A Poet for Every Day of the Year

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Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti and Emily Bronte sit alongside Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Imtiaz Dharker, Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong. I don’t want to spoil the discovery for others but she raises some interesting questions about context and the balance between poet and poem in the reader’s consideration that had me thinking when I wasn’t dipping in to the poems. Life-affirming, witty and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the dark and are fuelled by resilience and defiant joy. There is balm for the soul, fire for the belly, a cooling compress for the fevered brow, solace for the wounded, an arm around the lonely shoulder - the whole collection is a matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss' Stephen FrySometimes only a poem will do.

Eliot, John Betjeman, Lewis Carroll, William Shakespeare and Christina Rossetti sit alongside Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, and Kate Tempest. In 100 Poems, readers will enjoy the most loved and celebrated poems, as well as discovering new favourites.I listened to this as an audio book I had borrowed from the library and would listen to a few poems each day.

I bought this book as I have a weakness for beautiful poetry books and this does not disappoint although it is difficult to savor one poem a day. He never managed to do this himself, and no other edition exists which has such a broad range, drawing from first to last of his prize-winning collections. The day-to-day format of the anthology invites readers to make poetry a part of their daily routine, and makes sure that they discover something inspirational, life affirming, provocative, moving or entertaining each and every day.

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. Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, this book dazzles with an array of familiar favourites and remarkable new discoveries. The Contents of A Poet for Every Day of the Year list the poem and poet for each calendar day although I prefer not to look at that properly until next year when I’ve enjoyed a daily surprise from the book.