Poems about Mothers and Daughters (2024)

‘Before You Were Mine’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a beautiful and nostalgic poem that features a woman’s contemplations of her mother’s life before the latter gave birth to her.

Mothers and daughters are the central topic at work in this poem. The speaker spends the lines imagining what her mother's life was like before she became a mother. This inspires images of her as a young woman and even to think that the years before she became a mother may have been better.

I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on

with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.

The three of you bend from the waist, holding

each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.

‘Keeping Orchids’ by Jackie Kay is a highly personal poem that explores Kay’s experiences meeting her birthmother and the ways in which she attempted to hold onto that experience.

This poem offers readers a look at the complex emotions that difficult mother-daughter relationships can result in. The poet was adopted, and in this piece, she documents meeting her birthmother for the first time and how the meeting wasn't quite all she wanted it to be.

The orchids my mother gave me when we first met

are still alive, twelve days later. Although

some of the buds remain closed as secrets.

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Twice since I carried them back, like a baby in a shawl,

‘Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law’ is a feminist poem of defiance and activism against the misogynistic constraints of patriarchal society. It is a beautiful, and often satirical, poetic exploration of the position women occupy within a male-dominated world.

The poems title suggest that motherhood and daughterhood are primary topics to the poem, but they are more used to represent a wider array of feminine issues and endurances of women. But the poem does definitely explore generational differences between women, and daughters and mothers who grow and age differently, but suffer collectively under the patriarchy.

Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake,

heavy with useless experience, rich

with suspicion, rumor, fantasy,

crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge

‘August, Los Angeles, Lullaby’ by Carol Muske-Dukes is a contemporary poem about bringing life into the world and the worries that plague a mother after giving birth.

In this poem, the speaker considers her relationship with her mother and how now, as a mother herself, her relationship with her daughter will develop. She knows it isn't going to be easy and having these new experiences gives her a different perspective on her mother's experiences.

The pure amnesia of her face,

newborn. I looked so far

into her that, for a while,

‘29 April 1989’ by Sujata Bhatt is a sweet, little piece about a mother’s sudden found pleasure in nature’s soggy musicality.

She’s three-months-old now,

asleep at last for the afternoon.

I’ve got some time to myself again

but I don’t know what to do.

’35/10’ by Sharon Olds is a moving poem about the poet’s relationship with her daughter. The latter is coming into her own while the former is growing old.

Brushing out my daughter’s dark

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silken hair before the mirror

I see the gray gleaming on my head,

‘A Child’s Sleep’ by Carol Ann Duffy describes the ideal, peaceful sleep of a child, who is watched over by her mother as she dreams.

I stood at the edge of my child's sleep

hearing her breathe;

although I could not enter there,

I could not leave.

Robert Graves presents a compelling duologue in his poetic ballad, ‘A Frosty Night.’ He uses simple ideas and complex language to create a meaningful poem.

‘Amethyst Beads’ by Eavan Boland alludes to Greek mythology and the suffering of a child, Persephone, after she was separated from her mother, Demeter.

A child crying out in her sleep

Wait for me. Don’t leave me here.

Who will never remember this.

Who will never remember this.

‘And Soul’ by Eavan Boland is a poem about death and a body’s dissolution into the elements it is made up of.

My mother died one summer—

the wettest in the records of the state.

Crops rotted in the west.

Checked tablecloths dissolved in back gardens.

‘Coat’ is written by the Spanish-American poet Jane Duran. This poem taps on the themes of motherhood, love, and memory.

‘Divorce’ by Jackie Kay is about parent-child relationships and how children are impacted by adults’ issues. The speaker is a teenager who is struggling to contend with her parent’s relationship with one another.

I did not promise

to stay with you till death do us part, or

anything like that,

‘Fear’ by Gabriela Mistral is a passionate poem about a mother’s hopes for her daughter’s future. It includes three stanzas that contain the speaker’s worries about who her daughter may turn into.

I don’t want them to turn

my little girl into a swallow.

She would fly far away into the sky

and never fly again to my straw bed,

‘Going to See King Lear’ by Jackie Kay describes what happens when a young girl is taken to see a traumatizing play by her mother.

On the big red smooth seat

I watch the giant television

‘Gymnopédies No. 1’ by Adrian Matejka is a comforting poem that depicts a snowy landscape and explores the peace one can find in it alongside loved ones.