Poems About Secrets

Table of Contents

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

– Ben Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack

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1. The Secret

   by Anonymous

   
   

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   We have a secret, just we three,
   The robin, and I, and the sweet cherry-tree;
   The bird told the tree, and the tree told me,
   And nobody knows it but just us three.
   

   But of course the robin knows it best,
   Because she built the—I shan't tell the rest;
   And laid the four little—something in it—
   I'm afraid I shall tell it every minute.
   

   But if the tree and the robin don't peep,
   I'll try my best the secret to keep;
   Though I know when the little birds fly about
   Then the whole secret will be out.
   

2. Secrets

   by Ruby Archer

   Beware, ye whispering reeds!
   The ear of the dipping bird heeds
   All that you say.
   He learns the secrets of streams,—
   Ye murmur them in your dreams,—
   He sings them alway.
   

3. Secrets

   The skies can't keep their secret!
   They tell it to the hills —
   The hills just tell the orchards —
   And they the daffodils!

   – Emily Dickinson
   Secrets

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   by Emily Dickinson

   
   

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   The skies can't keep their secret!
   They tell it to the hills —
   The hills just tell the orchards —
   And they the daffodils!

   A bird, by chance, that goes that way
   Soft overheard the whole.
   If I should bribe the little bird,
   Who knows but she would tell?

   I think I won't, however,
   It's finer not to know;
   If summer were an axiom,
   What sorcery had snow?

   So keep your secret, Father!
   I would not, if I could,
   Know what the sapphire fellows do,
   In your new-fashioned world!

4. It's Fun to Have a Secret

   by Annette Wynne

   It's fun to have a secret and keep it very well,
   And meet a lot of people and never, never tell;
   It's fun to go a-walking all in the lane alone,
   And think about the secret that is really quite your own.
   And then when you have kept it very long, perhaps a day,
   It's fun to share the secret with another child at play,
   And then two have the secret and keep it very well,
   Until it's time the secret's out and then at last they tell.
   

5. A murmur in the trees to note

   But then I promised ne'er to tell;
   How could I break my word?
   So go your way and I'll go mine, —
   No fear you'll miss the road.
   

   – Emily Dickinson
   A murmur in the trees to note

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   by Emily Dickinson

   
   

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   A murmur in the trees to note,
   Not loud enough for wind;
   A star not far enough to seek,
   Nor near enough to find;
   

   A long, long yellow on the lawn,
   A hubbub as of feet;
   Not audible, as ours to us,
   But dapperer, more sweet;
   

   A hurrying home of little men
   To houses unperceived, —
   All this, and more, if I should tell,
   Would never be believed.
   

   Of robins in the trundle bed
   How many I espy
   
   Whose nightgowns could not hide the wings,
   Although I heard them try!
   

   But then I promised ne'er to tell;
   How could I break my word?
   So go your way and I'll go mine, —
   No fear you'll miss the road.
   

6. I have not told my garden yet

   by Emily Dickinson

   
   

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   I have not told my garden yet,
   Lest that should conquer me;
   I have not quite the strength now
   To break it to the bee.

   I will not name it in the street,
   For shops would stare, that I,
   So shy, so very ignorant,
   Should have the face to die.

   The hillsides must not know it,
   Where I have rambled so,
   Nor tell the loving forests
   The day that I shall go,

   Nor lisp it at the table,
   Nor heedless by the way
   Hint that within the riddle
   One will walk to-day!

7. Gossip

   The leaves, like women, interchange
   Sagacious confidence;
   

   – Emily Dickinson
   Gossip

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   by Emily Dickinson

   The leaves, like women, interchange
   Sagacious confidence;
   Somewhat of nods, and somewhat of
   Portentous inference,
   

   The parties in both cases
   Enjoining secrecy, —
   Inviolable compact
   To notoriety.
   

8. Reticence

   If nature will not tell the tale
   Jehovah told to her,
   Can human nature not survive
   Without a listener?
   

   – Emily Dickinson
   Reticence

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   by Emily Dickinson

   
   

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   The reticent volcano keeps
   His never slumbering plan;
   Confided are his projects pink
   To no precarious man.
   

   If nature will not tell the tale
   Jehovah told to her,
   Can human nature not survive
   Without a listener?
   

   Admonished by her buckled lips
   Let every babbler be.
   The only secret people keep
   Is Immortality.
   

9. The Secret of It

   by Amos Russel Wells

   
   

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   "Where does the clerk of the weather store
   The days that are sunny and fair?"
   "In your heart is a room with a close shut door
   And all of those days are there."
   

   "Where does the clerk of the weather keep
   The days that are dreary and blue?"
   "In a second room in your heart they sleep,
   And you have the keys of the two."
   

   "And why are my days so often, I pray,
   Filled full of clouds and of gloom?"
   "Because you go at the break of day
   And open the wrong heart-room."
   

10. The Secret

    by Christopher Morley

    
    

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    It was the House of Quietness
    To which I came at dusk;
    The garth was lit with roses
    And heavy with their musk.
    

    The tremulous tall poplar trees
    Stood whispering around,
    The gentle flicker of their plumes
    More quiet than no sound.
    

    And as I wondered at the door
    What magic might be there,
    The Lady of Sweet Silences
    Came softly down the stair.
    

11. Don't You Tell

    by Ellen P. Allerton

    
    

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    If you have a cherished secret,
    Don't you tell:—
    Not your friend—for his tympanum
    Is a bell,
    With its echoes, wide rebounding,
    Multiplied and far resounding,—
    Don't you tell.
    

    If, yourself, you cannot keep it,
    Then, who can?
    Could you more expect of any other man?
    Yet you put him, if he tells it,
    If he gives away or sells it, under ban.
    

    Sell your gems to any buyer
    In the mart:
    Of your wealth, to feed the hungry,
    Spare a part.
    Blessings on the open pocket!
    But your secret—keep it, lock it
    In your heart.
    

12. Hidden Thoughts

    by Ruby Archer

    Some thoughts there are that grow like ocean flowers,
    Without the sun,
    Deep down in sweetly dark and silent bowers,
    Betrayed to none
    Seek not to draw them forth to sympathy,
    O kindly friend.
    If once those petals were the light to see,
    Their bloom would end.
    

13. Love's Secret

    by William Blake

    
    

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    Never seek to tell thy love,
    Love that never told can be;
    For the gentle wind doth move
    Silently, invisibly.
    

    I told my love, I told my love,
    I told her all my heart,
    Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
    Ah! she did depart!
    

    Soon after she was gone from me,
    A traveller came by,
    Silently, invisibly:
    He took her with a sigh.
    

14. The Secret

    by Jean Blewett

    
    

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    The throng about her did not know,
    Her nearest friend could not surmise
    Whence came the brightness and the glow,
    The wondrous radiance of her eyes.
    

    One said, half enviously: "Your face
    Is beautiful with gladness rare,
    With that warm, generous heart of yours
    Some precious secret you must share."
    

    Ah, true! beneath the filmy lace
    That rose and fell upon her breast,
    Her first love-taken held its place—
    From him, from him whom she loved best!
    

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