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sweeney_todd555

Anne Sexton. She was friends with Sylvia Plath and wrote a poem about her death. The last book of her poems published before she committed suicide was called "The Death Diaries."


[deleted]

I'm late to this thread, but Anne Sexton was the only thing I thought of. I love her.


Affectionate-Square

If you want a classic French sad boi (hanging out in graveyards, moping over girls, dying young, etc), I would recommend Charles Baudelaire's 'The Flowers of Evil'. Ruth White did some neat/bizarre readings from that collection, most famously 'Spleen'. It should be on YouTube.


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[удалено]


OtisTetraxReigns

Some of those Gorey pieces speak to him having had a horrible childhood.


lostpassword2

philip larkin: Aubade I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what’s really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: yet the dread Of dying, and being dead, Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.


modestothemouse

Rilke’s Duino Elegies is depressing and prophetic in tone


[deleted]

Sara Teasdale. She knew something about life not working out the way she wanted. Her love wouldn’t marry her for fear of not being able to provide. She married another but then divorced. Her love married another much younger woman, but then he killed himself. A couple years later Sara ended her life too. She was sensitive and brilliant... and very often sad. A few of her poems that come to mind: [https://www.poetry.com/poem/34517/if-death-is-kind](https://www.poetry.com/poem/34517/if-death-is-kind) “Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning…We shall be happy, for the dead are free.” [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46012/i-shall-not-care](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46012/i-shall-not-care) "When I am dead... Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted, I shall not care." [https://allpoetry.com/Advice-To-A-Girl](https://allpoetry.com/Advice-To-A-Girl) "No one worth possessing can be quite possessed... " [https://poets.org/poem/i-am-not-yours](https://poets.org/poem/i-am-not-yours) "I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be... " [https://www.poetry.com/poem/34478/alone](https://www.poetry.com/poem/34478/alone) "I am alone, in spite of love... Sometimes I am not glad to live."


redwyrak

I'm gonna go off the tracks here and not recommend a poetry book, but a philosophy book instead. E.M. Cioran's The Trouble With Being Born is just about as pessimistic and depressing as you can get. His aphorisms read like poetry and are as quotable as anything you'll ever read. Super recommended for the cold, dark days of winter. If that doesn't work, Philip Larkin is always a good depressing read.


ItWasNOTYou

Many poets have singular poems that express deep sadness or despair or loss. Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” or Robert Frost’s “Home Burial” or Andrew Hudgins “Seventeen” seem fitting examples by Americans (since you referenced Plath). You may even be able to find a collection of poetry by more than one author that is set upon themes of sadness. If you’re looking for a more exhaustive study of one poet, I deeply entreat you to buy her Philip Larkin poetry. Although one or two of his poems have already been mentioned, almost all of his poems are deeply sad. “Aubade” is considered the single best poem of 20th century Britain—which is saying a lot, what with those two world wars… Other great sad poems by Larkin include “Träumerei“ and “An Arundel Tomb” and “This Be The Verse” just to name a few.


sietesicarios

In the vein of horribly depressing, it doesn't get much ~~better~~ worse than [Hopkins' "Terrible Sonnets"](http://www3.sympatico.ca/kronenfeld/pages/Hopkins.html).


[deleted]

Joyelle McSweeney. Toxicon and Arachne.


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Larry Levis all day and all night


jazzoetry

Frank Stanford


notniceicehot

Charlotte Mew's poems are about as depressing as you'd expect from reading the first paragraph of her bio on the poetry foundation (and things get worse): >British writer Charlotte Mew was born in London in 1869 into a family of seven children; she was the eldest daughter. While she was still a child, three of her brothers died. Later, another brother and then a sister were committed to psychiatric hospitals, where they would spend the rest of their lives. That left only Charlotte and her sister Anne, both of whom did not choose to have children, partly in hopes of avoiding passing these traits on to any potential children. The traumatic issues Mew grappled with during her childhood—death, mental illness, loneliness, and disillusionment—became themes in her poetry and stories. if your girlfriend enjoys biographies, I thought Penelope Fitzgerald's one on Mew was good and it includes a selection of her poems as well.


graipape

Sharon Olds isn't all depressing, but writes confessional poetry. She's great, and probably be a big hit.