What are some good dark poems?

Question

im also looking for good poets, with poetry specifically directed into the dark side, rebellious poems, nihilistic poems..anything that bashes society for bashing humanity. anyone know of any poems or short stories relating to these?

Answer 1

Well...how dark do you really want to go?

http://www.poemofquotes.com/robertfrost/out-out.php

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/gunner/gunner.html

AND there's always our darkest diva, Ms. Plath.

So, here's one of hers, in honor of Father's Day:

http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=356

Answer 2

WHEN
-------------------------
When you're on the highest dosage
And it isn't half enough,
When your nights are torn and twisted with the pain
When the sleep you get is really rather futile
For it only brings the nightmares once again.
When you need someone to talk to
But your friends have had their fill.
When the doctor knows the problem but cannot cure the ill
When your faith lies dead and broken
And all others seem as frail,
When a day of aching struggle
Wins another just the same,
When crying does no good and you're just too tired to scream
When hope is never present and pleasure rarely seen

When the happiness of others gives the painful contrast one more time

When the hollowness inside is sounding like a drum


When love and laughter have finally fled

Then, just then,
You'll be close to the place where I dwell
It's a place you might call hell.
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But for a surprising poet writing darkly
It's hard to beat Ogden Nash's "Listen" ...see below.

There's also Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow " soliloquy.
almost nothing comes darker than that... see below


(The first poem is mine, with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)

Answer 3

Try the works of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P Lovecraft. Maybe not the kind of emo drakness you're after, but the acknowledged masters of darkness.