Collection

Father’s Day Poems

A fistful of poems about fatherhood by classic and contemporary poets.

BY The Editors

Photograph of father and child laying beside one another.

Fathers Day is a rich holiday on the poetry calendar, and we present this selection for the dads as well as their kids. We’ve selected several poems about fatherhood, ranging from the classic (“Only a Dad” by Edgar Guest) to the contemporary (Maxine Kumin’s “Spree”). Some of these poems speak of fathers with love, admiration, and praise (“The Gift”), while others speak with resentment, sorrow, and regret (“In Dreams”). We've also got poems about children from the perspective of the father, from the first moment (“On the Birth of a Son”) on through the various stages of life (“Dressing my Daughters”).

In Praise Of Fathers
In Praise Of Fatherhood
Dads At Work
Family History
In Memory