Mother's Day Poems
Curated by the Writory editorial team. Updated September 2026.
Quick answer: Read 8 of the best Mother's Day poems, from Kipling and Stevenson to Rossetti and Dickinson. Short full texts to copy into a card or read aloud to mom.
Most poems about mothers are written too late, and most Mother's Day cards are signed too fast. This page is for the middle ground: short classic poems you can copy into a card, read at a family lunch, or send in a message, each one saying plainly what the shop-bought verse only gestures at.
Kipling swears his mother's love would follow him past the gallows. Stevenson thanks the woman who first read his rhymes. Rossetti brings flowers and eight small lines, and Dickinson trusts that a mother never stops watching her birds.
Choose the one that sounds like your mother, write it out by hand, and add one sentence of your own. That sentence is the part she will keep.
Mother o' Mine
Rudyard Kipling · Victorian
If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!
If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!
Gallows, sea and worse, and one love that would still come find him. The biggest promise ever fitted into a card.
To My Mother
Robert Louis Stevenson · Victorian
You too, my mother, read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times,
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor.
Four lines from a grown son to the first reader he ever had. Perfect at the top of a card.
To My Mother
Christina Rossetti · Victorian
To-day's your natal day;
Sweet flowers I bring:
Mother, accept, I pray
My offering.
And may you happy live,
And long us bless;
Receiving as you give
Great happiness.
Written for her own mother's special day: flowers, eight lines and a wish for great happiness. A card poem before card poems existed.
M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)
Howard Johnson · American · Song
M is for the million things she gave me,
O means only that she's growing old,
T is for the tears she shed to save me,
H is for her heart of purest gold;
E is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
R means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
The 1915 song lyric that spells the word out letter by letter. Sentimental and proud of it, which is exactly right once a year.
Which Loved Best?
Joy Allison · American
"I love you, Mother," said little John;
Then, forgetting his work, his cap went on,
And he was off to the garden swing,
And left her the water and wood to bring.
"I love you, Mother," said rosy Nell --
"I love you better than tongue can tell";
Then she teased and pouted full half the day,
Till her mother rejoiced when she went to play.
"I love you, Mother," said little Fan;
"To-day I'll help you all I can;
How glad I am that school doesn't keep!"
So she rocked the babe till it fell asleep.
Then, stepping softly, she fetched the broom,
And swept the floor and tidied the room;
Busy and happy all day was she,
Helpful and happy as child could be.
"I love you, Mother," again they said --
Three little children going to bed;
How do you think that mother guessed
Which of them really loved her best?
Three children say I love you and one of them sweeps the floor. The gentlest test of what the words are worth.
Sweet and Low
Lord Alfred Tennyson · Victorian · Song
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.
A mother singing her baby toward sleep while the sea brings the father home. The most beautiful lullaby in English.
Mama never forgets her birds,
Emily Dickinson · American
Mama never forgets her birds,
Though in another tree --
She looks down just as often
And just as tenderly
As when her little mortal nest
With cunning care she wove --
If either of her "sparrows fall,"
She "notices," above.
A mother gone into another tree, still looking down just as often. For the first Mother's Day spent missing her.
To My Mother
Edgar Allan Poe · American · Sonnet
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you--
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother--my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
Poe ranks the word mother above every term the angels use. The grandest thank-you a sonnet has carried.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good poem for a Mother's Day card?
Robert Louis Stevenson's 'To My Mother' and Christina Rossetti's 'To My Mother' are both short, warm and made for a card. Rudyard Kipling's 'Mother o' Mine' works when you want the big promise in a small space.
What is a short poem for Mother's Day?
The shortest here is Stevenson's 'To My Mother' at four lines. Rossetti's 'To My Mother' and the song lyric 'M-O-T-H-E-R' both run eight lines and copy out neatly by hand.
Are these Mother's Day poems free to use?
Yes. Every poem on this page is in the public domain, so you can copy the full text into a card, a message or a printed order of service without permission.
What if my mother has passed away?
Emily Dickinson's 'Mama never forgets her birds' was written for exactly that ache, and Poe's 'To My Mother' honours a mother figure who stepped into the role. Both read well at a remembrance.
Can I enter a poem I write for my mother in a contest?
Yes. If your own lines outgrow the card, you can enter them in Writory's free monthly poetry contest, where poems for mothers are among the most loved submissions.
How to write a poem for your mother
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