They say that music is a universal language. It has the power to cross borders, beliefs, and barriers and unite people from all walks of life. When you think about it, that’s pretty amazing! To capture the essence of its magnificence, here are some rousing poems about music to share with your students.
Quick note: Be sure to read the poems on this list of poems about music before bringing them into your classroom to ensure that they align with the learning environment you’ve created.
Our Favorite Poems About Music
I Am in Need of Music by Elizabeth Bishop
“Over my fretful, feeling fingertips …”
The Piano by Gillian Clarke
“The last bus sighs through the stops of the sleeping suburb …”
My Lute Awake by Sir Thomas Wyatt
“My lute awake! perform the last / Labour that thou and I shall waste …”
Suspend, Singer Swan by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
“Suspend, singer swan, the sweet strain …”
I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman
“Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong …”
The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
“Hamelin Town’s in Brunswick …”
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
“Droning a drowsy syncopated tune …”
Alexander’s Feast; or, the Power of Music by John Dryden
“’Twas at the royal feast for Persia won …”
The Banjo Player by Fenton Johnson
“There is music in me, the music of a peasant people.”
Sonnet 8: Music to Hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? by William Shakespeare
“Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.”
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains …”
Endymion by Oscar Wilde
“The apple trees are hung with gold …”
A Musical Instrument by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“WHAT was he doing, the great god Pan …”
The Guitar by Federico García Lorca
“The weeping of the guitar begins.”
Music by Walter de la Mare
“When music sounds, gone is the earth I know …”
We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks
“We real cool. We / Left school. We …”
The Myth of Music by Rachel M. Harper
“If music can be passed on …”
My Mother’s Music by Emilie Buchwald
“In the evenings of my childhood …”
Latin & Soul by Victor Hernández Cruz
“a piano is trying to break a molecule …”
Elegy by Anne Stevenson
“Whenever my father was left with nothing to do …”
A Poem for Ella Fitzgerald by Sonia Sanchez
“when she came on the stage, this Ella …”
The Everyday Enchantment of Music by Mark Strand
“A rough sound was polished until it became a smoother sound …”
A Poem in Which I Try To Express My Glee at the Music My Friend Has Given Me by Ross Gay
“Because I must not get up to throw down in a café in the Midwest …”
Piano by Dan Howell
“Her wattled fingers can’t …”
Your Songs by Gwendolyn Bennett
“When first you sang a song to me …”
apocalyptic lyric by Cintia Santana
“a line break is a kind of lie my friend says …”
One Boy Told Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Music lives inside my legs.”
Little Richard by Peter Balakian
“On a walk past bulldozers and trucks …”
I Was Told the Sunlight Was a Cure by Hanif Abdurraqib
“for the cloak of despair thrown over our bright & precious …”
The One Mockingbird Only Sings at Night by Hannah Sanghee Park
“Far cars, numerous.”
Enjoy these poems about music? Check out our favorite poems about nature too!
