Break-Up Poems

1. “Ebb” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Short and not so sweet, this is a really refreshing love poem because the message isn’t diluted or confused by complicated syntax or presumptuous language. An evaporating pool of water is the metaphor for the writer’s heart.

2. “Mythmaking on the Merritt Parkway” by G. E. Murray
Murray uses imagery you would never associate with a love poem. It makes breaking up seem supremely romantic.

3. “Of Memory and Distance” by Russell Edson
The poem starts with “scientific fact” and ends with uncertain fiction. The shift is incredibly affecting.

4. “The Self Banished” by Edmund Waller
The first stanza, to me, summarizes this entire poetic category. The intense pain and undercurrent of bitterness introduced at the start runs throughout. Although Waller lived in the seventeenth century, the idea that the mere form of an old lover can cause physical pain transcends time.

5. “Time Does Not Bring Relief: You All Have Lied” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I smile involuntarily every time I read the first line because the statement captures so well the rest of this painfully direct poem. The poet’s everyday routines are interrupted when she can’t go to places that bear memories of her love.