15 Poems to Help You Appreciate the Beauty Around Us

15 Poems to Help You Appreciate the Beauty Around Us

Beauty comes in many forms, but one of the best ways to experience the vast beauty around us is through poetry. 

Poets transcribe their world’s view onto paper, sharing perspectives on beauty we may never otherwise appreciate. 

Poetry about beauty delivers a strong emotional punch, pulling us to look deeper at everything around us. 

Today, we’ll share some poems on nature about creating, appreciating,  discovering, and finding beauty in its many forms. 

“Beauty is the Brief and Violent” by Snehal Vadher

Beauty is brief and violent

like the white thunderbolt

of Nilgiri slow and sudden

braided like her hair

one morning was a cluster

of grapes hung beside each

ear maybe it comes from where

hunger the voices of children

come breaking their way

to my heart the stones

my feet which are light

and heavy from walking

that path full and swift

the river flows eroding

the banks with its sinuous

desire gentle and unkind

the days the years’ boulders

tossed by a giant down the hill

we must climb to the sudden

sinuous blue

“The Beauty of Nature” by H. Weimer

Click HERE to for the video of this poem. 

“I Died for Beauty-But Was Scarce” by Emily Dickinson 

I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed? 

“For beauty,” I replied.

“And I for truth,—the two are one;

We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,

We talked between the rooms, 

Until the moss had reached our lips,

And covered up our names.

“Morning or Mourning” by Jan Allison 

Such precious gemstones

Morning dew shines like diamonds

God’s tears from heaven

“Dark Girl” by Mr. Damon Plant 

Watch this spoken word short-film poetry HERE

Sonnet 54 by Shakespeare

O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem

For that sweet odour which doth in it live.

The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye

As the perfumed tincture of the roses,

Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly

When summer’s breath their masked buds disclose:

But, for their virtue only is their show,

They live unwoo’d and unrespected fade,

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:

And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,

When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

“A Thing of Beauty” by John Keats

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness, but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and asleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon

For simple sheep; and such are daffodils

With the green world they live in; and clear rills

That for themselves a cooling covert make

‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,

Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:

And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

We have imagined for the mighty dead;

An endless fountain of immortal drink,

Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

“What Do You Call Beauty” by ACDT

Listen to this spoken word poem HERE

“Beauty and Beauty” by Rupert Brooke

When Beauty and Beauty meet

All naked, fair to fair,

The earth is crying-sweet,

And scattering-bright the air,

Eddying, dizzying, closing round,

With soft and drunken laughter;

Veiling all that may befall

After — after —

Where Beauty and Beauty met,

Earth’s still a-tremble there,

And winds are scented yet,

And memory-soft the air,

Bosoming, folding glints of light,

And shreds of shadowy laughter;

Not the tears that fill the years

After — after —

“To a Dark Girl” by Gwendolyn B. Bennett

I love you for your brownness

And the rounded darkness of your breast

I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice

And shadows where your wayward eye-lids rest.

Something of old forgotten queens

Lurks in the lithe abandon of your walk

And something of the shackled slave

Sobs in the rhythm of your talk

Oh, little brown girl, born for sorrow’s mate

Keep all you have of queenliness

Forgetting that you were once were slave

And let your full lips laugh at Fate!

“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies. 

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. 

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

“Still Will I Harvest Beauty Where it Grows” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Still, will I harvest beauty where it grows:

In colored fungus and the spotted fog

Surprised on foods forgotten; in ditch and bog

Filmed brilliant with irregular rainbows

Of rust and oil, where half a city throws

Its empty tins; and in some spongy log

Whence headlong leaps the oozy emerald frog. . . .

And a black pupil in the green scum shows.

Her the inhabiter of diverse places

Surmising at all doors, I push them all.

Oh, you that fearful of a creaking hinge

Turn back forevermore with craven faces,

I tell you Beauty bears an ultra fringe

Unguessed of you upon her gossamer shawl!

“Beauty” by Moonlight Mel

Listen to this spoken word poem HERE

“He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty” by William Butler Yeats

O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes,

The poets labouring all their days

To build a perfect beauty in rhyme

Are overthrown by a woman’s gaze

And by the unlabouring brood of the skies:

And therefore my heart will bow, when dew

Is dropping sleep, until God burn time,

Before the unlabouring stars and you.

“To The Girl With The Beautiful Eyes” by Matthew Holiday 

To the girl with the beautiful eyes

There is a beauty unbound within you

A muse to my poetic verse

A song inside the silence

Something special as yet unearthed

I see a warmth and loving soul

I see a kindness and joy

I see a friend and more beyond

I see a love that stirs in dreams

I see in your eyes my sweet

Something special, inspiring

So I offer this verse to you

With love and a kindness

To the girl with the beautiful eyes

My heart belongs to you

The world holds so much beauty, and these are just a few of the great poems that touch on the beauty around us. For more writing about the many forms of beauty, check out our expansive library. CraveBooks has a large collection of best-selling books available, including many about beauty. Click here to create a free account. 

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