74 Great Poems for Middle Schoolers

Middle school is a time for self-discovery, often uncomfortable and fascinating at once. The social experimentation, the longing for things not yet known, the fear of how to navigate new terrain. In their shifting world, poetry, with its styles and literary devices, serves as a way to help bring middle school students back to themselves through life lessons and intuitive questions. We get it though. It’s not news to assume that most middle schoolers won’t necessarily jump at the chance to read a poem. That’s why we’ve compiled the list below of 75 great poems for middle schoolers that are sure to captivate their attention and leave them reflecting, if even for a bit. Follow along for some of the best poems for middle schoolers.

74 Great Poems for Middle Schoolers

1) “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

“You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

Refusing to be confined or diminished by others. Understanding the significance of standing up against oppression. It shouldn’t be a surprise that middle school students will resonate with the legendary Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.”

2) “Snow” by David Berman

“Walking through a field with my little brother Seth / I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow.”

David Berman’s “Snow” is the kind of poem for middle schoolers that will have them imagine what the imprints we see in life can really show us.

3) “Text” by Carol Ann Duffy

“I tend the mobile now / like an injured bird / We text, text, text / our significant words.”

Middle school students might know a thing or two about how texting plays in their lives. Carol Ann Duffy’s “Text” serves as a great poem for middle school that addresses texting head-on.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

4) “Deer Hit” by Jon Loomis

“You’re seventeen and tunnel-vision drunk, / swerving your father’s Fairlane wagon home / at 3:00 a.m.”

What would a seventeen-year-old do when he drives drunk and hits a deer?

5) “Webcam the World” by Heather McCugh

“Get all of it. set up the shots / at every angle; run them online / 24-7. Get beautiful stuff (like / scenery and greenery and style) / and get the ugliness (like cruelty / and quackery and rue).”

Heather McCugh’s “Webcam the World” is a great poem for middle schoolers that examines our urge to record everything–and the cost that comes with it.

6) “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes

“Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

This poem by Langston Hughes will resonate with middle schoolers about family, resilience and empathy.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

7) “If” by Rudyard Kipling

“If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, / If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too…”

The narrator of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” addresses his son, but this poem will have anyone reflecting on their emotional awareness.

8) “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

“Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.”

Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” comes at a pertinent time when climate change is discussed and debated on. What will happen when the world does end?

9) “The Doll House” by A.E. Stallings

“There in the attic of forgotten shapes / (Old coats in plastic, hat boxes, fur capes / Amongst the smells of mothballs and cigars), / I saw the doll house of our early years,…”

This is a poem about nostalgia and life’s smallest yet most meaningful parts. “The Doll House” is a great poem for middle schoolers in how they consider their own growth.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

10) “That Sure is My Little Dog” by Eleanor Lerman

“Yes, indeed, that is my house that I am carrying around / on my back like a bullet-proof shell and yes, that sure is / my little dog walking a hard road in hard boots…”

Eleanor Lerman’s poem examines the weight that each generation carries and passes on.

11) “The Hill We Climb” Amanda Gorman

“For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”

Middle school students might recognize Amanda Gorman from when she recited this poem at the 2021 presidential inauguration.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

12) “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

“Nature’s first green is gold, / Her hardest hue to hold. / Her early leaf’s a flower; / But only so an hour.”

Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a gentle lesson in the ephemeral.

13) “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur

“Long live the rose that grew from concrete / when no one else ever cared.”

Tupac sheds light on the beauty and grit of resilience in his poem “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

14) “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand

“Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. / There is no happiness like mine. / I have been eating poetry.”

How would a librarian react upon seeing someone eating poetry in the library? This is a great poem for middle schoolers to imagine the influence of poetry.

15) “See It Through” by Edgar Guest

“When you’re up against a trouble, / Meet it squarely, face to face; / Lift your chin and set your shoulders, / Plant your feet and take a brace.”

Edgar Guest’s poem is powerful and rhythmic, a classic poem for middle schoolers to learn about perseverance.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

16) “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service

“Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. / Why he left his home in the South to roam ’round the Pole, God only knows.”

In this poem by Robert W. Service, the narrator unveils a mysterious incident where he cremated Sam McGee.

17) “Touching the Sky” by Shreya D. Chattree

“Come for me, sweet tomorrow. / Help me touch the sky. / Like a well-learned bird opens its wings, / I, too, want to fly high.”

Shreya D. Chattree’s poem is perfect for middle schoolers as it encourages a hopeful way to look at life and become the best we can be.

18) “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes

“The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. / The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.”

Discover what happens to the highwayman when he falls in love with an inn owner’s daughter. One to shock and delight its readers, Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” is a great poem for middle schoolers.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

19) “Be the Best of Whatever You Are” by Douglas Malloch

“If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, / Be a scrub in the valley — but be / The best little scrub by the side of the rill; / Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.”In an age of incessant comparison, particularly through social media, Douglas Malloch’s poem is a great encouragement to middle schoolers to be themselves.

20) “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

“We real cool. We / Left school. We / Lurk late. We / Strike straight. We / Sing sin. We / Thin gin. We / Jazz June. We / Die soon.”

It’s a timeless question for middle schoolers: What makes them cool? Is it worth it?

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

21) “The Blade and the Ax” by Abimbola T. Alabi

“How small and weak you look,” / said the ax to the blade. / “You will never be able to do / those deeds for which I’m made.”

Middle school is a challenging time for students to discover who they are, and “The Blade and the Ax” shows how everyone has a role and way to contribute.

22) “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.”

What can we learn from a mirror’s perspective? Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” shows us what our reflections can convey.

23) “A Man Said To The Universe” by Stephen Crane

“A man said to the universe:/ ‘Sir, I exist!’/ ‘However,’ replied the universe,/ ‘The fact has not created in me/ A sense of obligation.’”

This brief poem isn’t brief in significance. It’s a great poem for middle schoolers to dissect what is being said.

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

24) “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron

“She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies…”

The woman described in Lord Byron’s poem demonstrates how captivated an observer can be.

25) “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

“My little horse must think it queer / to stop without a farmhouse near…”

At once mysterious and alluring, Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” offers middle schoolers the chance to take things slow and to wonder.

More great poems for middle schoolers (continued)

26) “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,/ Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore- / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”

27) “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/ And sorry I could not travel both…”

28) “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson

“Whenever Richard Cory went downtown, / We people on the pavement looked at him: / He was a gentleman from sole to crown, / Clean favored, and imperially slim.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

29) “Language Lesson 1976” by Heather McHugh

“When Americans say a man / takes liberties, they mean / he’s gone too far.”

30) Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

“I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound;”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

31) “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson

“Because I could not stop for death-/ He kindly stopped for me-/ The carriage held but just Ourselves-/ And Immortality.”

32) “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (“Daffodils”) by William Wordsworth

“I wandered lonely as a cloud/ That floats on high o’er vales and hills,”

33) “Very Like a Whale” by Ogden Nash

“What does it mean when we are told / That the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

34) “One Perfect Rose” by Dorothy Parker

“A single flow’r he sent me, since we met./ All tenderly his messenger he chose;”

35) “When We Two Parted” by Lord Byron

“They name thee before me,/ A knell to mine ear;”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

36) “The Workbox” by Thomas Hardy

“So here’s the workbox, little wife,/ That I made of polished oak./ He was a joiner, of village life;/ She came of borough folk.”

37) “The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden

“Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,/ And his Health-Card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.”

38) “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

“The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;/ But I hung on like death:/ Such waltzing was not easy.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

39) “A Litany in Time of Plague” by Thomas Nashe

“Beauty is but a flower/ Which wrinkles will devour;”

40) “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is” by Sir Edward Dyer

“I fear no foe, I fawn no friend;/ I loathe not life, nor dread my end.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

41) “A Work of Artifice” by Marge Piercy

“It is your nature/ to be small and cozy,/ domestic and weak;”

42)  “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

43) “Oranges” by Gary Soto

“The first time I walked / With a girl, I was twelve, / Cold, and weighted down / With two oranges in my jacket.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

44) “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” by Billy Collins

“The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking. / He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark / that he barks every time they leave the house. / They must switch him on on their way out.”

45) “The Shark” by E.J. Pratt

“And I saw the flash of a white throat,/ And a double row of white teeth,..”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

46) “I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe

“I lost my talk / The talk you took away. / When I was a little girl …”

47) “There Are Birds Here” by Jamaal May

“when they said those birds were metaphors / for what is trapped / between buildings
and buildings. No.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

48) “Dear Future Generations: Sorry” by Prince Ea

“I think I speak for the rest of us when I say / Sorry, sorry we left you with our mess of a planet …”

49) “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

“The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: / The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play …”

50) “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare

“‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller, / Knocking on the moonlit door …”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

51)  “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

“We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes …”

52) “A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe

“You are not wrong, who deem / That my days have been a dream; / Yet if hope has flown away / In a night, or in a day …”

53)  “If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking” by Emily Dickinson

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, / I shall not live in vain;”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

54) “Deer Hit” by Jon Loomis

“You’re seventeen and tunnel-vision drunk, / swerving your father’s Fairlane wagon home …”

55) “And the Ghosts” by Graham Foust

“they own everything”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

56)  “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” by Billy Collins

“The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking. / He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark / that he barks every time they leave the house.”

57)  “See It Through” by Edgar A. Guest

“When you’re up against a trouble, / Meet it squarely, face to face; / Lift your chin and set your shoulders, / Plant your feet and take a brace.”

58) “Beethoven” by Shane Koyczan

“Listen / his father / made a habit / out of hitting him / see / some men drink / some men yell / some men hit their children”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

59)  “This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams

“I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox / and which / you were probably / saving / for breakfast…”

60) “Pass On” by Michael Lee

“We are vessels. We are circuit boards / swallowing the electricity of life upon birth.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

61) “A Friend’s Greeting” by Edgar A. Guest

“I’d like to be the sort of friend / that you have been to me; / I’d like to be the help that you’ve been / always glad to be.”

62) “Having a Coke With You” by Frank O’Hara

“is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne / or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

63) “So You Want To Be a Writer” by Charles Bukowski

“if it doesn’t come bursting out of you / in spite of everything, / don’t do it.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

64) “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas

“Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”

65) “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

“You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

66)  “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

“It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea, / That a maiden there lived whom

you may know / By the name of Annabel Lee…”

67) “I Died for Beauty” 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.”

68) “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” by Pablo Neruda

“Here, / among the market vegetables, / this torpedo / from the ocean / depths, / a missile / that swam, / now / lying in front of me / dead.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

69)  “Very Like a Whale” by Ogden Nash“

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for / Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and / metaphor.”

70) “A Total Stranger One Black Day” by E.E. Cummings

“a total stranger one black day / knocked living the hell out of me—”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

71) “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun / By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales / That would make your blood run cold;”

72) “Language Lesson 1976” by Heather McHugh

“When Americans say a man / takes liberties, they mean / he’s gone too far.”

Great Poems for Middle Schoolers (Continued)

73) “Be The Best of Whatever You Are” by Douglas Malloch

“If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, / Be a scrub in the valley — but be / The best little scrub by the side of the rill;”

74) “A Litany in Time of Plague” by Thomas Nashe

“Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss; / This world uncertain is; / Fond are life’s lustful joys;”

The importance of poems for middle schoolers

Poems allow for new perspectives and realizations in a short amount of time. When reading poems, there are important questions for students to ask themselves: Who is talking? What is the purpose of the poem? What is the theme? How do I feel about what is written? Hopefully the list of 75 poems for middle schoolers above introduces a new way for middle schoolers to understand the lasting power of language in our fast-paced w