5 perfect poets to read in the spring

10th April 2015clare Share:FacebookTwitterShare

Spring is a wonderful time of year: everything feels fresh and nature is beautiful and blooming. No surprise then that this season has inspired countless poets through the ages.

If you feel poetic at this time of year, here are 5 poets to read in the spring.


Image source: Ollyy


1. Emily Dickinson

Dickinson published only a handful of poems in her lifetime, but after her death over 1,700 more poems were discovered and she's now considered one of America's most important poets. Her poems are often short but packed with feeling, making them perfect food for thought on a lazy spring day. Just check out 'I'll Tell You How The Sun Rose':

I'll tell you how the sun rose, --
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.

Other poems to try: 'A Light Exists in Spring', 'Indian Summer' and 'The Grass'.

 

2. William Wordsworth

This list could never be complete without the incredible William Wordsworth. He was one of the poets who started the Romantic Age, an era in European poetry that celebrated nature, beauty and raw human emotion. Many of Wordsworth's poems perfectly capture the essence of an English spring day, particularly his most famous work, 'Daffodils':

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils

Other poems to try: 'It was an April morning: fresh and clear', 'The Pet Lamb' and 'The Kitten and Falling Leaves'.

 

 

3. John Betjeman

Poet Laureate in the 70s and 80s, Betjeman is still one of Britain's best-loved poets, and rightly so. His poems are observant, honest and often funny, whether he's writing about beautiful women, the architecture of Slough, or sunny English excursions, as in 'A Bay in Anglesey':

The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide
Slaps at the rocks the sun has dried.
Too lazy, almost, to sink and lift
Round low peninsulas pink with thrift. 

Other poems to try: 'Cornish Cliffs', 'Dawlish' and 'Middlesex'.

 

4. Thomas Hardy

Best known for his novels - especially the tragic Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Hardy was also a prolific poet. He mixed the same themes of love, loss and nature in his poems as he did in his longer works, so if you like a little sadness with your dramatic landscapes, Hardy is the writer for you. 'Beeny Cliff' gives a good taste of his style:

O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea, 
And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free –
The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.

Other poems to try: 'An August Midnight', 'I Found Her Out There' and 'The Voice'.

 

 

 

5. WB Yeats

Yeats was one of Ireland's finest poets and he often wrote about the beauty and transience of nature. For some of the most beautiful poetry you'll ever read, take a trip to Ireland through Yates' words, including the iconic 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree':

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade. 

Other poems to try: 'Down By The Salley Gardens', 'The Cap and Bells' and 'A Man Young and Old'.

 

Want to have a go at writing some poetry yourself? Get your hands on a pretty notebook, head outdoors and wait for inspiration to strike!

Image source 1: Peshkova
Image source 2: Neirfy
Image source 3: Bahadir Yeniceri
Image source 4: Kwiatek7
Image source 5: Sergey Lavrentev

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