Poetry > T Poetry > less than 5 GBP

Advantages: variety of poems, price of book, suitability for children
Disadvantages: none

The Works, as it says on the cover, is a book of poetry that has a poem of every type, variety and on every topic. It really does have every poem you could need for the Literacy hour. The Works is published by Macmillan, and the poems are chosen by Paul Cookson. It is the first in a series of books (6 the last time I checked). It includes poetry such as haiku, riddles, tongue twisters, acrostics, monologues, songs, nonsense poems, narrative verse, ...
...total of 525 pages. The book cost me £6.99 and I use it regularly with my class. When it is not being used for Literacy lessons, I use it to dip in and out of as the children love the riddles and find some of the funny poems really good to discuss with each other. The poems are set out in well indexed sections depending on poem type, along with an index of authors and first lines, so it is easy to find whatever you need. The majority of these poems ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent to study, brilliant to read
Disadvantages: Snobbery, too many allusions?

...perplexing and charming. The Waste Land is a bit of a mammoth of a poem, but takes you on a journey through despondency, hope and suffering, and is a must-read, taking up the Holy Grail Legend in a new light. His characters throughout are often depressed souls, whose lives have little purpose, and he tries to show you how spirituality can be your salvation from average, routine, mundane life. At times, however, Eliot loses us with his allusions to ... Read review

Advantages: interesting, not too long
Disadvantages: may appeal to only a selective audience

...essay on Sylvia Plath's poetry. The two female poets, along with Anne Sexton - are often closely associated, so it wasn't really surprising that I should come across her name frequently when I was reading literary criticism. In common with Plath, Adrienne Rich is an American poet; born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1929. I chose to read "The Dream of a Common Language" because it is a well-known collection of her poems from 1974-1977. It is then split ...
...and women's culture in general. The first section of her book; "Power" is quite striking. The opening poem of the book describes how Marie Curie's 'power', the scientific experiments she carried out, were the very thing that killed her eventually as she suffered radiation poisoning. Rich depicts the scene thus: "denying / her wounds came from the same source as her power". These are rather touching words and aptly describe the situation. I also ... Read review

Advantages: Something for every poetical taste
Disadvantages: You wont like every poem.

...two types of books. There's the kind you make time for - a pot of strong hot tea, a blanket, and a prime spot on the sofa with your feet curled under you. And then there's the other kind - books that are so meaningful that you can't just read through them, but rather have to read a little at a time, and then sit back and digest the words, sounding them out in your head and putting your own meaning to them. Poetry books fall into the second category, ...
...are the books that cover my bathroom windowsill, the books I grab for when I'm sitting in the bath and don't have much time to read, or (rather disgustingly, I know) read when I'm sitting on the toilet! I think probably most people have a favourite poem of some kind, be it something inspirational, such as Rudyard Kipling's 'If', something that helps you through hard times, or even just a silly limerick that makes you giggle. So, as both a writer ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful and gripping storyline, Great contributions of all characters
Disadvantages: None that I have found

Written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950s during the time of the McCarthyism when the government blacklisted accused communists. Miller was also summoned in court and he wrote this play as a parable and links the Salem witch-hunt and the McCarthy trials which took place nearly 250 years apart. A very powerful play and an excellent one to study for GCSE English Literature for its revoloutionary work in the theatre and its portrayal of the human ...
...man's struggle to find and do what is right by him. With just 4 Acts and 5 important characters, this truly is a masterpiece. Proctor, a hard-working family man finds in the middle of lying and confessing to witchcraft, both of which go against his newly developed religious beliefs. ... Read review