Poems about grief over losing a pet?

October 19, 2024 12:00 PM

My beloved cat died yesterday and I am in the throes of the most profound grief. I've always found poetry very comforting in trying times. Do you know any poems about losing a pet--or anything related to this experience?

I suppose any poem about grief could be applied to our pets, but it would be nice to find some on this particular topic.

Please, no rainbow bridge stuff, and nothing religious in general.

I'm sorry I can't pay the cat tax right now; looking at photos of him is excruciating.

Thanks in advance, everyone.

posted by figaro to Pets & Animals (24 answers total)

Sorry for your loss.

It's not exactly grief, but my first thought for poetry about pet mortality is Necrokitty Comic Sans.
posted by zamboni at 12:08 PM on October 19 [9 favorites]

Jimmy Stewart Reads a Touching Poem About His Dog Beau | Carson Tonight Show
posted by Glinn at 12:44 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

Sorry for your loss.

Not a great poem, but here's Jimmy Stewart reading about his dog, Beau.
posted by dobbs at 12:45 PM on October 19

So sorry about your cat. <3
posted by Glinn at 12:46 PM on October 19

This is not a poem, but John Stewart also tells a very touching story about his dog, Dipper.
posted by Glinn at 12:50 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

Via FencingGal:

Last Words To A Dumb Friend, a Poem by Thomas Hardy. I’m so sorry for your loss. May these poems bring you some comfort.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:58 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

I am so sorry for your loss.

This is a poem that doesn’t meet the pet criteria but which I take great comfort in all the time - Raymond Carver’s Late Fragment.

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
posted by hilaryjade at 1:09 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

Secure Yourself to Heaven was written by Amy or Emily when she found her cat, who had been hit by a car. It is a very beautiful song.

Lyrics.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:10 PM on October 19

One from a Roman tomb.

I'm sorry for your loss.
posted by chaiminda at 2:08 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

Epitaph on a cat, by French poet Joachim du Bellay (circa 1550), written after the death of his beloved chartreux cat Belaud. Original French (and Latin) version.

The tribute and epitaph to his cat Trim (1809) by English navigator Matthew Flinders.
posted by elgilito at 2:13 PM on October 19

Memories

"Not the least hard thing to bear when
they go from us, these quiet friends,
is that they carry away with them so
many years of our lives. Yet, if they
find warmth therein, who would
begrudge them those years that they
have so guarded?
And whatever they take,
be sure they have deserved."

John Galsworthy -1867-1933
posted by gudrun at 2:21 PM on October 19 [7 favorites]

Last winter, I was at a conference and the editor hand-sold me a copy of The Dead Pets Poetry Anthology. Like all anthologies, it's uneven, and sometimes harrowing, but there are some truly lovely things in there.
posted by Well I never at 3:01 PM on October 19

Best answer: so very sorry to hear the sad news.

there are some gems in here - mefites have been seeking and recommending cat loss poetry across the years - I had bookmarked this thread before I was even a member.

thinking of you and your kitty friend.
posted by seemoorglass at 3:08 PM on October 19

John Updike wrote a poem called "Dog's Death" that is equal parts about the sweetness and genius and decency of animals and about the obliviousness and blithe, unthinking ineptitude of people and about how the death of a pet throws all of this into stark relief and proves how unworthy people are of the friendship of animals. It is a heartrending thing to read, it is hideously sad, and it is definitely not designed to make a bereaved pet owner feel better about anything, so you should feel free to give it a very wide berth. It might be comforting just to know that a poem like that exists. He clearly wrote it in an agony of grief about what was clearly a real beloved dog, his heartbroken self, and his poor, stricken family. It's always very sad when a pet dies, but sometimes it feels impossible to bear. That Updike poem is about one of those times. It sounds like you're having one of those times. I'm sorry.
posted by Don Pepino at 3:27 PM on October 19

Poem, by Langston Hughes

I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There’s nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began,—
I loved my friend.
posted by mezzanayne at 5:54 PM on October 19 [5 favorites]

David Duchovny's poem for his dog Brick

I put down my dog this morning
And cried some
mourning
the loss of his mute expressive soul
That afternoon, at work, a blue sky punctuated only by small loitering clouds
The world moves on in its blithe way
and doesn’t care
About a little dog—-
It’s already as if he never existed
But he did
He sure did
posted by Constance Mirabella at 6:04 PM on October 19 [3 favorites]

They will not go quietly,
the pets who've shared our lives.
In subtle ways they let us know
their spirit still survives.

Old habits still can make us think
we hear them at the door
Or step back when we drop
a tasty morsel on the floor.

Our feet still go around the place
the food dish used to be,
And, sometimes, coming home at night,
we miss them terribly.

And although time may bring new friends
and a new food dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts
belongs to them...
and always will.

- Author unknown
posted by Archer25 at 6:35 PM on October 19 [1 favorite]

²thank you for posting. We let our 14 year old dog go on Wednesday, rather unexpectedly. The thread had been comforting.
posted by Ftsqg at 7:22 PM on October 19 [2 favorites]

I’m so sorry for your loss. I find the poetry of Mary Oliver very comforting in times of grief and loss. She wrote a whole book of poetry called Dog Songs which may be of interest to you at this time. One of my favourite poems is “In Blackwater Woods” (1983):

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
posted by Weng at 11:15 PM on October 19 [5 favorites]

This person wrote movingly about grieving their beloved cat's passing and I wish I had seen it when we lost Ms Kitty years ago. Hope it is helpful to you. So very sorry for your loss.
posted by Lynsey at 8:49 AM on October 20

When my good friend lost his dearly loved 18-year-old cat earlier this autumn, I sent him the chapter of The Little Prince where he meets the fox.

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince.

posted by Pallas Athena at 10:02 AM on October 20 [3 favorites]

I am so endlessly sorry for your loss. I know exactly how you feel and grief is by far the most difficult emotion i have ever had to deal with.
I would send you a poem or two but i can't, not without crying my eyes out and it's been almost a year. What was helpful for me, though, was to get understanding how grief works, how it never goes away, it is just like a big red circle in the middle of a ping-pong game. You are drowning in it because it gets hit constantly. Overtime it gets smaller and "hit" less often but it's always there.
I had to just let myself be with the emotions. After crying almost constantly for two weeks, my big red grief thing got smaller and i could somewhat function. It is still there and tears still come regularly, but it's manageable to live with it.
Sending you all the hugs. And if there is cat heaven, I hope yours meets mine :)
posted by Salicornia at 12:27 PM on October 21

Not a poem, but Brian May of Queen penned the song "All Dead, All Dead" after his beloved cat Squeaky passed away.
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:17 PM on October 21

I love this one:

JUST A LOAN



An angel came to me one day,
A ball of fur in hand.
The angel gave the ball to me,
As we stood there in the sand.
She said to me, "It's just a loan,
For only a short time."
And she would surely return one day,
For the ball of fur wasn't mine.
I looked down at the ball of fur,
Two eyes stared back at me.
I fell in love upon that day,
As I held it close to me.
Time went by and my love grew,
As close friends we became.
I looked down at my ball of fur,
Life was never again the same.
No matter where I found myself,
My friend would be there too
But then one day the angel came,
I didn't know what to do.
She said that now the time had come,
To take my friend back home.
I watched her leave with tear filled eyes,
As I remembered, "It was just a loan."
posted by Jaymzifer at 4:50 PM on October 22