Previously, we selected ten poems about fire, but what about fire’s elemental opposite? What are the best poems about ice and icy things, whether the poem deals in literal ice and icy landscapes, or in ice as a metaphor for extreme coldness of some kind? Below, we select and introduce […]
A ‘quest’ is defined by the OED as ‘A search or pursuit in order to find something; the action of searching’. Poets have often used the quest motif to discuss all manner of subjects, from religion to nobility to that most important thing, the quest we as individuals take to […]
Conversion and redemption are both important aspects of religion, and these terms can also be useful in other, more secular realms. What does it mean to be redeemed? How can religion, or some other force, offer us a second chance? The following poems explore the issues of conversion and redemption […]
Previously, we picked ten of the best poems about flowers, to create a kind of anthology: the word ‘anthology’ stemming, we might recall, from the Greek for ‘collection of flowers’. Now, it’s the turn of that most emblematic flower: the rose. Roses are a common feature of love poetry, and […]
Poets often write about fate and how the world around us seems governed by some kind of Providence: we can call it God or destiny or merely a sense that things seem predetermined, whether because of our own unconscious drives or desires or because of a concatenation of circumstances which […]