By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
January is, famously, a month of new beginnings, named after the Roman god Janus, that literally two-faced (or two-headed) deity who faced both backwards and forwards, recalling the past even while he looked ahead to the future. January is also – at least if you’re in the upper end of the northern hemisphere – pretty cold and wintry.
Here are five of the very best poems for the month of January.