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Poetry Booklist

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From old classics to contemporary poems – check out some of our poetry collections in Bedfordshire Libraries and find a comforting old friend or a new challenge!


Poems on the UndergroundPoems on the Underground

Poems on the Underground' has long been established as the most exciting and influential anthology published in the last 25 years. What makes it so remarkable is the unpredictable effect achieved by the juxtaposition of different styles of verse.

Click here to find and request this book.

 

 


Maya Angelou- the complete poetryMaya Angelou – the Complete Poetry

Maya Angelou's poetry - lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful - speaks of love, longings, partings; of Saturday night partying and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams.
From her reflections on African American life, hardship and resilience in the famous 'And Still I Rise', to her revolutionary celebration of womanhood in 'Phenomenal Woman', and her elegant tributes to President Bill Clinton with 'On the Pulse of Morning' to `His Day is Done' for Nelson Mandela, this new complete collected works brings together every inspiring word of poetry by Maya Angelou.

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Poetry Please Love PoemsPoetry Please Love Poems

Poets from across the ages lead us on a journey of love in its many forms. From Shakespeare to Rossetti, Keats to Auden, Byron to Browning an beyond, as well as a host of contemporary voices including Wendy Cope, Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy, this new gathering of timeless love poems speaks to the heart about this most universal of themes.

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Poetry by HeartPoetry by heart – Poetry for Learning and Reciting

'Poetry by Heart' - based on the hugely successful nationwide schools competition - features a selection of over 200 magical poems to learn by heart.

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1914: Poetry Remembers1914: Poetry Remembers

The First World War holds a unique place in the nation's history; the poetry it produced, a unique place in the nation's hearts. To mark the centenary of the First World War in 2014, the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has engaged the most eminent poets of the present to choose the writing from the Great War that touched them most profoundly: their choices are here in this powerful and moving assembly. But this anthology is more than a record of war writing. Carol Ann Duffy has commissioned these same poets of the present to look back across the past and write a poem of their own in response to the war to end all wars.

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Green and Pleasant LandGreen and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside

Our rolling fields and verdant countryside have ever inspired some of the finest verse by our most cherished poets, and the very best are brought together in this thoughtful and enjoyable collection. Be transported to a more lush and vibrant world with this celebration of all the beauty of our language and land.

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Selected Poems of T S EliotSelected Poems of T S Eliot

T.S. Eliot - editor, poet, critic and publisher - was the greatest poet of his generation. The winner of the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature, virtually every English language poet since owes him a debt of gratitude. Voted as Britain's favourite poet in a 2009 BBC poll, Eliot selected and designed this collection himself in 1954 as an introduction to his work for new readers.

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Seeing StarsSeeing Stars – Simon Armitage

This collection is by turns a voice and a chorus: a hyper-vivid array of dramatic monologues, allegories, parables and tall tales. Armitage creates world after world, peculiar yet always particular, where the only thing certain is the unexpected.

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Jubilee LinesJubilee Lines: 60 Poets for 60 years

To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy brought together a dazzling array of contemporary poets to write about each of the 60 years of Her Majesty's reign.

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The Cinder PathThe Cinder Path – Andrew Motion

This collection of poems offers a ground-breaking variety of lyrics, love poems and elegies, in which private domains of feeling infer other lives and a shared humanity - exploring how people cope with threats to and in the world around them, as soldiers, lovers, artists, writers and citizens.

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Page last updated: 11th February 2015