Motivational Poems

This area includes some Motivational Poems. Ireland has had a long association with famous poets and motivational poetry.

For such a small place our poets have had a massive impact with our own Seamus Heaney from County Derry winning the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature.

Some of the famous names you may be familiar with in Irish Poetry therefore include:

Seamus Heaney ( from County Derry-Londonderry in Northern Ireland)
C. S. Lewis (from Belfast in Northern Ireland)
Patrick Cavanagh
William Butler Yeats
Oscar Wilde
Thomas Moore
Johnathan Swift

Here we will feature some short inspirational poems or motivational Poems. There have many written by our famous poets from the north of Ireland and many others who have a strong connection with living here.

Any Motivational Poems about life can often help put us in a positive state of mind and give us perspective about life.

The first two Motivational Poems are two of our favourite northern Ireland poets.

Firstly, Seamus Heaney born in County Derry-Londonderry Northern Ireland, and who has received the Nobel Prize in Literature (1995), the Golden Wreath of Poetry (2001), T. S. Eliot Prize (2006) and two Whitbread prizes (1996 and 1999).

He was both the Harvard and the Oxford Professor of Poetry and was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1996.

The second of the Motivational Poems is by C.S Lewis who was born in Belfast, County Antrim.

Indeed its not often the quantity of words that are said just simply the quality of the words that can have such an impact.

A Drink of Water

by Seamus Heaney

She came every morning to draw water
Like an old bat staggering up the field:
The pump's whooping cough, the bucket's clatter
And slow diminuendo as it filled,
Announced her. I recall
Her gray apron, the pocked white enamel
Of the brimming bucket, and the treble
Creak of her voice like the pump's handle.
Nights when a full moon lifted past her gable
It fell back through her window and would lie
Into the water set out on the table.
Where I have dipped to drink again, to be
Faithful to the admonishment on her cup,
Remember the Giver fading off the lip.

As the Ruin Falls

by C.S.Lewis

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love—a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek—
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.
For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

A short Poem written during the Irish Famine in 1880

Heartsome Ireland, winsome Ireland,
Charmer of the sun and sea,
Bright beguiler of old anguish,
How could Famine frown on thee?
As our Gulf-Stream, drawn to thee-ward,
Turns him from his northward flow,
And our wintry western headlands
Send thee summer from their snow,
Thus the main and cordial current
Of our love sets over sea, --
Tender, comely, valiant Ireland,
Songful, soulful, sorrowful Ireland,
Streaming warm to comfort thee.

An Irish Airman foresees his death

by William Butler Yeats

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My county is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

Because of You

Because of you
My eyes shine with gleams of sparkle
Because of you
My heart melts
Because of you
There’s love in my mind and soul
Because of you
My world never will end
Because of you I will never be alone again
So because of you I will always love you.

Irish Blessing

May your joys be as bright as the morning,
and your sorrows merely be shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.
May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to keep you happy,
enough failure to keep you humble, enough success to keep you eager,
enough friends to give you comfort, enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness, enough wealth to meet your needs and one thing more;
enough determination to make each day a wonderful day than the one before.