A Poem for Every Day of the Year

Product Information

Former National Poet of Wales, Clarke is one of the best-known names in UK poetry today, as well as one of the most popular poets on the school curriculum. Best Poetry Books of the Year, The Times [ A Poet for Every Day of the Year] does exactly what it says on the tin, presenting a poet for you to meet and take your time with every day; to savour, enjoy, read, re-read and return to, knowing that there’ll be another one along tomorrow. Reflecting the changing seasons and linking to events on key dates - funny for April Fool's Day, festive for Christmas - these poems are thoughtful, inspiring, peaceful, energetic, upbeat, motivating, and empowering!

Before each poem is a short introduction to briefly situate the poem into its context. These are helpful and informative, and for the inexperienced reader these would act as a guide through many different styles of poetry from a huge array of writers. The cover art is, simply put, stunning. I love the design. The book acts as a sister book to the previously published A Poem for Every Night of the Year with brighter colours used to reflect the day time this time. The layout is also very simple making the book easy to dive in and out of. Best Poetry Books of the Year, The Times For the whole family but especially eight-plus readers, A Poem for Every Day of the Year... gorgeously presented and intelligently selected. A Poem For Every Day of the Year is a magnificent collection of 366 poems compiled by Allie Esiri, one to share on every day of the year. Reflecting the changing seasons and linking to events on key dates – funny for April Fool's Day, festive for Christmas – these poems are thoughtful, inspiring, humbling, informative, quiet, loud, small, epic, peaceful, energetic, upbeat, motivating, and empowering!Particular favourites of mine included Love's Philosophy by Percy Shelley, The Buddha by Tony Mitton and the very famous The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. There's also an excellent extract from Shakespeare's The Tempest, which in itself is a play of pure poetry. As such the poems are rich in diversity and carry with them varying degrees of complexity. Although published by Macmillan Children's Books, I think this collection is more suited to an adult reader. There are, certainly, poems in here that a young reader may enjoy, but I think an adult would get more out of poems that deal with larger issues such as love, death and life. Beautiful collection of poetry. It took me nearly four years to finish, occasionally reading some poems, but I loved this volume and will be looking for something similar to read in the future. However, the little description for each day was great, whether it be to explain the poem selection or the date significance. Though the "During the First/Second world war" sort of poems got a bit repetitive and the focus on the Christian Holidays possibly a bit isolating. A Poem for Every Day of the Year - So much content including all grenres and something for everyone. OK my new year reading resolutions, I obviously did not reach my goal this year, yet I'm still going to try read 30 books next year 😂

I could not love A Poet for Every Day of the Year more. I confess I haven’t read the whole book yet as I am savouring the dated poems and poets each night so that this is a gift of a book that will last me the entire year. However, the format is the same for every day and includes an insightful and accessible potted history of the poet, with reference to social, historical and biographical detail that stirs such an interest in the reader that A Poet for Every Day of the Year provides even more entertainment by acting as a catalyst for further reading and research. For example, when I opened my copy on the day I received it, the poet was John Clare who just happens to have lived three miles from where I am, but there are other poets I’m much less familiar with so I have an introduction that can lead me to discovering more of their work. This adds to the significance and joy in reading A Poet for Every Day of the Year. There were both really well-known poems and poems by newer/lesser known poets, which provided a good mix. I also had fun with the index of first lines at the end of A Poet for Every Day of the Year, reading them aloud like performance poetry and seeing if they would work as found poems in their own right! This anthology has so much to offer and every time I think about it next to the bed ready for me to read last thing at night it brings happiness and a smile to my face. This collection is a mix of poems; some funny, some reflective. Some I had heard before and some I hadn't. I have listed some of my favourites from this listening below but I think if I re-listen at some other time time of year this list might be totally different.I loved the whole idea of this book, I just wish the inside had been as pretty as the outside! I guess it would have cost a lot more, but beautiful illustrations would have been perfect. With leaves turning golden, nights drawing in and fires being lit, autumn is the perfect time to settle down in a comfy chair with some poetry for company. Here is a selection of our favourite poems about what John Keats called the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness', including autmnal poems by classic and contemporary poets, including Robert Frost, Emily Brontë and Gillian Clarke. Quite a few of the poems relate to wars and the Christian calendar, and that’s not what I want on a day to day basis (I’d seek those kind of poems out for specific reasons). One was about a dead cat. On 15th February we were given the lyrics to The Beatles’ ��All you need is love’, rather than an actual poem. So this is where I stopped. Most of the poems were not really my piece of cake, but that's what you get with a collection: a variety of poetic doems, themes, and writers. And the good thing is, a collection makes discovering new writers easy. It kind of forced me out of my small bubble and I added some poets on my to-read-more-of list :) I saw this advertised at the beginning of the year and bought it in an independant bookshop in Tring. This year has been a very busy and at times stressful year so reading a poem every day has helped me to cope and put me in a good place at the beginning of each day.