Poetry / poems by individual poets
Carcanet Press Ltd Collected Poems
Book SynopsisCollected Poems contains the previously published poetry of Rowan Williams, together with a significant body of new work. Also included are his celebrated translations from Welsh, German and Russian poetry. His earlier collections have included pieces prompted by the landscape and literature of West Wales, and a sequence of poems on the varieties of love in the plays of Shakespeare. This Collected adds a sequence commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, tributes to writers as different as Alan Garner and John Milton, and a reflection on sculptures by Antony Gormley. The book reflects the poet's wide range of interest and the variety of poetic mediums he has explored. His poems continue to respond vividly to the visual arts, and to the experience and imagination of 'pre-modern' cultures, as well as to the crises and tragedies of our time. He continues to read with uncanny clarity the signs that are manifest in nature and history. Imagination working through language brings us as close as we can get to our condition. 'I dislike the idea of being a religious poet,' he says. 'I would prefer to be a poet for whom religious things mattered intensely.'Trade Review'It's serious, craftsmanly writing on faith, history and mortality - it's the real thing.' - Sean O'Brien; 'the truly successful poems here marry [Williams'] terse precision with an unwavering search for the truth, whatever it is, however elusive it might be.' - Times Literary Supplement; 'Reading this poet, at such a period in our history, is like feeling the first drops of rain after a long season of drought.' - A.N. Wilson, Daily Telegraph; 'His poetry opens windows on a rich and restless imagination.' - Boyd Tonkin, Independent
£14.39
Carcanet Press Ltd The Silence
Book SynopsisThe poems in Gillian Clarke's The Silence begin during lockdown, whose silences Clarke listens so attentively that other voices emerge.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Highway Cottage
Book SynopsisFollowing his Forward-prize shortlisted Rotten Days in Late Summer, Ralf Webb's breathtaking second poetry collection summons the West Country of his youth, a place where the real and the magical, folklore and modernity, life and death, collideRalf Webb is an ethnographer of the present. He is interested in everyday life in the extreme' Peter GizziHighway Cottage weaves the story of a strange homecoming. A young poet travels to the heart of the English countryside back to the West Country village where he grew up. Descending into the valley where the small riverside community still resides, he finds himself within a dreamlike landscape, peopled by uncanny figures: drone operators and hunters; half-familiar friends; local historians, and braying councillors trying desperately to oust a community of Travellers. Hovering between reality and folklore, the locale is at once idyllic and in decay; the visitor is both unsettled and soothed by it. Slowly, we start to sense that both villagers and poet might be under threat not just from the future, but from the past. This book-length sequence of poems represents a ground-breaking artistic achievement by acclaimed poet Ralf Webb. Blending the eerie musicality of children's rhymes with echoes of traditional balladry and free verse, the collection swells to an extraordinary chorus. With great clarity and affection, but not a trace of sentimentality, Webb conjures a precise vision of a rural community, surfacing the deep and urgent tensions personal, political, and environmental that run through Britain today. The result is a unique portrait of contemporary country life, enchanting and unnerving in equal measure.
£10.44
Wild Goose Publications Across the Narrow Straits
£9.49
Pushkin Press The Wanderers Song Essential Poems
£11.69
Out-Spoken Press Mother of Flip-flops
Book SynopsisMukahang Limbu's reputation as a key voice in a new generation of poets has been gathering momentum across a number of years, and its brilliance is captured here in his debut publication. Mother of Flip-Flops is a queering of migrant experience, a love song to the mother, a celebration and questioning of the self. Defiant and shifting, these poems articulate a unique coming-of-age, and what it means to do so with a heightened exchange of empathy.
£7.60
Everyman Byrons Travels
Book SynopsisIn Lord Byron''s lifetime, details of his travels were widely known through poems set in different countries, ranging from his homes in Scotland and England, through Europe and the Middle East, to the South Pacific and into extra-terrestrial realms. At the same time, a much more personal story was being shared with friends and family. Even when divided from those whose company he most enjoyed, Byron continued to share his thoughts and feelings about wherever he happened to be. His compulsive letter-writing reveals a strong desire to reach across space, to connect and reconnect with those elsewhere. While his memoirs did not survive the ceremonial posthumous bonfire at 50 Albemarle Street, many of Byron''s correspondents treasured every word in their possession. This means a remarkable legacy has been preserved in letters that still seem as alive with conversational energy as when they were dashed off more than two hundred years ago. Through Byron''s letters and journals, we are still a
£15.29
Transworld Publishers Ltd Echoes of Memory
Book SynopsisIn this powerful, evocative collection, master storyteller John O'Donohue explores themes of love and loss, beginnings and endings. Inspired by the ancient wisdom of the Celtic tradition and the rugged, majestic landscape of his birth, the west of Ireland, here he also creates a unique vision of a place and time, and the echo of a memory that will never fade.Trade ReviewHis taut concise pieces use words and syntax with the sort of freedom that comes after mastery * Books Ireland *In these poems, the west of Ireland landscape and climate in all their harshness are metaphors for the emotional climate of the work * Poetry Ireland Review *
£8.54
Everyman Blake Poems
Book SynopsisBlake's explosive lyrical genius is here represented by the full text of 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience', plus a wide range of marvellous short poems unpublished in his lifetime. In addition there is a selection from the Prophetic Books in which the poet develops his own story of creation - alternately crazy and magnificent and from his dramatic and didactic poems and prose writings which reveal Blake as a major poet of the Romantic movement.
£10.80
Flipped Eye Publishing Limited In the Footsteps of Marco Polo
£10.16
Two Rivers Press Transitional Spaces
Book SynopsisTransitional Spaces, Kate Behrens's fourth collection, is concerned with inner lives and the secret doings of damage and repair. Touching on politics, sickness, sex, art, global warming and the messages of fantasy and dream, it looks at the lost and the longed-for, and at what happens when the bonds between us rupture. Nature appears as mirror, pointer or consolation. Creativity is explored in lines that include poets, a painter, a pattern-cutter and tapestry-maker, but also in our instinctual methods of surviving trauma. Behrens does not attempt an answer, rather she maps the trackways of feeling.
£8.99
Stewed Rhubarb Press Förgätmigej // Forget-me-not
£6.00
Valley Press yes yes mouth
Book SynopsisThis is a book for people who like to gorge on language; a meal too big for people who hate to throw away their food. It is about life's extremes those times when you do things to excess, and those when you avoid doing anything at all. Sometimes political, sometimes sexual and always hungry, this visceral, arresting debut pamphlet marks the arrival of an unforgettable new ''mouth'' in UK poetry.
£7.59
Verve Poetry Press Hurtz
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Verve Poetry Press Postcolonial Banter
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Two Rivers Press The Colour of Rain
Book SynopsisThe Colour of Rain is Susan Utting's fifth full collection, following her New and Selected, Half the Human Race. Here she demonstrates a new-found intimacy with the natural world, a closeness that leads her to become part of it. She 'becomes' a Willow Sister, joins an avenue of poplars, has conversations with bees. And while nature is joyfully celebrated, poems also lament its losses: felled trees. disappearing species, Rachel Carson's all too present 'Silent Spring'. The poet's trademark musicality and dancing rhythms are in evidence throughout the collection's four sections. Her fascination with language, its sounds and resonances, demonstrate reviewer Philip Gross's comment that 'Utting unashamedly loves language, and it seems to love her back.'Trade Review‘Whether she is being a willow or imagining a sister, considering miracles, or reflecting upon family, Susan Utting’s poems are never less than delicately wrought, with a lovely ability to open out their language like Japanese flowers placed in a bowl of water. There is much arboreal meditation here, around which this poet weaves a deeply felt empathy with nature; there are dreamscapes, and portraits of animals and birds; there are witty encounters with weather. Beautifully observant throughout, and often employing an intent edge to their perceptions, these poems draw the reader most adeptly in to their realised world’ – Penelope Shuttle; ‘Susan Utting’s gloriously gathered language susurrates across the page like a spell. With it, she lifts up a corner of ourselves, reminding us of the menace of childhood landscapes, and the fairytale-dark memories we might have left buried there. But these wise and emotionally generous poems are also an incantation for healing, and she shows us how the walls we build around ourselves can be dismantled by the salve inherent in nature’s fundamentals – trees, sea, sky, snow, “the world’s rainbow”’ – Dawn Gorman
£10.79
Valley Press The Upcycled Healing Brain
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Pan Macmillan Wenceslas
Book SynopsisBeginning with the King's Cook, who is preparing a sumptuous Christmas Pie, Wenceslas takes us to a medieval feast. The lords and ladies are at their places, the wine is in full flow, the musicians are playing in the gallery and the entertainment has begun. All should be perfect. But when the good King looks up from his table he sees something more than just snow, falling deep and crisp and even . . . Richly illustrated by Stuart Kolakovic, this gorgeous little book captures the age-old magic of Christmas. In reimagining the much-loved carol of King Wenceslas, Carol Ann Duffy's wonderful poem offers merriment and festive cheer, but also celebrates what is truly important at this special time of year: the simple acts of kindness that each of us can show another.
£7.59
Pan Macmillan Orlam
Book SynopsisNine-year-old Ira-Abel Rawles lives on Hook Farm in the village of Underwhelem. Next to the farm is Gore Woods, Ira’s sanctuary, overseen by Orlam, the all-seeing lamb’s eyeball who is Ira-Abel’s guardian and protector. Here, drawing on the rituals, children’s songs, chants and superstitions of the rural West Country of England, Ira-Abel creates the twin realm through which she can make sense of an increasingly confusing and frightening world.Orlam follows Ira and the inhabitants of Underwhelem month by month through the last year of her childhood innocence. The result is a poem-sequence of light and shadow – suffused with hints of violence, sexual confusion and perversion, the oppression of family, but also ecstatic moments in sunlit clearings, song and bawdy humour. The broad theme is ultimately one of love – carried by Ira’s personal Christ, the constantly bleeding soldier-ghost Wyman-Elvis, who bears ‘The Word’: Love Me Tender.Orlam is not only a remarkable coming-of-age tale, but the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. Orlam also reveals P J Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet – whose formal skill, transforming eye and ear for the lyric line has produced a strange and moving poem like no other.
£16.99
University of California Press The Iliad and the Odyssey Boxed Set
Book Synopsis
£42.00
Saqi Books C+NTO: & Othered Poems
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE T S ELIOT PRIZE 2021. The female body is a political space. C+nto enters the private lives of women from the butch counterculture, telling the inside story of the protests they led in the '90s to reclaim their bodies as their own - their difficult balance between survival and self-expression. History, magic, rebellion, party and sermon vibrate through Joelle Taylor's cantos to uncover these underground communities forged by women. Part-memoir and part-conjecture, Taylor explores sexuality and gender in poetry that is lyrical, expansive, imagistic, epic and intimate. C+nto is a love poem, a riot, a late night, and an honouring.Trade Review'Joelle Taylor has produced one of the most astonishing and original poetry collections of recent years.' Bernardine Evaristo, New Statesman Books of the Year 2021;'A real treat ... inventive, powerfully moving work.' The Telegraph;'Visionary and powerful. I loved it.' Hollie McNish;'Absolutely incredible ... A celebration and a tribute to the dyke bars and the butches who left their mark ... This is work that should not be missed.' Diva Magazine, Book of the Month;'A reclamation and a proclamation. A book and a performance. A roll call and a remembrance. A tribute and a critique, not just for the Lesbian community, but for anyone who has had to struggle to establish their life and identity. A powerful celebration of an important culture.' Roger Robinson;'An altar of a book. Joelle Taylor has an unmatched gift as a poet, memoirist and chronicler.'Inua Ellam; 'A work of fearsome imaginative and creative reach ... sonorous and soaring poetry.'Fran Lock, Culture Matters;
£10.44
Andrews McMeel Publishing Time Will Tell
Book SynopsisTime Will Tell is a collection of introspective poetry from bestselling author Courtney Peppernell. Come along and discover what it means to start inward and evolve into the version of yourself the universe knows you can be.From the bestselling author of Pillow Thoughts and Watering the Soul comes another deeply honest and moving collection of poetry and prose that explores the strength and resilience we embody in the face of hardship and change. Presented in six captivating sections—Reflecting, Repairing, Change, Awakening, Emerging, and Rebirth—Time Will Tell tells the story of a curious, lost soul who crashed down to Earth on the search for purpose. With the help of their trusted guide, and told with Courtney Peppernell’s signature encouragement and beauty, this broken but fearless soul fights through each changing cycle and emerges more beautiful and stronger than the moment they fell. Come along as these endearing characters journey inward and you, too, may discover what it means to be free.
£10.79
Penguin Books Ltd Selected Poems
Book SynopsisRudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is often regarded as the unofficial Laureate of the British Empire. Yet his writing reveals a ferociously independent figure at times violently opposed to the dominant political and literary tendencies of his age. Arranged in chronological order, this diverse selection of his poetry shows the development of Kipling''s talent, his deepening maturity and the growing sombreness of his poetic vision. Ranging from early, exhilarating celebrations of British expansion overseas, including ''Mandalay'' and ''Gunga Din'', to the dignified and inspirational ''If -'' and the later, deeply moving ''Epitaphs of the War'' - inspired by the death of Kipling''s only son - it clearly illustrates the scope and originality of his work. It also offers a compelling insight into the Empire both at its peak and during its decline in the early years of the twentieth century.
£11.69
Bonnier Books Ltd Love: Poems to bolster every heart that ever beat
Book Synopsis*Donna Ashworth's new book Wild Hope is out September 2023*FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF I WISH I KNEWA book for the passionate and warm-hearted among us, Love explores every type of affection and helps us to nurture our most precious connections.This collection invites us to keep space open for the love in our lives and to remember that it can be found in the most unexpected places.From familial ties to friendship and romantic love, these poems show tenderness as a powerful force - even towards yourself.Real readers are falling for Love- 'A poignant, beautiful, and soothing collection of poems' ***** NetGalley- 'I didn't realise how much I needed the words that was on the pages!' ***** NetGalley- 'Fabulous author whose poems come from her heart and whose words seem to speak the emotions in a way many of us can't.' *****Amazon- 'She is a truly talented writer who is capable of writing words that really speak to the soul.' *****Amazon
£9.49
University of California Press Unfortunately It Was Paradise
Book SynopsisThe author is a literary rarity: at once critically acclaimed as one of the most important poets in the Arabic language, and beloved as the voice of his people. A legend in Palestine, his lyrics are sung by fieldworkers and schoolchildren. This collection spans his entire career, nearly four decades, revealing a range of expression and form.Trade Review"Darwish's complex linguistic negotiations of deeply contested places, on the earth and in the mind, demand and sustain serious reading and discussion. . . . [Forché's] fluid and precise approach to translation is everywhere apparent here." * Publishers Weekly *“These translations of Mahmoud Darwish’s marvelous poems reveal the lifelong development of a major world poet. The book is a gift to other poets and lovers of poetry. It’s also an important contribution to current and future discourse on culture and politics.” * American Poet *"This book is a beautiful rendering of beautiful verse. It is an important contribution in making accessible an important figure in modern Arab culture. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise demonstrates that Darwish is a poet of our time as well as a poet of all times." * Journal of Palestine Studies *"This book—perhaps the most important, available, and representative volume of Darwish to date—is really remarkable. It's striking how this poet is so much at once and as a whole: personal and political, 'experimental' yet lyrically so, informed by philosophy yet reminiscent of prayer." * PopMatters *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Munir Akash Introduction Munir Akash and Carolyn Forche FROM Fewer Roses (1986) I Will Slog over This Road Another Road in the Road Were It Up to Me to Begin Again On This Earth I Belong There Addresses for the Soul, outside This Place Earth Presses against Us We Journey towards a Home We Travel Like All People Athens Airport I Talk Too Much We Have the Right to Love Autumn The Last Train Has Stopped On the Slope, Higher Than the Sea, They Slept He Embraces His Murderer Winds Shift against Us Neighing on the Slope Other Barbarians Will Come They Would Love to See Me Dead When the Martyrs Go to Sleep The Night There We Went to Aden Another Damascus in Damascus The Flute Cried In This Hymn FROM I See What I Want to See (1993) The Hoopoe FROM Why Have You Left the Horse Alone? (1995) I See My Ghost Coming from Afar A Cloud in My Hands The Kindhearted Villagers The Owl's Night The Everlasting Indian Fig The Lute of Ismael The Strangers' Picnic The Raven's Ink Like the Letter "N" in the Qur'an Ivory Combs The Death of the Phoenix Poetic Regulations Excerpts from the Byzantine Odes of Abu Firas The Dreamers Pass from One Sky to Another A Rhyme for the Odes (Mu'allaqat) Night That Overflows My Body The Gypsy Woman Has a Tame Sky FROM A Bed for the Stranger (1999) We Were without a Present Sonnet II The Stranger Finds Himself in the Stranger The Land of the Stranger, the Serene Land Inanna's Milk Who Am I, without Exile? Lesson from the Kama Sutra Mural (2000) Mural Three Poems (before 1986) A Soldier Dreams of White Tulips As Fate Would Have It Four Personal Addresses Glossary
£22.50
Oxford University Press Vita Nuova
Book SynopsisVita Nuova (1292-94) is the first of Dante''s major writings. It is a supreme work of love; thirty-one poems are linked by a lyrical prose narrative poem celebrating and debating the subject of love. In the opening chapter Dante sets himself the task of giving meaning to the poetry which he composed and the events which took place after his meeting with Beatrice and the `Lord of Love''. The `new life'' which this meeting inspired is the subject of Dante''s most profound creation, which has been read variously as biography, religious allegory, and a meditation on poetry itself. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, anTrade Review'the Vita Nuova calls for a bold translator ... Mark Musa, who has published a well-known translation of the Divine Comedy, is much better qualified than most for the task.' Times LIterary Supplement
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Illustrated Old Possum
Book SynopsisCats! Some are sane, and some are mad.Some are good, and some are bad . . .The original Old Possum''s illustrations have been lovingly restored and are showcased in this beautiful new hardback edition, perfect for children and Eliot aficionados alike. These lovable cat poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and grown-ups. The collection inspired the musical Cats!, and features Macavity, Mr Mistofelees and Growltiger!
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Pilgrim Bell: Shortlisted for the 2022 Forward
Book Synopsis*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021***Selected as one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021**'Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny. . . We need Pilgrim Bell.' TOMMY ORANGEWith formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, "what now shall I repair?" Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance - the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation - teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigour is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives - resonant, revelatory, and holy.America, I warn you, if you invite me into your homeI will linger,kissing my beloveds frankly,pulling up radishesand capping all your pens.There are no good kings,only burning palaces.-from 'The Palace''Very few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target' LAUREN GROFFTrade ReviewVery few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target -- Lauren Groff * Observer, *Books of the Year* *These are poems on the grand scale, staging dramas of cosmic light and dark -- David Wheatley * Guardian *Kaveh Akbar is the sorcerer's sorcerer, masterful in the way he wields language . . . Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny, but most of all truth's beauty and beauty's truth sung . . . We need Pilgrim Bell. We need Kaveh Akbar -- Tommy Orange, author of THERE THEREA measured, quiet pondering of intense subjects and subjectivities... Pilgrim Bell insistently travels to necessary places, with regard to the intimacies of faith, the landscapes of empire and the performativity and honesty of poetry. The poems are deeply considered and show a contemplative maturation of Akbar's voice -- Khairani Barokka * Times Literary Supplement *What thrilled me most about this book was another commitment: the commitment to writing discomfort, or ugliness. Doing it well, and doing it without insisting upon beautification. Pilgrim Bell is a book that chooses honesty over beauty, which makes it a breathtaking text -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICAKaveh Akbar is truly a great writer, and his new collection Pilgrim Bell is a marvel. Like his previous work, it dazzles us. Akbar is an unlikely prophet - hilarious and irreverent and self-deprecating. Yet even nonbelievers will travel the circles of faith and hellscape, love and rebuke, through his captivating voice. He is incapable of setting down a line that's less than luminous. Pilgrim Bell is destined to become a classic -- Mary KarrWorking at and along the outer edges of language, Pilgrim Bell calls us to attention and to attend to that which poetry and prayer share, while simultaneously demanding that we tend to the political, the social, the erotic - all that is quotidian and human . . . In Pilgrim Bell, the poet Kaveh Akbar, 'God's incarnate spit in the mud,' takes us down to the ground, to the prosaic, the dismissed and overlooked, the better to talk to the great Silence, bearer of many names including that of God -- M. NourbeSe PhilipIn this rich and moving collection, Akbar writes poems of contradiction and ambivalence centered on religious belief and ethnic and national identity. Evocative and polyphonic, surprising but never artificially shocking, Akbar's poems flit from the divine to the corporeal in the same breath . . . This impressive, thoughtful work shimmers with inventive syntax and spiritual profundity -- Publishers Weekly
£11.69
Oxford University Press The Poetic Edda
Book SynopsisShe sees, coming up a second time,earth from the ocean, eternally green;the waterfalls plunge, an eagle soars above them,over the mountain hunting fish.After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress''s Prophecy which recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In this great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related. The one-eyed Odin, red-bearded Thor, Loki the trickster, the lovely goddesses, and the giants who are their enemies walk beside the heroic Helgi, Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, Brynhild the shield-maiden, and the implacable Gudrun. This translation also features the quest-poem The Lay of Svipdag and The Waking of Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword.Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty, and profound, the poems of the Edda have influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and speak to us as freely as when they were first written down seven hundred and fifty years ago.Trade ReviewLarringtons version of The Poetic Edda has been beautifully translated, and the flow of each poem is perfect. * Kirsty Hewitt, Book Hugger *A 750-year-old haul of Icelandic verse might not sound like cutting-edge entertainment but these sinewy sagas include such modern elements as gutsy heroines and ultra-violence. * Christopher Hirst, Independent *This is a lovingly presented translation of one of the most important works of Norse mythology ... A fabulous collection worthy of multiple readings. * Arthur Chappell, Concatenation.org *
£16.19
Faber & Faber Motel Chronicles Hawk Moon
Book SynopsisHis words appear modest, but they have huge scope.'Wim WendersThis volume is the first collection of Sam Shepard's autobiographical fiction and poetry.It inspired the award-winning film, Paris, Texas.'Sam Shepard is the greatest U.S. playwright of his generation.
£10.44
Enitharmon Press Sonnets to Orpheus
Book SynopsisIn fifty-five sonnets, Rilke plays an astonishing set of philosophical and sensual variations on the Orpheus myth. 'Praising, that's it!' he declares; nature, art, love, time, childhood, technology, poverty, justice - all are encompassed in poems that spark with insight and invention, amongst the joyful and light-footed that Rilke ever wrote. 'All poetry resists translation, and one poem may have many different versions in another language; what I look for first is clarity, and this version supplies that generously. With the presence of the German text and Crucefix's helpful notes, the English-speaking reader with little or no German will find in this version a welcoming entrance to the path which leads eventually to a full understanding - if a full understanding of this mysterious poetry is ever possible. This translation will have, and keep, a place on my shelves where all the poetry lives.' PHILIP PULLMANTrade Review'This translation will have, and keep, a place on my bookshelves where all the poetry lives.' PHILIP PULLMAN The Sonnets to Orpheus are some of the greatest philosophical poems of the century. Martyn Crucefix's impressive previous translations of the Duino Elegies have accustomed us to a way of hearing Rilke, but these are, if anything, more beautiful and natural versions, the form falling lightly on the ear, the thought tantalisingly clear in these bold explorations at the edge of sensibility. GEORGE SZIRTES
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Sonnets
Book SynopsisThe Sonnets explore many of Shakespeare's most common themes: jealousy, betrayal, melancholy. They ache with unfulfilled longing, and, for many, they are the most complete and moving meditations on love ever written.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by Peter Harness.The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, a cycle of 154 linked poems first published in 1609, are reproduced in full in this Macmillan Collector’s Library edition. Filled with ideas about love, beauty and mortality, the sonnets are written in the same beautiful and innovative language that we have come to know from Shakespeare's plays. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man known as the 'Fair Youth', while others are directed at a 'Rival Poet', and a 'Dark Lady'.Trade ReviewEvery generation continues to be in his debt. Shakespeare’s plots, which are brilliantly polyvalent, continue to inspire ceaseless adaptations and spin-offs. His unforgettable phrase-making recurs on the lips of millions who do not realise they are quoting Shakespeare * Guardian *
£9.49
Faber & Faber Ted Hughes New Selected Poems 19571994 Faber
Book SynopsisThis volume replaced Ted Hughes''s Selected Poems 1957-1981. It contains a larger selection from the same period, to which are added poems from more recent books, uncollected poems from each decade of Ted Hughes''s writing life, and some new work. Another notable feature is the inclusion of poems from his books for younger readers, What is the Truth? and Season Songs.
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Poems and Prose
Book SynopsisCloser to Dylan Thomas than Matthew Arnold in his ‘creative violence’ and insistence on the sound of poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins was no staid, conventional Victorian. On entering the Society of Jesus and the age of twenty-four, he burnt all his poetry and ‘resolved to write no more, as not belonging to my profession, unless by the wish of my superiors.'' The poems, letters, and journal entries selected for this edition were written in the following twenty years of his life and published posthumously in 1918. His verse is wrought from the creative tensions and paradoxes of a poet-priest who wanted to evoke the spiritual essence of nature sensuously, and to communicate this revelation in natural language and speech-rhythms while using condensed, innovative diction and all the skills of poetic artifice. Intense, vital, and individual, his writing is the ‘terrible crystal’ through which the soul—the inscape, the nature of
£9.49
Faber & Faber Collected Poems
Book SynopsisThis collection of the work of one of the greatest modern poets was first published in America in 1954. The Collected Poems was prepared by Stevens himself, shortly before his death, and contains all of his published books of poetry, covering more than four decades: from the brilliant rococo lyrics of Harmonium, through the large-scale orchestrations of his middle years, to the magnificent austere lyrics of ''The Rock'', which first appeared in the Collected Poems, Stevens''s poetry meditated unremittingly upon the relation between the world and the imagination. ''He seems to me - and sems to my readers, I am sure - one of the true poets of our century, someone whom the world will keep on reading just as it keeps on listening to Vivaldi or Scarlatti, looking at Tiepolo or Poussin. His best poems are the poetry of a man fully human - of someone sympathetic, magnanimous, both brightly and deeply intelligent; the poems see, feel, and think with equal success; tTrade Review"'One of the most considerable poets of the last hundred years... Poems that are as distinguished as any written this century.' Thom Gunn, London Magazine"
£17.00
Oxford University Press The Major Works
Book SynopsisThis authoritative edition was first published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Yeats''s poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by plays, critical writings, and letters - to give the essence of his work and thinking.W. B. Yeats was born in 1865, only 38 years after the death of William Blake, and died in 1939, the contemporary of Ezra Pound and James Joyce. His career crossed two centuries, and this volume represents the full range of his achievement, from the Romantic early poems of Crossways and the symbolist masterpiece The Wind Among the Reeds to his last poems. Myth and folk-tale influence both his poems and his plays, represented here by Cathleen ni Houlihan and Deirdre among others. The importance of the spirit world to his life and work is evident in his critical essays and occult writings, and the anthology also contains political speeches, autobiographical writings, a
£10.44
Faber & Faber New Selected Poems
Book SynopsisNew Selected Poems is a book of singular abundance and formal verve, featuring poems of rare vision and dramatic power by a consummate and resilient artist. Demonstrating the wide range of Derek Mahon''s verse, from the early lyricism to a more expansive middle period (''New York Time'', ''Decadence'') and the flowering of his late style, it includes recent, uncollected work and culminates in the generous, far-reaching reverie ''Dreams of a Summer Night''.
£13.49
Bloodaxe Books Ltd alphabet
Book SynopsisInger Christensen (1935-2009) was one of Denmark's best-known poets. Her poetry reflects a complex philosophical background, yet it has enjoyed wide public popularity. Many of her poems have a visionary quality, yet she is a paradoxically down-to-earth visionary, focusing on the simple stuff of everyday life and in it discovering the metaphysical, as if by chance.In alphabet, Christensen creates a framework of psalm-like forms that unfold like expanding universes, crystallizing into words both the beauty and the potential for destruction that permeate our world and our times. In this collection, she has created a system by combining the alphabet with Fibonnaci's numeric sequence, in which each number is equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc. alphabet is about the relationship between people and nature and, like it, is itself a form of creation. With the word exist as the pivot, the poems move -- from the first wondering confirmation, apricot trees exist -- out into the world to life and death, the planet and calamity.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Crossing the Water Faber Poetry
Book SynopsisCrossing the Water and Winter Trees contain the poems written during the exceptionally creative period of the last years of Sylvia Plath's life. Published posthumously in 1971, they add a startling counterpoint to Ariel, the volume that made her reputation. Readers will recognise some of her most celebrated poems Childless Woman', Mirror', Insomniac' while discovering those still overlooked, including her radio play Three Women. These two extraordinary volumes find their place alongside The Colossus and Ariel in the oeuvre of a singular talent.''Nearly all the poems here have the familiar Plath daring, the same feel of bits of frightened, vibrant, indignant consciousness translated instantly into words and images that blend close, experienced horror and icy, sardonic control.'' Alan Brownjohn, New Statesman
£11.69
Faber & Faber The Man With Night Sweats
Book SynopsisWith an illuminating new preface by Colm Tóibín, here is Thom Gunn''s extraordinary memorial to love, life and death in the time of the AIDS crisisThe Man With Night Sweats, originally published in 1992, sees Thom Gunn writing at the height of his powers. The collection begins with poems that celebrate love and sex and bodies whether the exuberance of a swimming otter, the nimble moves of a tow-headed skateboarder or the habituated coming together of two old lovers. In devastating contrast, the poems in the last section are unflinching portraits and accounts of the illness and deaths of friends during the AIDS epidemic. Written out of a lifetime's experience of perfecting his art, these poems are unsurpassed in elegiac intensity and among the most poignant responses to those terrible times.''Gunn has risen to his inescapable new subject with verse of quiddity, depth and terrible truthfulness.'' Financial Times''Elegies as unblinking and
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers The Battle of Maldon
Book SynopsisFirst ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien's most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts.In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex. The attack is widely considered one of the defining conflicts of tenth-century England, due to it being immortalised in the poem, The Battle of Maldon.Written shortly after the battle, the poem now survives only as a 325-line fragment, but its value to today is incalculable, not just as an heroic tale but in vividly expressing the lost language of our ancestors and celebrating ideals of loyalty and friendship.J.R.R. Tolkien considered The Battle of Maldon the last surviving fragment of ancient English heroic minstrelsy'. It would inspire him to compose, during the 1930s, hiTrade Review ‘If you were to choose only one [book] to gain some insight into the prolific smorgasbord of his multifaceted writing, this is peak Tolkien’ Wall Street Journal ‘Offers valuable insight into Tolkien’s creative process and enriching our understanding of his scholarly contributions’ Amon Hen, Bulletin of the Tolkien Society ‘Tolkien was a storyteller of genius’ Literary Review
£17.00
Random House The Home Child
Book Synopsis*WINNER OF THE WRITERS'' PRIZE - BOOK OF THE YEAR*Inspired by a true story, The Home Child is a beautiful novel-in-verse about a child far from homeGround-breaking' Benjamin ZephaniahBeautifully crafted' GuardianExtraordinary' Hannah LoweIn 1908, Eliza Showell, twelve years old and newly orphaned, boards a ship that will carry her from the slums of the Black Country to rural Nova Scotia. She will never return or see her family again.With nothing to call her own, the wild beauty of her surroundings is the only solace Eliza has until another Home Child, a boy, arrives at the farm and changes everything.Inspired by the true story of Liz Berry's great aunt, this spellbinding novel in verse is an exquisite portrait of a girl far from home.One of the outstanding books of this year. Although this is a historical tale its resonance is timeless' Sunday TimesDeeply moving. A graceful,
£9.49
Bloodaxe Books Ltd The Penny Dropping
Book Synopsis
£10.80
Bonnier Books Ltd Life: Poems to help navigate life’s many twists &
Book Synopsis*Donna Ashworth's new book Wild Hope is out September 2023*FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF I WISH I KNEWFor those looking for inspiration, peace and acceptance on the bumpy road that is life, Donna Ashworth's poems give insight into the enigmas of ageing, body image, family and the rapidly changing world around us.For every twist, turn and roadblock the journey has to offer, this collection provides relief to busy minds and dares us to live with a reckless abundance of joy.Readers are embracing Life- 'One of today's best poets.' ***** NetGalley- 'Donna's writing conveys so beautifully what it is to be human' ***** Amazon- 'Each time I read a poem and decide that is my favourite I turn the page and find another beautifully written, eloquent piece that resonates, comforts, and that makes you stop and reflect.' ***** Amazon- 'They are wonderful books to dip in and out of when you need inspiration, some advice, a hug, a friendly word.' ***** Amazon
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Canterbury Tales
Book SynopsisAt the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a jovial group of pilgrims assembles, including an unscrupulous Pardoner, a noble-minded Knight, a ribald Miller, the lusty Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself. As they set out on their journey towards the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury, each character agrees to tell a tale. The twenty-four tales that follow are by turns learned, fantastic, pious, melancholy and lewd, and together offer an unrivalled glimpse into the mind and spirit of medieval England.Trade Review“A delight . . . [Raffel’s translation] provides more opportunities to savor the counterpoint of Chaucer’s earthy humor against passages of piercingly beautiful lyric poetry.”—Kirkus Reviews“Masterly . . . This new translation beckons us to make our own pilgrimage back to the very wellsprings of literature in our language.” —Billy Collins“The Canterbury Tales has remained popular for seven centuries. It is the most approachable masterpiece of the medieval world, and Mr. Raffel’s translation makes the stories even more inviting.”—Wall Street JournalTable of ContentsThe Canterbury TalesAcknowledgmentsEditor's NoteChronolgyIntroductionFurther ReadingChaucer's LanguageA Note on the TectAbbreviations of the Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury TalesFragment I (Group A)The General PrologueThe Knight's TaleThe Miller's Prologue and TaleThe Reeve's Prologue and TaleThe Cook's Prologue and TaleFragment II (Group B)The Man of Law's Prologue, Tale and EpilogueFragment III (Group D)The Wife of Bath's Prologue and TaleThe Friar's Prologue and TaleThe Summoner's Prologue and TaleFragment IV (Group E)The Clerk's Prologue and TaleThe Merchant's Prologue, Tale and EpilogueFragment V (Group F)The Squire's Prologue and TaleThe Squire-Franklin Link, the Franklin's Prologue and TaleFragment VI (Group C)The Physician's TaleThe Physicia-Pardoner Link, The Pardoner's Prologue and TaleFragment VII (Group B)The Shipman's TaleThe Shipman-Prioress Link, The Prioress's Prologue and TaleThe Prioress-Sir Thopas Link and Sir ThopasThe Thopas-Melibee Link and the Tale of MelibeeThe Monk's Prologue and TaleThe Nun's Priest's Prologue, Tale and EpilogueFragment VIII (Group G)The Second Nun's Prologue and TaleThe Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and TaleFragment IX (Group H)The Manciple's Prologue and TaleFragment X (Group I)The Parson's Prologue and TaleChaucer's RetractionsAbbrviated ReferencesNotesGlossary
£18.70
Penguin Books Ltd Selected Poems Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisHailed as the greatest modern lyrical poet of Germany, Rainer Maria Rilke's genius lies in his passion for perfection, artistic integrity and willingness to remain a perpetual beginner'. The verse contained in this selection ranges from the objective, naturalistic descriptions of his earliest works to the increasingly effusive outpourings of half-religious ecstasy and anguish that characterize his later poems and culminates in the overwhelmingly personal vision of the famous Duino Elegies' and The Sonnets to Orpheus', in which his most intense experiences of living and being find their noblest expression.
£10.44
Oxford University Press William Blake Selected Poems
Book SynopsisWilliam Blake's strikingly original poetic world of myth and mysticism continues to fascinate. This selection represents the full range of his accomplishments, from his haunting lyrics to his political works.Trade ReviewNew and innovative ... a brilliant chronological timeline ... by combining historical research with literary scholarship, Shrimpton creates a version of Blake's poems which is significantly different to all others ... a fresh view which allows readers to see the development of Blake's thoughts and poems. * Journal of the Blake Society *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Introduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of William Blake LYRICS FROM POETICAL SKETCHES MANUSCRIPT POEMS FROM FLAXMAN'S COPY OF POETICAL SKETCHES SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE SHEWING THE TWO CONTRARY STATES OF THE HUMAN SOUL POEMS ADDED TO LATER COPIES OF SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE LYRICS FROM THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL LYRICS FROM THE NOTEBOOK BALLADS NARRATIVE POEMS DESCRIPTIVE AND DISCURSIVE POETRY COMIC AND SATIRICAL POETRY VERSE EPISTLES and DEDICATIONS BRIEF EPIC DIFFUSE EPIC Explanatory Notes Index of Titles and First Lines
£9.89
Methuen Publishing Ltd Dog
Book SynopsisNew paperback edition of the sniffing, growling, yowling, yelping, eighth helping of John Hegley which contains some of the poet's funniest and most touching poems to date.
£8.99
