Skip to the generator
PoemGenerator

Pet Poem Generator

Write a poem about a pet, living or lost, that takes the attachment seriously. Free, private, and every line yours to edit.

Free Verse · Sad

A blank page, for now

Choose a form on the left, tell it what the poem is about, and it will write. You can edit every line afterwards.

Free, unlimited, no account needed. Press Enter to write.

Writing a for a pet poem

People are often slightly embarrassed about how much a pet's death affects them, which is why so many pet poems reach for a jokey register they do not mean. The attachment is real. The poem is allowed to be.

Three things that make it work

1

The specific animal, not the species

Not dogs being loyal. This dog, who was afraid of the bin lorry and nothing else in the world.

2

Habit is the whole poem

Pets are made of routine, which is why the house feels wrong afterwards. Write the routine and the absence writes itself.

3

You may take it seriously

No apologising in the poem for caring this much. Undercutting it with a joke is the one thing that will make it fall flat.

What to avoid

Rainbow bridges. Widely used, and for most readers it deflects the feeling rather than holding it.

An example

Sixteen years of claws on the hall floor at six, announcing a day that had not asked to begin. I have slept through this morning and the last one. I would give a great deal to be woken.
One routine, and the loss arriving through its absence

Forms that suit it

Other occasions

See every occasion