Sitemap
My Poetry Shelves
Poetry, and especially 20th-century English poetry, is one of my greatest passions, a
life-long love. I have a private collection in my bookshop of my favourite poets, so please
come this way...
Open one of W.H. Auden's poetry
collections at random and let your mind float free... Or would you
prefer a taste of Philip Larkin's bleak cynicism or
Seamus Heaney's engagement with the world at large? You might
also like to take a look at Walt Whitman's celebration of
life in his Leaves of Grass; innovative and thought-provoking.
Of course, if you're in search of immortal beauty, you'd better take
Emily Dickinson's collected poems to hand and
be baffled by the timeless quality of her works. Or maybe something modern is more to
your taste? Then read a few poems by Sonia Sanchez,
sensual, vibrant, bluesy, and breathtaking...
Has your interest been piqued? You might want to take a look at the poetry of
Richard Wilbur, for instance Things Of This World, Advice to a Prophet, or The
Beautiful Changes. Gorgeous, down-to-earth poetry. Or perhaps Ezra Pound is more to your
liking? He probably was the only one who could fully understand his
Cantos, but it's still musical poetry of the highest quality. The same goes for
Marianne Moore, by the way, so just take the trouble to read the poems in her
Complete Poems out loud...
Of course Shakespeare's
Sonnets are a classic. This wouldn't be a proper bookshop without them!
There are lots of copies on the market, and loads of "special selections" (like Sonnets about
Love, or Sonnets about Friendship), but I don't go for those. A complete collection is, in my
opinion, still the best choice.
