When it comes to poetry, it can be hard to know where to start. These are my three favourite poetry books as a place to begin.
The Orange and other poems by Wendy Cope
There is a reason that this poetry collection has gained so much online attention: its focus on the joys of the everyday is deeply comforting. This book is a great starting point for readers new to poetry—it is palatable, relatable, and moving. Covering unsatisfactory relationships, daily boredom, joy, and anxiety, The Orange gives the reader a sense of solace in its ordinary, authentic verse. If a fan of The Orange, Cope’s Serious Concerns is another great anthology. As her poem “Being Boring” shows, there is no harm in taking a slow, reflective approach to life.
High Windows by Philip Larkin
Larkin’s High Windows holds a very different style to The Orange—he is a cynical societal commentator. For Larkin, an inevitable symptom of modern life is alienation—influenced by Thomas Hardy, nature in his poetry is often imbued with darkness. The poem “High Windows” is my favourite—a nostalgic Larkin compares the sexual liberation of teenagers in the 60s to his own restricted youth. However, bodily experiences are superseded by an ambiguous, yet transcendent view out of “high windows” in the final stanza. High Windows is a less happy read than The Orange, but still very moving.
Cat Poems By the World’s Greatest Poets
I stumbled across this book in Blackwells—who knew that so many famous names wrote about their cats? Again, my favourite poetry is about the ordinary, drawing from the shared experience of humanity (unless, of course, they own a dog instead). My favourite poems in this book are Ezra Pound’s “Mediterranean March” and “Tame Cat”, mostly for their strangeness. However, when it comes to genre, this book has it all, whether it be a cat sonnet, ode, or lyric.
Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash
