Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us. In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life's work. Herons, sparrows, owls and kingfishers flit across th... read more

There has always been love, and we have been writing poetry about it for over 4,000 years. A complex and truly timeless emotion, love - whether passion or heartbreak, infatuation or flirtation - has provoked some of the greatest names in literature to write verse of outstanding beaut... read more

Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans h... read more

Built around the abyss, the tightrope, and the trick that we all have to perform to walk across it, Pasifika poetry warrior Selina Tusitala Marsh brings to life in Tightrope her ongoing dialogue with memory, life and death to find out whether 'stories' really can 'cure the incurable'. In M... read more

Thomas Hardy saw himself, first and foremost, as a poet, and he wrote poetry throughout his prolific and acclaimed novel-writing years before announcing in 1896 that he would no longer write novels, much to the astonishment of his worldwide r... read more

Poems from the Second World War is a moving and powerful collection of poems written by soldiers, nurses, mothers, sweethearts and family and friends who experienced WWII from different standpoints. The Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 to collect and display ma... read more

fit noun1. Also fytte.A section of a poem or song; a canto. obsolete exc. hist. OE. start noun2.A sudden burst of energy or activity; an outburst of emotion, madness, etc.; a flight of humour. Also, a  sudden broken utterance or sound. Now rare or obsolete. l16. (Shorter Oxford... read more

Marino Blank is of mixed Maori and Swiss heritage. She has been writing and publishing poetry for ten years, and was included in the 2014 Auckland University Press omnibus of Maori poetry Puna Wai Korero. Marino's writing is evidence of an emerging Maori literary sensibility, referencing tikang... read more

Over a period of fifteen years Clive James learned French by almost no other method than reading A la recherche du temps perdu. Then he spent half a century trying to get up to speed with Proust's great novel in two different languages. Gate of Lilacs is t... read more

"Yes, the gods are on the park bench, the gods are on the bus, / ""The gods are all here, the gods are in us. / ""The gods are timeless, fearless, fighting to be bold, / ""conviction is a heavy hand to hold, / ""grip it, winged sandals tearing up the pavement -- / ""you, me, everyone: Brand New Ancien... read more

a) The Unicorn As with the night-scented stock, the full splendour of the unicorn manifests itself most potently at twilight. Then the horn sprouts, swells, blooms in all its glory. SEE THE HORN (bend the tab, slit in slot marked 'x') Despite being one of the most influential - and best-loved - of... read more

Writers like to elude their public, lead them a bit of a dance. They take them down untrodden paths, land them in unknown country where they have to ask for directions. In this personal anthology, Alan Bennett has chosen over seventy poems by six well-loved poets, discussing the writers and their vers... read more