Below are some famous examples of poetry relating to youth. POY wants to share submissions from adult readers of their own poetry relating to youth. It need not be famous, and it likely will not be on the same level as the examples below, but that does not matter. The objective is to share with others feelings, thoughts, and observations in a manner that sometimes can only be expressed though poetry. Whether it is a statement of one's own childhood, as in the first example, or an expression of the love of a child or the essence of childhood, as in the second example, or a poem of a completely different purpose, POY welcomes poems from readers via the link at the bottom of the page.

The first example is "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe. The works of Edgar Allan Poe are among the darkest and also among the (arguably) greatest of all American writers. Though not a popular poem in most contemporary studies of Poe, it remains one of the most revealing of his deeply troubled life, which, according to many sources, he attributed to an extremely difficult childhood.

The second—and quite contrasting—example is "A Cradle Song" by William Blake. Despite its archaic style, many parents and others may easily relate.

—Joi Kohlhagen

Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring -

From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow - I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone -
And all I lov'd - I lov'd alone -

Then - in my childhood - in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still -

From the torrent, or the fountain -
From the red cliff of the mountain -
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold -
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by -
From the thunder, and the storm -
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view -

William Blake

Sweet dreams form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head;
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet sleep with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown.
Sweet sleep, Angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child
.
Sweet smiles in the night
Hover over my delight;
Sweet smiles, Mother's smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from they eyes.
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.

Sleep sleep, happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd;
Sleep sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in they face
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe, once like thee,
Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee,

Smiles on thee, on me, on all;
Who became an infant small.
Infant smiles are his own smiles;
Heaven & earth to peace beguiles.