Poems about blue are like a deep sigh of the sky, a tranquil whisper that carries a sense of calm and melancholy. It’s the color of vast, open horizons and the quiet moments before dawn. Poets often use blue to evoke feelings of serenity, introspection, and mystery. It also represents sadness, longing, and yearning. Blue can be lonely, blue can be peaceful. This complex color leads to beautiful poetry. Here are a few examples of poems about blue or that involve the color blue.
Blue-Butterfly Day by Robert Frost
It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.
But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
2. And so I fell in love with a color—in this case, the color blue—as if falling under a spell, a spell I fought to stay under and get out from under, in turns.
9. So please do not write to tell me about any more beautiful blue things. To be fair, this book will not tell you about any, either. It will not say, Isn’t X beautiful? Such demands are murderous to beauty.
These are excerpts from Maggie Nelson’s book Bluets, one of the most compelling books of poetry I have ever read. The entire book is dedicated to the color blue and is a must-read for any poetry enjoyer.
Haiku by C.W. Bryan
orange river
or is it a
blue sunset
Blueberry by C.W. Bryan
only three short breaths
not even the time it takes
for a leaf to kiss the ground in autumn
three short breaths, through a phone
to deliver the news that Celine
has since stopped breathing at all
a life one year long
not even the time it takes
for blueberries to grow
how many tiny heartbeats
in a life smaller than a blueberry?
This poem is from C.W. Bryan’s collection of poems, Celine. You can read more about the collection here.
Blue by Carl Phillips
As through marble or the lining of
certain fish split open and scooped
clean, this is the blue vein
that rides, where the flesh is even
whiter than the rest of her, the splayed
thighs mother forgets, busy struggling
for command over bones: her own,
those of the chaise longue, all
equally uncooperative, and there’s
the wind, too. This is her hair, gone
from white to blue in the air.
Read the full poem here.
Carl Phillips expertly uses color in his poem Blue, from the collection In The Blood. Read the poem in its entirety to see how he weaves the colors between stanzas.
Blues for Samson by James Lasdun
My stylist
calls me darling,
says Hi I’m Dee, and asks what I’d like today, smiling.
My hair back, I tell her, my precious locks,
thick and unruly and glossy as they were
before I was fleeced.
Her laughter
as she switches
the clippers on, brings back that sweet-throated witch’s
who comforted me as only your enemy can
in the days of my strength, when I smote
hip and thigh in a great slaughter.
Read the full poem here.
While blue is not mentioned specifically in the poem, I wanted to include this poem because there are a lot like it. Blue is such an inspiring color we have entire genres dedicated to it. This is just one of many.
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