Poems About Hatred

Table of Contents

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

– Martin Luther King Jr.
Strength to Love, 1963

“

1. Let Me Not Hate

   by Georgia Douglas Johnson

   
   

   ►

   ▼

    Full Text

   Let me not hate, although the bruising world decries my peace,
   Gives me no quarter, hounds me while I sleep;
   Would snuff the candles of my soul and sear my inmost dreamings.
   

   Let me not hate, though girt by vipers, green and hissing through the dark;
   I fain must love. God help me keep the altar-gleams that flicker wearily, anon,
   On down the world's grim night!
   

2. Love and Hate

   by Ellen P. Allerton

   Although a thousand leagues two hearts divide,
   That love has joined, the gulf is not so great
   As that twixt two, who, dwelling side by side
   Behold between, the black abyss of Hate.
   

3. I had no time to hate

   by Emily Dickinson

   
   

   ►

   ▼

    Full Text

   I had no time to hate, because
   The grave would hinder me,
   And life was not so ample I
   Could finish enmity.

   Nor had I time to love; but since
   Some industry must be,
   The little toil of love, I thought,
   Was large enough for me.

4. "Bear and Forbear"

   by Peter Burn

   
   

   ►

   ▼

    Full Text

   "Bear and forbear," is a motto worth learning,
   Hatred and malice are foes at the best;
   Those who are failing its wisdom discerning,
   Reap for their folly a life of unrest.
   

   "Bear and forbear," may be hard for the present—
   Men are but human, and self will intrude;
   Crucify self, and the fruit shall be pleasant;
   It shall be neither unlovely nor crude.
   

   "Bear and forbear!" we have all of us failings—
   He is unborn who perfection can boast;
   Sad that the erring should glory in railings—
   Sad that the loudest have failings the most.
   

   "Bear and forbear," is a motto worth learning;
   Be it engraven deep, deep on thine heart;
   To this mark of knowledge be ever attaining;
   Thou shalt be honour'd in doing thy part.
   

5. My Heritage

   by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

   
   

   ►

   ▼

    Full Text

   I into life so full of love was sent,
   That all the shadows which fall on the way
   Of every human being, could not stay,
   But fled before the light my spirit lent.
   

   I saw the world through gold and crimson dyes:
   Men sighed and said, "Those rosy hues will fade
   As you pass on into the glare and shade!"
   Still beautiful the way seems to mine eyes.
   

   They said, "You are too jubilant and glad;
   The world is full of sorrow and of wrong.
   Full soon your lips shall breathe forth sighs—not song!"
   The day wears on, and yet I am not sad.
   

   They said, "You love too largely, and you must
   Through wound on wound, grow bitter to your kind."
   They were false prophets; day by day I find
   More cause for love, and less cause for distrust.
   

   They said, "Too free you give your soul's rare wine;
   The world will quaff, but it will not repay."
   Yet in the emptied flagons, day by day,
   True hearts pour back a nectar as divine.
   

   Thy heritage! Is it not love's estate?
   Look to it, then, and keep its soil well tilled.
   I hold that my best wishes are fulfilled
   Because I love so much, and cannot hate.
   

Related Poems