Moon Poems | 10 of the Best Poems about the Moon

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    The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
    In a beautiful pea green boat,
    They took some honey, and plenty of money,
    Wrapped up in a five pound note.
    The Owl looked up to the stars above,
    And sang to a small guitar,
    ‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
    What a beautiful Pussy you are,
    You are,
    You are!
    What a beautiful Pussy you are!’

    Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
    How charmingly sweet you sing!
    O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
    But what shall we do for a ring?’
    They sailed away, for a year and a day,
    To the land where the Bong-tree grows
    And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
    With a ring at the end of his nose,
    His nose,
    His nose,
    With a ring at the end of his nose.

    ‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
    Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’
    So they took it away, and were married next day
    By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
    They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
    Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
    And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
    They danced by the light of the moon,
    The moon,
    The moon,
    They danced by the light of the moon.

    Evening In A Sugar Orchard Poem by Robert Frost

    From where I lingered in a lull in March
    outside the sugar-house one night for choice,
    I called the fireman with a careful voice
    And bade him leave the pan and stoke the arch:
    ‘O fireman, give the fire another stoke,
    And send more sparks up chimney with the smoke.’
    I thought a few might tangle, as they did,
    Among bare maple boughs, and in the rare
    Hill atmosphere not cease to glow,
    And so be added to the moon up there.
    The moon, though slight, was moon enough to show
    On every tree a bucket with a lid,
    And on black ground a bear-skin rug of snow.
    The sparks made no attempt to be the moon.
    They were content to figure in the trees
    As Leo, Orion, and the Pleiades.
    And that was what the boughs were full of soon.

    Ars Poetica Poem by Archibald MacLeish

    A poem should be palpable and mute
    As a globed fruit

    Dumb
    As old medallions to the thumb

    Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
    Of casement ledges where the moss has grown –

    A poem should be wordless
    As the flight of birds

    A poem should be motionless in time
    As the moon climbs

    Leaving, as the moon releases
    Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

    Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
    Memory by memory the mind –

    A poem should be motionless in time
    As the moon climbs

    A poem should be equal to:
    Not true

    For all the history of grief
    An empty doorway and a maple leaf

    For love
    The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea –

    A poem should not mean
    But be

    The Early Morning Poem by Hilaire Belloc

    The moon on the one hand, the dawn on the other:
    The moon is my sister, the dawn is my brother.
    The moon on my left and the dawn on my right.
    My brother, good morning: my sister, good night.

    Laughter And Tears Ix Poem by Kahlil Gibran

    As the Sun withdrew his rays from the garden, and the moon threw cushioned beams upon the flowers, I sat under the trees pondering upon the phenomena of the atmosphere, looking through the branches at the strewn stars which glittered like chips of silver upon a blue carpet; and I could hear from a distance the agitated murmur of the rivulet singing its way briskly into the valley.

    When the birds took shelter among the boughs, and the flowers folded their petals, and tremendous silence descended, I heard a rustle of feet though the grass. I took heed and saw a young couple approaching my arbor. The say under a tree where I could see them without being seen.

    After he looked about in every direction, I heard the young man saying, ‘Sit by me, my beloved, and listen to my heart; smile, for your happiness is a symbol of our future; be merry, for the sparkling days rejoice with us.

    ‘My soul is warning me of the doubt in your heart, for doubt in love is a sin. ‘Soon you will be the owner of this vast land, lighted by this beautiful moon; soon you will be the mistress of my palace, and all the servants and maids will obey your commands.

    ‘Smile, my beloved, like the gold smiles from my father’s coffers.

    ‘My heart refuses to deny you its secret. Twelve months of comfort and travel await us; for a year we will spend my father’s gold at the blue lakes of Switzerland, and viewing the edifices of Italy and Egypt, and resting under the Holy Cedars of Lebanon; you will meet the princesses who will envy you for your jewels and clothes.

    ‘All these things I will do for you; will you be satisfied? ‘

    In a little while I saw them walking and stepping on flowers as the rich step upon the hearts of the poor. As they disappeared from my sight, I commenced to make comparison between love and money, and to analyze their position in the heart.

    Money! The source of insincere love; the spring of false light and fortune; the well of poisoned water; the desperation of old age!

    I was still wandering in the vast desert of contemplation when a forlorn and specter-like couple passed by me and sat on the grass; a young man and a young woman who had left their farming shacks in the nearby fields for this cool and solitary place.

    After a few moments of complete silence, I heard the following words uttered with sighs from weather-bitten lips, ‘Shed not tears, my beloved; love that opens our eyes and enslaves our hearts can give us the blessing of patience. Be consoled in our delay our delay, for we have taken an oath and entered Love’s shrine; for our love will ever grow in adversity; for it is in Love’s name that we are suffering the obstacles of poverty and the sharpness of misery and the emptiness of separation. I shall attack these hardships until I triumph and place in your hands a strength that will help over all things to complete the journey of life.

    ‘Love – which is God – will consider our sighs and tears as incense burned at His altar and He will reward us with fortitude. Good-bye, my beloved; I must leave before the heartening moon vanishes.’

    A pure voice, combined of the consuming flame of love, and the hopeless bitterness of longing and the resolved sweetness of patience, said, ‘Good-bye, my beloved.’

    They separated, and the elegy to their union was smothered by the wails of my crying heart.

    I looked upon slumbering Nature, and with deep reflection discovered the reality of a vast and infinite thing – something no power could demand, influence acquire, nor riches purchase. Nor could it be effaced by the tears of time or deadened by sorrow; a thing which cannot be discovered by the blue lakes of Switzerland or the beautiful edifices of Italy.

    It is something that gathers strength with patience, grows despite obstacles, warms in winter, flourishes in spring, casts a breeze in summer, and bears fruit in autumn – I found Love.

    Amidst The Flowers A Jug Of Wine Poem by Li Po

    Amidst the flowers a jug of wine,
    I pour alone lacking companionship.
    So raising the cup I invite the Moon,
    Then turn to my shadow which makes three of us.
    Because the Moon does not know how to drink,
    My shadow merely follows the movement of my body.
    The moon has brought the shadow to keep me company a while,
    The practice of mirth should keep pace with spring.
    I start a song and the moon begins to reel,
    I rise and dance and the shadow moves grotesquely.
    While I’m still conscious let’s rejoice with one another,
    After I’m drunk let each one go his way.
    Let us bind ourselves for ever for passionless journeyings.
    Let us swear to meet again far in the Milky Way.

    Drinking Alone Poem by Li Po

    I take my wine jug out among the flowers
    to drink alone, without friends.

    I raise my cup to entice the moon.
    That, and my shadow, makes us three.

    But the moon doesn’t drink,
    and my shadow silently follows.

    I will travel with moon and shadow,
    happy to the end of spring.

    When I sing, the moon dances.
    When I dance, my shadow dances, too.

    We share life’s joys when sober.
    Drunk, each goes a separate way.

    Constant friends, although we wander,
    we’ll meet again in the Milky Way.

    Li T’ai-po
    tr. Hamil

    Ballad Of The Moon Poem by Federico García Lorca

    translated by Will Kirkland

    The moon came into the forge
    in her bustle of flowering nard.
    The little boy stares at her, stares.
    The boy is staring hard.
    In the shaken air
    the moon moves her amrs,
    and shows lubricious and pure,
    her breasts of hard tin.
    “Moon, moon, moon, run!
    If the gypsies come,
    they will use your heart
    to make white necklaces and rings.”
    “Let me dance, my little one.
    When the gypsies come,
    they’ll find you on the anvil
    with your lively eyes closed tight.
    “Moon, moon, moon, run!
    I can feelheir horses come.”
    “Let me be, my little one,
    don’t step on me, all starched and white!”

    Closer comes the the horseman,
    drumming on the plain.
    The boy is in the forge;
    his eyes are closed.
    Through the olive grove
    come the gypsies, dream and bronze,
    their heads held high,
    their hooded eyes.

    Oh, how the night owl calls,
    calling, calling from its tree!
    The moon is climbing through the sky
    with the child by the hand.

    They are crying in the forge,
    all the gypsies, shouting, crying.
    The air is veiwing all, views all.
    The air is at the viewing.

    Lonely Moon Poem by Sandra Feldman

    The Moon will shine,
    Without your smile,
    But no longer shall it be,
    A Moon that shines for me,
    Gone are the days,
    When you’d just stay,
    So close, smiling at me.

    The Moon is cold,
    So I am told,
    And winter’s here for me,
    When love is gone,
    There is no Sun,
    The Moon is all I see.

    Oh lonely Moon, my lonely Moon,
    Poor orphan in the sky,
    Detached from mother Earth,
    Your barren surface has no life,
    No hope, no love, no mirth.

    Oh Moon alone,
    Made out of stone,
    Rotating in the sky,
    A phantom ship,
    No life to grip,
    No tears to even cry,
    No one can feel your loneliness,
    As deeply as can I.

    Alone And Drinking Under The Moon Poem by Li Po

    Amongst the flowers I
    am alone with my pot of wine
    drinking by myself; then lifting
    my cup I asked the moon
    to drink with me, its reflection
    and mine in the wine cup, just
    the three of us; then I sigh
    for the moon cannot drink,
    and my shadow goes emptily along
    with me never saying a word;
    with no other friends here, I can
    but use these two for company;
    in the time of happiness, I
    too must be happy with all
    around me; I sit and sing
    and it is as if the moon
    accompanies me; then if I
    dance, it is my shadow that
    dances along with me; while
    still not drunk, I am glad
    to make the moon and my shadow
    into friends, but then when
    I have drunk too much, we
    all part; yet these are
    friends I can always count on
    these who have no emotion
    whatsoever; I hope that one day
    we three will meet again,
    deep in the Milky Way.