On graduation day, friends and family often turn to poetry to express what they would like to pass on to the next generation—a few lines of guidance, a gesture toward possibility. The familiar standards include Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Langston Hughes’s “Dreams,” and Rudyard Kipling’s “If—.” Contemporary poets, too have offered many strange, funny, and lovely alternatives to these well-known verses, addressing not only the excitement and beauty of graduation, but also the prospect of changes and new beginnings.

 

Popular Classic Poems to Read at Graduation


Life” by Charlotte Brontë
Life, believe, is not a dream …

Beyond the Years” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Beyond the years the answer lies …

The Choir Invisible” by George Eliot
O May I join the choir invisible …

The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood …

Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me …

The Graduate Leaving College” by George Moses Horton
What summons do I hear?

A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers …

from Morituri Salutamus” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams ...

Up-Hill” by Christina Rossetti
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII [All the world’s a stage]” by William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage …

Live Blindly and Upon the Hour” by Trumbull Stickney
Live blindly and upon the hour …

There was a child went forth” by Walt Whitman
There was a child went forth every day ...

To You” by Walt Whitman
Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams …

My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold …

Be Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire
You have to be always drunk …

It Couldn’t Be Done” by Edgar Guest
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done …

If—” by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you …

Knows How To Forget! (433)” by Emily Dickinson
Knows how to forget! / But could It teach it?

"from Oracles for Youth” by Caroline Gilman
Directions // Let some one hold the book, and …

See it Through” by Edgar Guest
When you're up against a trouble, / Meet it squarely, face to face; …

Aspiration” by Henrietta Cordelia Ray
We climb the slopes of life with throbbing heart …

Related Essays & Resources

C. K. WIlliams, photo credit Brian Palmer

Beginnings

In this personal essay, Williams recounts his attempts at becoming a poet after graduating college, and the inspiration, struggles, set-backs, and revelations that led him to the start of his literary career.
Jane Hirshfield, photo by Nick Rozsa

Attention, Solitude, and First Books: Jane Hirshfield in Conversation

Academy Chancellor Jane Hirshfield discusses her early literary discoveries; the start of her literary career with her first book, which she published in her twenties; and the new beginnings that her first book brought.

Graduation: Poems for Kids

The following poems are about graduating, moving forward, and getting older, with poems like “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, and “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón.