Do you feel that calm wash over you when words touch your heart? Self-love verses offer comfort when days feel tough. They remind us that we deserve the same kindness we give others.
Reading self-care poetry can boost your mood when you’re down. The right lines can help heal old hurts, build confidence, and show your true value.
This list brings you warm poems about self-acceptance and growth. Each one gives you a chance to pause, think, and care for yourself.
Ready to find new verses that feed your spirit? Let’s start this path of self-kindness together.
14 Short Self-Love Poems by Famous Poets
Finding words that speak to your soul can change your day. When you read verses about loving yourself, something shifts inside. These 14 poems by well-known writers offer wisdom about self-worth and inner strength.
Let’s look at each poem and what makes it special for self-care and personal growth.
1. Love After Love by Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread, Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
From: Collected Poems: 1948–1984
About the Author: Derek Walcott (1930–2017) was a Nobel Prize-winning Saint Lucian poet and playwright. His work blends classical themes with Caribbean culture and identity.
2. The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
From: The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
About the Author: Wendell Berry (b. 1934) is an American poet, novelist, and environmental activist. His poetry focuses on simplicity, nature, and spiritual calm.
3. Mirror by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
From: The Collected Poems (posthumous)
About the Author: Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was an American poet and novelist known for her confessional style and profound emotional intensity. Her novel The Bell Jar is also widely acclaimed.
4. To Myself by Edgar Allan Poe
I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able as days go by,
always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun
and hate myself for the things I have done.
I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
a lot of secrets about myself
and fool myself as I come and go
into thinking no one else will ever know
the kind of person I really am,
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
but here in the struggle for fame and wealth
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know that
I am bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself and so,
whatever happens I want to be
self respecting and conscience free.
From: Various anthologies of Guest’s poetry
About the Author: Edgar A. Guest (1881–1959) was a British-born American poet called “The People’s Poet” for his simple, uplifting verse on life and morality.
5. I Am by John Clare
I am! yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss’d
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that’s dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod,
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept;
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above the vaulted sky.
From: Poems Chiefly from Manuscript
About the Author: John Clare (1793–1864) was an English poet whose work explored nature, identity, and mental health. He is celebrated as a voice of the marginalized.
6. Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
From: A Return to Love (1992)
About the Author: Marianne Williamson (b. 1952) is a spiritual teacher, author, and political activist. She’s best known for her inspirational writing and teachings on personal transformation.
7. I, Too by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
From: The Weary Blues (1926)
About the Author: Langston Hughes (1901–1967) was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry celebrated Black identity, pride, and resilience.
8. Self Confidence Poem by Melody Godfred
Fear of confrontation used to silence me.
Self love raised my voice.
Fear of failure used to immobilize me.
Self love emboldened me.
Fear of judgement used to consume me.
Self love made me whole.
Fear of abandonment used to anchor me.
Self love helped me set sail.
From: Self Love Poetry: For Thinkers & Feelers
About the Author: Melody Godfred is a modern-day poet and founder of the Self Love Philosopher brand. Her work empowers women to embrace their worth and inner truth.
9. Self Love By Lang Leav
Once when I was running,
from all that haunted me;
to the dark I was succumbing –
to what hurt unbearably.
Searching for the one thing,
that would set my sad soul free.
In time I stumbled upon it,
an inner calm and peace;
and now I am beginning,
to see and to believe,
in who I am becoming –
and all I’ve yet to be.
From: Love Looks Pretty on You
About the Author: Lang Leav is a contemporary poet and novelist whose poignant writing explores themes of heartbreak, healing, and self-discovery.
10. My Brilliant Image by Hafiz
One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence
That has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing Light
Of your own Being!
From: The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master
About the Author: Hafiz (1325–1389) was a Persian mystic and poet known for spiritual, ecstatic poetry. This translation by Daniel Ladinsky brings his timeless wisdom to modern readers.
11. I Know My Soul by Claude McKay
I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
And held it to the mirror of my eye,
To see it like a star against the sky,
A twitching body quivering in space,
A spark of passion shining on my face.
And I explored it to determine why
This awful key to my infinity
Conspires to rob me of sweet joy and grace.
And if the sign may not be fully read,
If I can comprehend but not control,
I need not gloom my days with futile dread,
Because I see a part and not the whole.
Contemplating the strange, I’m comforted
By this narcotic thought: I know my soul.
From: Harlem Shadows (1922)
About the Author: Claude McKay (1889–1948) was a Jamaican-American poet and novelist central to the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote about racial identity, resistance, and the human spirit.
12. From Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you
From: Milk and Honey (2014)
About the Author: Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet and illustrator known for her minimalistic and emotional style. Her debut collection became a global phenomenon.
13. Homage to My Hips by Lucille Clifton
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!
From: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969–1980
About the Author: Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) was an American poet celebrated for her fierce voice and feminist themes. Her work often centered on Black womanhood and strength.
14. Acceptance by Rupi Kaur
if i am the longest relationship
of my life
isn’t it time to
nurture intimacy
and love
with the person
i lie in bed with each night
From: The Sun and Her Flowers (2017)
About the Author: Rupi Kaur’s second poetry book deepens her themes of self-love, growth, and healing. Her work has redefined modern poetry for the Instagram age.
Conclusion
Reading self-love poetry gives us words for feelings we often can’t express. These 14 poems from famous writers show us we’re not alone in our search for self-worth and inner peace.
From Phenomenal Woman by Angelou to Angelou or Wild Geese by Oliver, each poem offers a unique gift. They help us face hard days, build our confidence, and treat ourselves with the care we give others.
When we read words that speak to our hearts, something shifts inside. We start to see ourselves with kinder eyes.
These poems don’t just make us feel good for a moment – they teach us how to walk through life with more self-compassion and strength. The wisdom in these verses stays with us long after we finish reading.
