits there, quietly working through her thoughts, trying to make sense of what has happened to her. That stillness is not weakness — it takes strength to stay present when everything inside you is breaking. The poem gives voice to a woman who is scared and hurting but still trying, and that kind of quiet strength deserves to be seen.

I forget. I have looked at the other faces and found

no memory, no love. Christ, she’s a rum one.

Their laughter fills the tunnel, but it does not

comfort me. There was a bang and then

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Gretel in Darkness

by Louise Glück

Louise Glück’s ‘Gretel in Darkness’ is a revisionist feminist retelling of the classic fairy tale from Gretel’s perspective after she killed the witch.

This is the world we wanted.

All who would have seen us dead

are dead. I hear the witch's cry

break in the moonlight through a sheet

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5 Must-Read Poems about Strong Women

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5 Must-Read Poems about Strong Women

Mrs Beast

by Carol Ann Duffy

Praise Song For My Mother

by Grace Nichols

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941

by Carol Ann Duffy

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