By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Previously, we’ve considered the best children’s poems which we think everyone should read. In this post, we turn our attention to the best poems about childhood – childhood, youth, and that innocent time when our whole lives stretch ahead of us like the beginning of a warm summer day full of promise (sigh)… These poems range from the seventeenth century to contemporary poetry – we hope you enjoy them.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Amy Lowell (1874-1925) is perhaps best-known for being the figurehead and ringleader for Imagism after Ezra Pound, who had founded that movement, grew jaded with it and moved on to Vorticism.
Although her poems were less ‘classical’ and restrained than those by Pound, Lowell’s poetry is often true to Imagist ideals of brevity and vividness, and the ten poems included in this blog post bear this out. There are ten of the finest short Amy Lowell poems – we hope you enjoy them.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
New York City is known by several quasi-poetical names: ‘the Big Apple’, ‘the city that never sleeps’. But has it been the inspiration for poets, in the way that, say, London has? He following ten classic poems about New York all suggest that the city has provided inspiration for poets of various ages and from very different backgrounds, each of whom has described New York in their own way.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Looking for classic poems based on a woodland theme? In this post we’ve selected ten of the best poems about trees and forests, written by some of the most famous poets in all of English literature. They range from poems set in symbolic gardens to poems about very specific trees that have been felled, to poems about trees which prompt thoughts of mortality and the brevity of life.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Looking for a classic poem for Mother’s Day? Look no further. Whilst sentimental rhymes and rather sappy doggerel fills many a Mothering Sunday greetings card, these ten poems represent some of the best statements about mothers and motherhood ever written.
If you enjoy these poems, you might also like our selection of some of the best and most beautiful mother-daughter poems.