Books Celebrating National Poetry Month!
April is National Poetry Month! Check out this list of books by many of our favorite poets. All of these books can be borrowed from the Roslindale Library.
Adults
The Poetry of Robert Frost
This is the only comprehensive volume of Robert Frost’s published verse; in it are the contents of all eleven of his individual books of poetry-from A Boy’s Will (1913) to In the Clearing (1962). The editor, Edward Connery Lathem, has scrupulously annotated the more than 350 poems in this book.
Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology
This revised and expanded edition features 114 poets, 557 poems, and 15 poetics essays, addressing important recent movements such as Newlipo, conceptual poetry, and Flarf. Bringing together foundational postmodern poets like Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, and Allen Ginsberg with new voices like Christian Bok, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Katie Degentesh, this edition of Postmodern American Poetry is the essential collection for a new generation of readers.
The Shambhala Anthology of Chinese Poetry
In traditional Chinese culture, poetic artistry held a place that was unrivaled by any other single talent, and was a source of prestige and even of political power. In this rich collection, J. P. Seaton introduces the reader to the main styles of Chinese poetry and the major poets, from the classic Shih Ching to the twentieth century. Seaton has a poet’s ear, and his translations here are fresh and vivid.
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets From Tennyson to Plath Read Their Own Workshop
Collects works by forty-seven important poets, arranged chronologically by birth order from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to Sylvia Plath, and includes biographies, essays by accomplished contemporary poets, and CD recordings of each featured poet reading his or her own works.
The Complete Poetry
By Maya Angelou
Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life.
How to Read A Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry
By Edward Hirsch
In an unprecedented exploration of the genre, Hirsch writes about what poetry is, why it matters, and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message-which is of vital importance in day-to-day life-can reach us and make a difference. For Hirsch, poetry is not just a part of life, it is life, and expresses like no other art our most sublime emotions.
Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology
Latin Americans have written some of the world’s finest poetry in the twentieth century, as the Nobel Prizes awarded to Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz attest. Yet this rich literary production has never been gathered into a single volume that attempts to represent the full range and the most important writers-until now. Here, under one cover, are the major poets and their major works, which appear both in the original language (Spanish or Portuguese) and in excellent English translations.
Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology
The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent, poets whose words commemorate the conflict more personally and as enduringly as monuments in stone. The work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that sets the poems in their historical context. Although the War has now passed out of living memory, its haunting of our language and culture has not been exorcised. Its poetry survives because it continues to speak to and about us.
Poetry and Prose
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
No American writer of the 19th century was more universally enjoyed and admired than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His works were extraordinary bestsellers for their era, achieving fame both here and abroad. A selection of essays rounds out of the volume and provides testimony to Longfellow’s concern with creating an American national literature.
Teens/Young Adults
You Can Write Poetry
By Jeff Mock
Poetry’s forms, styles and structures are illustrated through the work of Shakespeare, e.e. cummings, Tim Geiger and others. These poems, and dozens of hands on practice sessions, will inspire readers to experiment with language, and write poetry.
Selected Poetry of Emily Dickinson
By Emily Dickinson
This collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems, compiled by the librarians most familiar with her work and complemented by several of the poet’s handwritten letters, is illustrated with lithographs by Will Barnet and pen-and-ink drawings by Stephen Tennant, artists who have drawn inspiration from Dickinson’s poetry. It is a beautiful and affordable celebration of the work of one of our favorite poets.
Bronx Masquerade
By Nikki Grimes
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they have written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse From Antiquity to Our Time
This long-awaited, indispensable volume contains more than 1600 poems drawn from dozens of languages and cultures, and spans a period of more than 4000 years from ancient Sumer and Egypt to the late twentieth century.
The Rose That Grew From Concrete
By Tupac Shakur
A collection of poems written by the late rapper and actor Tupac Shakur at the age of nineteen.
How to Interpret Poetry
By Laurie Rozakis
ARCO presents the updated edition of How To Interpret Poetry, offering valuable tips and insights to help students understand and appreciate poetic verse.
Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems
To read the words of these young people is to hear the diverse voices of teenagers everywhere. Included are a foreward by acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, an essay from Kevin Powell, another poet associated with WritersCorps, and writing tips from WritersCorps instructors. WritersCorps was started in 1994 to help at-risk youth in three American urban centers: San Francisco, Washington, DC, and New York City (the Bronx). Thousands of children and teenagers have since benefited from finding creative expression through writing.
The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
This anthology of African poetry has been expanded to include 99 poets from 27 countries. The content of the poetry is wide-ranging, including war songs, political protests and poems about human love, African nature and the surprises that life offers.
Shelley’s Poetry and Prose: Authoritative Texts, Criticism
By Persy Bysshe Shelley
Annotated definitive texts of all of Shelley’s greatest poetry as well as other poems frequently discussed and three prose works are combined with general critical studies of his art and thought and scholarly writings analyzing specific poems.
Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry is Life Distilled
By Christine Hill
For Gwendolyn Brooks, writing was vital to life like breathing or eating, ? she said. Brooks cast her poets? eye on the daily struggles of ordinary African-Americans and told the truth about racism and urban poverty. In 1950, Brooks became the first black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize. As the civil rights movement evolved, so did Brooks’s own views. Her work grew sharper with black pride and solidarity. Brooks’s career spanned more than fifty years, and her poetry appeals to people from all walks of life. This vividly drawn life story will fascinate Brooks’s fans and entice other readers to discover her poetry.
Children
Pizza, Pigs and Poetry: How to Write A Poem
By Jack Prelutsky
The author gives you the inside scoop on writing poetry and shows you how you can turn your own experiences and stories about your family, your pets, and your friends into poems. He offers tips, advice, and secrets about writing and provides some fun exercises to help you get started (or unstuck). You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at the ingredients of some of his most popular poems.
One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children
A collection of poems arranged in such categories as “Mystery,” “Animals,” “Childhood,” “War,” and “Love.”
Here’s A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry
A collection of poems for children with the various themes of self, family, going outside, and when it is time for bed. This exuberant celebration of poetry is an essential book for every young one’s library and a georgeous gift to be both shared and treasured.
Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African-American Poetry
Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a line from a poem by different African American poets, describing an aspect of the black experience.
Go! Poetry in Motion: Poems
By Dee Lillegard
Ready? Get set…GO! This adorable, zippy picture book is poetry in motion! Dee Lillegard’s short, snappy poems perfectly capture the unique personalities of all things mobile.
A Grand Celebration: Grandparents in Poetry
Poems in celebration of grandparents.
Knock at a Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry
A collection of poems arranged in such categories as poems that make you smile, send messages, or share feelings; poems that contain “beats that repeat” or “word play”; and special kinds of poems such as limericks, songs, and haiku.
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