Retirement Poems

Expressing your happiness, best wishes or good luck to someone retiring can be done in a lot of different ways. Sometimes the most appropriate or fitting way is by poetry or using a poem.

A well considered, thoughtful or even humourous poem can perfectly sum up the way you are feeling, find the words you are struggling with and be appreciated by the person receiving the card.

You are free to use the retirement poems whichever way you see best – be that to convey your feelings to whoever is retiring, show them how much they’ll be missed, give them a laugh etc. Whatever you choose they will no doubt appreciate the use of poetry during this eventful time.

Short Retirement Poems


Retired is being twice tired, I’ve thought
First tired of working,
Then tired of not.
~Richard Armour


O, blest retirement! friend to life’s decline –
How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,
A youth of labor with an age of ease!
~Oliver Goldsmith


Lubbock, “Recreation,” The Use of Life Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means waste of time. ~John, 1894


So many worlds,
So much to see and do,
So little seen
and done by others,
means many more things
to be seen and done
by extraordinary you.
— from Life’s Secret Handbook (Reminders for Adventurous Souls Who Want to Make a Big Difference in This World


Age is opportunity no less,
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth,
To some good angel leave the rest;
For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year’s nest!
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Retirement poems 6


When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
— William Butler Yeats


You can say it with flowers
You can say it with wine
But to make her stinkin’ sentimental
Say it with a Lincoln Continental.
— Robert Byrne

Retirement poems 5


May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
— Irish Retirement Blessing


O, blest retirement! Friend to life’s decline –
How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,
A youth of labor with an age of ease!
— Goldsmith

Retirement poems 4


Ten thousand flowers in spring
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
— Wu-men
Grow old with me!
The best is yet to be.
— Robert Browning


May the road rise to meet you, the wind be always at your back, the sun shine warm upon your house, the rain fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand. – Traditional Gaelic Blessing

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Retirement poems 2

Retirement poems 3

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