Inside: May poems about the lovely month of merriment
While April is the beginning of spring, we all know that those dreary, rainy days allow for us to appreciate the bountiful flowers and re-born nature that comes about in the month of May! Springtime throughout poetry usually represents abundance and rejuvenation.
A new beginning not only for the outside world, but for our emotions as well. The dark, cold days of winter finally giving way to the bright, warmer days of spring is enough to get anyone out of bed and playing outside!
It comes as no surprise that this month has inspired so much art, especially poetry. These May poems allow the reader to feel the hope and joy restored in the narrator as the spring finally begins and adds lightness to seemingly everything it touches.
Out of all of the May poems there are out in the world, we compiled a list of of the most a-MAY-zing poems.
May Day Poems
These incredible May poems all focus on the beauty of the month and the lovely feelings of joy, rebirth, and new beginnings that come along with it. Usages of imagery and personification are two literary tools that are heavily used in these types of poems so as to perfectly communicate the essence of a month.
1. Ode, Composed on a May Morning by William Wordsworth – This poem goes into depth about the “sovereignty of May” with moving imagery and rhymes.
2. May and the Poets by Leigh Hunt – Using rhyming couplets, this poem not only describes May, but also all the famous poets who also wrote poems about the month!
3. May Poem by John Clare – In this beautifully, wordy poem, Clare evokes a myriad of memories that he associates with the approaching Maytime.
4. It Is Not Always May by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – This upbeat poem by Longfellow focuses on how youth is much like the month of May – beautiful and joyful, yet fleeting – and to seize this time in one’s life.
5. May by Christina Rossetti – Another poem that relates life to the month of May in that it is fleeting.
6. May-flower by Emily Dickinson – No, Dickinson did not write a poem about the ship the pilgrims migrated in, but rather she uses intense imagery to magnificently describe a flower blooming in May.
Favorite Poems About The Month Of May
Stepping outside on the first warm day in May is sure to elicit a myriad of feelings in someone. These feelings are all the main inspirations of many of the following poems and the poets due a lovely job conveying them with their flowing words.
7. The May Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins – In this religious poem, the narrator is comparing the beauty of the month of May to that of the actions of The Virgin Mary.
8. In May by William Henry Davies – The narrator of this piece is describing how exactly he plans to spend his days in May.
9. May Night by Sara Teasdale – This short, lyrical poem describes the happiness in one’s heart once they realize that spring is upon them.
10. ’Tis May Now in New England by Bliss Carman – The narrator of this poem is describing her excitement for the upcoming summer in New England.
11. May is Pretty, May is Mild by Annette Wynne – A lovely poem that rhymes all the reasons May is so beautiful!
12. Calling the Violet by Lucy Larcom – The narrator coaxes a personified violet flower to bloom because “May is waiting.”
Springtime Poems For Kids
The month of May in school is always so exciting! The end of the year is just around the corner. The days are getting lighter, and kids get antsier as the spring fever takes hold of them. Keep their attention with all these awesome poems about the month of May and it’s lovely qualities and the excitement it brings.
13. This great May poem – This rhyming poem describes how everything starts coming to life come May!
14. Holidays in May – A great poem to teach young children what holidays are celebrated in May.
15. The Prettiest Name by Lenore Hetrick – The narrator of this poem talks about how the name “May” is perfect because it makes them think of the prettiest parts of the month!
16. The May Song – An adorable song to help kids understand May. Great for classrooms!
17. Play in May – The experience of May from a child’s perspective for children!
18. Wish Everyday Can be May – This poem describes all the great things about May and how they wish more time in the year can be like Maytime.
19. May Skies by Lenore Hetrick – A splendid poem about how beautiful the skies are in May and how we are also as free as those skies above.
Magnificent Poems About May
The poems include wonderful descriptions about May. Specifically, how it breathes new life into the world after the cold months of winter and the rainy month of April preceding it.
20. Home Pictures in May by John Clare – In this poem, Clare is using strong imagery to wonderfully paint a picture of a lovely May setting.
21. May Has Such a Winsome Way by Annette Wynne – Using personification, the narrator is speaking about the month of May and all her characteristics as though she is a close friend.
22. Ode to May by Peter Burn – This poem acts as a love letter to the month of May and all the joy and beauty that it brings with it whenever it comes.
23. The May After by Ada A. Mosher – The fleeting beauty of the month of May is usually used as a comparison for the seasons of life, and this poem is a great example of that!
24. May-Time by Ruby Archer – A lovely poem that has the narrator listing all of the wonderful things they love about May, and how excited they are that it is very near now.
25. Corinna’s going a Maying by Robert Herrick – This is a marvelous example of a “carpe diem” poem, which is all about the narrator conveying that the day should be seized and enjoyed. Herrick does this in his poem by trying to convince his lover to come to Mayday festivities with him while they are still in their prime.
26. The Month of May by Wendy Cope – The narrator is talking about the merriment of the month of May and how relieving it is to see shades of green after the bleakness of winter has consumed so much of the year.
27. May Days by Kiesha Shepard – A description of the perfect lazy May day and how the narrator spends it outside in the warmth experiencing nature.
Bright May Poetry
If you don’t know already, I live in the great state of Texas. And it gets HOT here. Starting in May. But even those spring temperatures in May can’t compare to the rest of the summer, so we still consider May to be our true spring. It really, truly feels like the calm before the storm here in the spring, knowing that summer is going to only get hotter from there. Much hotter.
So it’s a lovely time to honor and appreciate the days when we can sit on a patio or a porch mid-day and not be sweltering already. Texas summers are great for patios in the late evenings once the sun has gone down, but spring allows you to enjoy your lunch outside for a bit, not just your late night snack.
Maybe you have the opposite problem– May is your first taste of warmth after a crushing and brutal winter, and you’re ready to embrace it for everything that it is. If the April showers were overpowering this year, this might be the most beautiful weather that you’ve seen in a long time.
No matter what weather you feel like you’re escaping from, you’re usually finding relief in May. The end of spring but truly the most beautiful month of spring we see, let’s honor the lovely season with some poetry about our dear month of May.
Some of my best friends have birthdays in May, it’s the beginning of vacation season, and I love to sit in the cool breeze that it offers us.
What month could be better than May?!
How To Use These Poems
Let me start by saying there never has to be a reason to “use” a poem, all it needs to be is read and appreciated. However, incorporating poetry into your life and projects is a fresh way to add something new and fun to it. It’s not that you have to use them in a specific way, but it can be fun to! So here are some of my ideas.
May birthday cards. If you’re like me and have many Tauruses as friends, you probably have a lot of birthdays to celebrate in May! Turn some of these poems into a beautiful birthday card, even if not birthday related. Celebrating their birthday month is fun too.
If your child has a birthday this month and you need to send out invitations to a birthday party, these might be fun too to receive a poem specifically about the month to celebrate his or her birthday.
Instagram post. If you love to post to your social media commemorating a new month, these are great to throw up on your Instagram story.
This one is pretty niche, but I love a good “month in my life” vlog to capture all of the highlights of a month instead of getting caught up in every detail of the day or of the week that you’re highlighting for us. If you like to vlog or maybe want to start, something cool you can do is film some of the highlights of the month, and while editing at the end of May, add some soft music but also add a recording of yourself reading one of these poems about May. Especially if there’s one that jumps out at you and feels like it particularly means a lot to you, it might be a great way to honor the month that you’ve had.
And last but most obviously, just read and enjoy the poem for the work of art that it is.
Full Version Stanzas
1. Springtime
I see rain clouds. I see birds’ nests,
Butterflies, too! Flowers, too!
Everything is growing. The wind is gently blowing.
Spring is here! Spring is here!
2. It Must Be Spring
Hush, can you hear it?
The rustling in the grass,
Bringing you the welcome news that
Winter’s day is past.
Soft, can you feel it?
The warm caressing breeze,
Telling you the sticky buds
Are bursting on the trees.
Look, can you see them?
The primrose in the lane.
Now you must believe it —
Spring is here again.
3. Barefoot Haiku
I breathe in the Spring.
See Mother Nature winking.
Grass between my toes.
4. Ode To May
Queen of months, supremely fair,
Cloth’d with garments rich and rare,
None in beauty can compare
With thee, sweet May.
Lovely month, thou bringest mirth,
Spreadest sweetness o;er the earth,
Causest Nature to give birth
To fruits and flowers.
Thou art lov’d by young and old.
Joys for each thou dost unfold;
Never shall our hearts grow cold
To thee, sweet May.
5. May
The clouds “have wept their fill” the whole night long,
And what a change is wrought! But yesterday,
We look’d around, and scarce could deem that May,
The poet’s theme,—the month of flowers and song,—
Could do her own sweet lineaments such wrong
As to frown on us like a very shrew:
To-day, we feel what poets sing is true;
Like them, we hail her reign, and wish it long.
See, how each budding spray, each floweret fair
Retains the liquid treasure! how the trees,
Lest summer should o’ertake them unaware,
Haste to unfold their leaflets to the breeze;
While in the orchard every moss-grown stem,
And sapling shoot, a thousand blossoms gem!
6. Blue-Eyed Grass of May
Star, high star, far in the blue,
I have stars more near than you,
Shining from the blue-eyed grass,
Peeping at me as I pass.
Star, high star, far in the blue,
I wish that I could pick you, too,
I know I’d love you better, star,
If you were not so high and far.
My little friendly stars are found
Right close to me upon the ground;
You shine all night, they shine all day-
They are the blue-eyed grass of May!
Pretty Poetry For Spring
7. The Crazy Woman
I shall not sing a May song.
A May song should be gay.
I’ll wait until November
And sing a song of gray.
I’ll wait until November
That is the time for me.
I’ll go out in the frosty dark
And sing most terribly.
And all the little people
Will stare at me and say,
‘That is the Crazy Woman
Who would not sing in May.’
8. May Day
A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere.
Red small leaves of the maple
Are clenched like a hand,
Like girls at their first communion
The pear trees stand.
Oh I must pass nothing by
Without loving it much,
The raindrop try with my lips,
The grass with my touch;
For how can I be sure
I shall see again
The world on the first of May
Shining after the rain?
9. Loving May
I cannot tell you how it was,
But this I know: it came to pass
Upon a bright and sunny day
When May was young; ah, pleasant May!
As yet the poppies were not born
Between the blades of tender corn;
The last egg had not hatched as yet,
Nor any bird foregone its mate.
I cannot tell you what it was,
But this I know: it did but pass.
It passed away with sunny May,
Like all sweet things it passed away,
And left me old, and cold, and gray.
Spring is very typically the answer to “what’s your favorite season?” and it’s not uncommon for people to prefer May over March and April, seeing as March is generally still pretty cold and commonly gets ice and snow, while April showers are preparing us for May flowers. We reap the benefit of all of the rain in April in May when we’re surrounded by beautiful greenery and stunning flowers. Whether planted flowers in our gardens or wildflowers on the side of the road as we drive through town.
May really feels like the start of something new, though it’s at the end of the spring season itself. It’s bringing us along to begin the new beautiful summer season with it.
Clearly, I’m a little impartial and just really love the month of May. I’m not shy about it. Some of these poems are my favorite and have me so excited for the month ahead and I hope you are too.
Embrace the spring vibes with these beautifully short flower poems that will have you ready to go appreciate all of the May flowers that April showers prepared us for.
More Poetry You’ll Love
- 13 Mouth Watering Pizza Poems – Be careful! Reading these poems may lead to you picking up your phone and calling your local pizza joint for a delicious cheese pie. Everyone loves pizza! We found out that there’s plenty of poems expressing that love for pizza, so we put them in a list!
- 17 Delightful Peony Poems – The peony flower has been appreciated for centuries. While there are plenty of poems written about other flowers, the peony seems to have resonated deeper than others. With different cultures believing it symbolized different meanings such as: joy, female sexual appeal, power, and abundance.
- 35 Just Because Poems for Couples – Sure, poems on Valentine’s Day and other holidays are nice, but how about giving your partner a poem just because?! The surprise will only make it that much more meaningful. We have compiled a list of lovely poems that you can pass to your better half on any given day. They are great to let them know that you love and support them no matter what.
