Poetry Anthologies: Birds & Cats, Landscapes & Watersheds
Book Review
I have two full shelves of poetry books and find it near to impossible to walk out of a bookstore without adding to my collection. Some of my favorites are anthologies, many of which combine words and illustrations.
Nature
Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds edited by Billy Collins matches poems with illustrations of the birds by David Allen Sibley and a short description of the species. There are loons and pelicans, swans and coots, with an assortment of poems from serious to comical.
Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds edited by Yvonne Blomer is an all-Canadian collection of poems about streams and rivers. It is a delight to read poems about local places and situations – the hidden streams in Toronto, the Fraser River, and the jet fuel spill in the Slocan Valley’s Lemon Creek.
The RHS Book of Garden Verse includes illustrations from the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library. The poems range from gardening and the seasons to plants and creatures.
The Book of Cat Poems edited by Sarah Maycock and Ana Sampson is the latest in a number of anthologies about cats (I have several!). The editors are also responsible for the illustrations, which are delightful. The poets include W. B. Yeats, William Wordsworth, J. R. R. Tolkien, Margaret Atwood, and Eleanor Farjeon.
If you’re comfortable reading in French, I recommend Le Chat en 60 poèmes edited by Albine Novarino-Pothier. Once again, you’ll enjoy the varied collection of illustrations.
Great Britain
A Poet’s Guide to Britain edited by Owen Sheers is divided into sections with poems about London and cities, villages and towns, mountains and moorlands, islands, woods and forests, coast and sea. It was a perfect accompaniment to my housesitting in Great Britain.
Favourite Poems of London: Poems to Celebrate the City is edited by Jane McMorland Hunter and has colourful old-fashioned illustrations. The section headings will give you a flavour of the book: a mighty mass of brick and smoke; trees freckled in weak sunlight; towers, belfries and structures fair; and to paint the summer morning. There is an accompanying volume, Favourite Poems of England.
International
In A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, Czeslaw Milosz has pulled together a marvelously diverse collection of poems ranging from 8th century China to contemporary America. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many poems that were completely new to me.