This year’s reading challenge is a bit different and as promised each month we’ll give you a list of suggested books for each category. For June I asked the Cwts Discussion Group to recommend their favourite Poetry collection. There are obviously endless amounts of these, here are a few suggestions.
My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun – Emily Dickinson
Electrifying poems of isolation, beauty, death and eternity from a reclusive genius and one of America’s greatest writers.
My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun US
My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun UK
Love Poems – Carol Ann Duffy
Whether writing of longing or seduction, of passion, adultery, or simple, everyday acts of love, Carol Ann Duffy perfectly captures the truth of each experience.
Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats – T.S. Eliot
Meet magical Mr Mistoffelees, sleepy Old Deuteronomy and curious Rum Tum Tugger. But you’ll be lucky to meet Macavity because Macavity’s not there!
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats US
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats UK
A Child’s Garden Of Verses – R.L.Stevenson
Travel to a marvelous old mill on a riverbank. A magnificent land where golden apples grow, and a snowy garden that s perfect for sleigh riding. Ride on a swing! Imagine your bed is a boat! Or build an incredible block city filled with castles and palaces, temples and docks! A wondrous world awaits you in this collection of sixty-one poems by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Sonnets From the Potuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Referring to her olive-skinned complexion Robert Browning called his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “his little Portuguese.” It is from this nickname that the title “Sonnets from the Portuguese” is derived. Sonnets from the Portuguese is a series of love poems from Elizabeth to her husband.
Sonnets from the Portuguese US
Sonnets from the Portuguese UK
Plum – Hollie McNish
Hollie McNish, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry, has thrilled and entranced audiences the length and breadth of the UK with her compelling and powerful performances. Plum, her debut for Picador Poetry, is a wise, sometimes rude and piercingly candid account of her memories from childhood to attempted adulthood.
Rhyme Stew – Roald Dahl
A collection of irreverant rhymes featuring characters from fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes – as you’ve never seen them before! From the tortoise and the hare and Hansel and Gretel to Ali Baba and The Emperor’s New Clothes, these traditional stories will never seem the same again.
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
In 1855 Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouraged what would become a lifelong project as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death in 1892.
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
Rhythmically forceful yet subtly musical and full of memorable lines, his poems are anthology favourites; his ‘play for voices’ Under Milk Wood a modern classic. Much loved by The Beatles and Bob Dylan, he is a cultural icon and continues to inspire artists today.
The Night is Darkening Around Me – Emily Bronte
Some of Emily Brontë’s most extraordinary poems. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe.
The Night is Darkening ‘Round Me US
The Night is Darkening ‘Round Me UK
Pick some poetry using our list, check out this link for some more suggestions or just pick a collection from your TBR pile. Don’t forget to let us know what you’re reading over on Cwts Club Discussion Group.
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2024
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2023 – Read a Rainbow – October