Our families, whether close or distant, are rarely far from our thoughts, and although most of us may not be inspired to verse by our families, there is a poetic tradition of family poems.

Be they pithy or pious, humorous or humble, poets have for centuries put their pen to writing poetry about their families.

Sometimes it are memories of the small moments shared by family members that are the basis for a poem, such as it is in Katharine Mansfield’s (1888-1923) “Butterfly Laughter:”

A seemingly inconsequential memory of breakfast becomes a delightful poem about the spirit of shared wishes and dreams amongst a family, in Mansfield’s poem.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) held a slightly dimmer, though no less amusing view of families, which he expressed in the succinct “Family Court:”

Nash’s rueful words are on paper the words that many of us a loath to admit about our own families!

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) is most famous for his immortal novel Alice in Wonderland, but he also wrote poetry in the same whimsical fashion, an example of which is “Brother and Sister,” in which Carroll captures delightfully the often, umm, arduous experience of siblings:

From the biblical verses about Cain and Abel and the Prodigal Son, to Katherine Mansfield’s dreamlike lines about the smallest traditions and Ogden Nash and Lewis Carroll’s more wry views of familial relations, poems about families and the relationships between their members are found throughout literature. Whether you love them or hate them, you are sure to find a poem that fits your family to a tee!