Have you ever felt the weight of the world on your shoulders?
It’s easy to lose sight of your strength when life throws its curveballs but there’s a way to find that inner resilience.
Here are 10 powerful poems, each a tiny beacon of hope, crafted to remind us of our inherent strength.
Let’s get right to it!
My favorite life advice poem for persevering women
#1 “On Pain” by Kahlil Gibran
And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.
In “On Pain,” Kahlil Gibran masterfully illustrates how our struggles can be transformative experiences.
This poem resonates with persevering women who seek to understand the deeper meaning behind their challenges and find strength in adversity.
As you read Gibran’s profound insights, you’ll discover the healing potential of pain and learn to embrace it as part of your journey.
9 more life advice poems for persevering women
#2 “Results And Roses” by Edgar A. Guest
The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small or very big,
With flowers growing here and there,
Must bend his back and dig.
The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain.
Whate’er we want of any worth
We’ve got to work to gain.
It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You’ve got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses.
#3 “Perseverance” by Julius Hammer
If thou wouldst build a lasting temple,
Where beauty dwells, and worth abides,
Let thou not fear of earnest labor,
Thy courage check, or halt thy strides.
Enthusiasm and hope’s promise,
Are not enough to gain thy end;
Exhaustive strife with yielding matter,
Alone, can faultless form and blend.
#4 “Resolve” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Build on resolve, and not upon regret,
The structure of thy future. Do not grope
Among the shadows of old sins, but let
Thine own soul’s light shine on the path of hope
And dissipate the darkness. Waste no tears
Upon the blotted record of lost years,
But turn the leaf, and smile, oh, smile, to see
The fair white pages that remain for thee.
Prate not of thy repentance. But believe
The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.
That which the upreaching spirit can achieve
The grand and all-creative forces know;
They will assist and strengthen as the light
Lifts up the acorn to the oak tree’s height.
Thou hast but to resolve, and lo! God’s whole
Great universe shall fortify thy soul.
#5 “On Time” by Kahlil Gibran
And an astronomer said, Master, what of Time?
And he answered:
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?
And is not time even as love is, undivided and spaceless?
But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.
#6 “Don’t Worry” by William Arthur Dunkerley (John Oxenham)
Just do your best,
And leave the rest
To Him who gave you
Life,–
And Zeal for Labour,–
And the Joy of Strife,–
And Zest of Love,–
And all that lifts your soul above
The lower things.
Life’s truest harvest is in what we would,
And strive our best for,
Not most in what we could.
The things we count supreme
Stand, haply, not so high
In God’s esteem
As How and Why.
All-Seeing Sight
Cleaves through the husk of things,
Right to the Roots and Springs,–
Sees all things whole,
And measures less the body than the soul.
All-Righteous Right
Will weigh men’s motives,
Not their deeds alone.
End and Beginning unto Him are one;
And would for could shall oft, perchance, atone.
Motives are seeds,
From which at times spring deeds
Not equal to the soul’s outreaching hope.
Strive for the stars!
Count nought well done but best!
Then, with brave patience, leave the rest
To Him who knows.
He’ll judge you justly ere the record close.
#7 “A Life-Lesson” by James Whitcomb Riley
There! little girl, don’t cry!
They have broken your doll, I know;
And your tea-set blue,
And your play-house, too,
Are things of the long ago;
But childish troubles will soon pass by.—
There! little girl, don’t cry!
There! little girl, don’t cry!
They have broken your slate, I know;
And the glad, wild ways
Of your school-girl days
Are things of the long ago;
But life and love will soon come by.—
There! little girl, don’t cry!
There! little girl, don’t cry!
They have broken your heart, I know;
And the rainbow gleams
Of your youthful dreams
Are things of the long ago;
But Heaven holds all for which you sigh.—
There! little girl, don’t cry!
#8 “Life Is Too Short” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Life is too short for any vain regretting;
Let dead delight bury its dead, I say,
And let us go upon our way forgetting
The joys, and sorrows, of each yesterday.
Between the swift sun’s rising and its setting,
We have no time for useless tears or fretting,
Life is too short.
Life is too short for any bitter feeling;
Time is the best avenger if we wait,
The years speed by, and on their wings bear healing,
We have no room for anything like hate.
This solemn truth the low mounds seem revealing
That thick and fast about our feet are stealing,
Life is too short.
Life is too short for aught but high endeavour,—
Too short for spite, but long enough for love.
And love lives on for ever and for ever,
It links the worlds that circle on above;
‘Tis God’s first law, the universe’s lever,
In His vast realm the radiant souls sigh never
“Life is too short.”
#9 “Dare and Do” by Eaglestone
To do and dare,
Be this thy care,
Though every path be haunted;
So dare and do
Whate’er is true,
E’en though thy heart be taunted
By many a fear
And prospect drear,
And many a thorn be planted.
Yes, do and dare,
And thou shalt wear
Full blooming joy’s supernal;
So dare and do,
And over you
Shall beam the skies diurnal,
Till up from this
You rise to bliss
Unclouded and eternal.
#10 “On Self-Knowledge” by Kahlil Gibran
And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.
And he answered, saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.
And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales ot weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.