10 Poems To Celebrate The Summer Solstice

The first day of summer, known as the summer solstice, falls on June 20. This is the moment when the earth’s tilt toward the sun is at its maximum, marking the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice is the official start of the warmest, sunniest season, and many celebrate its astronomical significance. In England, you’ll find revelers gathering and doing sun salutations at Stonehenge, a 5,000-year-old monument believed to be aligned with the sun. Other people around the world embrace the day by lighting bonfires, making flower crowns, and watching the sunrise.

Of course, the start of summer is also the best excuse to go to the beach, soak up some rays, and stay out extra late. (The sun will set at around 8:29 p.m. that night!) This is also a peak time for produce, so you might be inspired to hit up a farmer’s market for some fresh strawberries.

If you’re looking for a more low-key way to celebrate the summer solstice — or something cute to post on your Instagram — there are countless poems dedicated to summer and the solstice, too. Poets have a knack for capturing a specific feeling, like the wonder of summer’s long hazy days and warm breezy nights.

These summer poems will help you celebrate the day, and get you excited for the warm months ahead. Happy summer!

1. “A Summer Morning” — Martha Lavinia Hoffman

Welcome, glad morning, night's sable curtain

Rolls from the valley and mountains away

Bursts the great sun forth in glorious splendor

Herald of morning and king of the day!

Far in the distance the brooklet is singing

The honey-bee hums o'er the fair, fragrant flower

High in the tree-tops sweet bird songs are ringing

And far to the west the tall mountain peaks tower.

Up in the oak tree, canaries sing gaily

Linnets perch, chirping, on trellis and wall

Sweet, merry warblers, ye gladden me, daily

As down from the tree-tops your merry notes fall.

Beautiful picture, mountain and green wood

Clad in rich robes, like a fairy queen's song

Radiant Summer! to thy great storehouse

All of these beauties and wonders belong

2. “From Blossoms” — Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

3. “Summer Solstice” — Vassilis Comporozos

Summer solstice

A new born poem.

The cock heralds far and wide

the dawn of this day.

4. “Summer Stars”— Carl Sandburg

BEND low again, night of summer stars.

So near you are, sky of summer stars,

So near, a long arm man can pick off stars,

Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,

So near you are, summer stars,

So near, strumming, strumming,

So lazy and hum-strumming.

5. “Saving Daylight”— C.M. Davidson-Pickett

Suppose for a moment you live in a land,

Amazed at what happens during summer solstice.

Very strange things begin to occur,

Instantly, there is little darkness,

Night that we are so used to

Gone; what is left is the brilliant colors.

Daylight from dusk to dawn to dusk again,

Alight in all its energy and brightness.

Yes, we are north of the sixtieth parallel;

Land of the midnight sun.

I have been here before and seen things,

Gazed upon the horizon, waiting for darkness to reappear,

Holding on to summer in all its life, love and beauty;

To see it ebb once more as daylight fades to night.

6. “Poem 133: The Summer Day”— Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

7. “Moonlight, summer moonlight”— Emily Jane Brontë

‘Tis the moonlight, summer moonlight,

All soft and still and fair;

The solemn hour of midnight

Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,

But most where trees are sending

Their breezy boughs on high,

Or stooping low are lending

A shelter from the sky.

And there in those wild bowers

A lovely form is laid;

Green grass and dew-steeped flowers

Wave gently round her head.

8. “In The Summer”— Nizar Qabbani

In the summer

I stretch out on the shore

And think of you

Had I told the sea

What I felt for you,

It would have left its shores,

Its shells,

Its fish,

And followed me.

9. “Summer Rain” — Raymond A. Foss

A break in the heat

away from the front

no thunder, no lightning,

just rain, warm rain

falling near dusk

falling on eager ground

steaming blacktop

hungry plants

thirsty

turning toward the clouds

cooling, soothing rain

splashing in sudden puddles

catching in open screens

that certain smell

of summer rain

10. “In Summer” — Paul Laurence Dunbar

Oh, summer has clothed the earth

In a cloak from the loom of the sun!

And a mantle, too, of the skies' soft blue

And a belt where the rivers run

And now for the kiss of the wind

And the touch of the air's soft hands

With the rest from strife and the heat of life

With the freedom of lakes and lands