Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I decided to use poems/poetry collections/novels in verse for this week's prompt that I have not been able to forget ever since I first read them. On my blog, I talk a lot about the books that would be on a list like this so I wanted to branch out into poetry. Along with each of these, I have provided a favorite verse or a couple of verses from the piece. It was very hard picking what to share here for each of them.
1. The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris- Poetry Collection
- One of the most beautiful collections of poetry I have ever read. It has stayed in my mind ever since I first read it in 2021. Along with the stunning poems, there are amazing illustrations which fit so well with each. The Lost Spells is one of my favorite poetic works. If you love poetry and artwork, I cannot recommend this one enough.
"Below Barn Owl spreads silence;All sound crouches to ground,Runs for cover, huddles down.Noise is what Owl hunts,drops on, stops dead.Over rushes, across marshes,Owl hushes -Will you listen with Owl earsfor awhile?Let the wild world's whisperscall you in? " - "Barn Owl"
2. Days Like These: An alternative guide to the year in 366 poems by Brian Bilston- Poetry Collection
- I read this collection throughout the whole year last year and absolutely loved it. Brian Bilston's poems oftentimes make me laugh which I usually never do for poetry. There are so many poems I love in this book and I like how he gave information before each of them. I cannot recommend this enough. It was wonderful.
February 24th poem is one of my absolute favorites from the collection. He did this one for Wilhelm Grimm's birthday:
"Avoid, where possible, all houses situated in dark forests,particularly ones owned by bears or witches,or those constructed predominantly from gingerbread.As tempting as it may be to scythe off the end of your feetin order to squeeze them into a pair of glass slippers,do be aware this is unlikely to provide a long-term solution." - "A Few Take Home Points from Grimm's Fairy Tales"
3. "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe- Poem
- My favorite poem has always been "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe. It is so beautiful.
"It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me... "
4. Death's Country by R. M. Romero- Novel in Verse
- As soon as I saw this being comped as part Hadestown and the myth of "Orpheus and Eurydice”, I knew I had to read it. Many of my favorite myths deal with the Underworld. Romero takes the myth and breathes new life into it with Andres, Renee, and Liora. It follows Andres and Renee as they travel into the Underworld to try and save their girlfriend, Liora from Death. It is such a stunning book.
"The most important lesson I’ve learned
since I turned sixteen:
Love can’t be contained
in a word, a kiss, a single heart.Love’s a pandemonium of parakeets,
free and bright.
Love isn’t a single beat; it’s a serenade,
one line rolling into the next.
Love can be stretched like toffee
across bodies and lips.
Love won’t shatter when it’s held
in more than one hand.Love doesn’t need to be divided
between only two people.
There’s enough of it
to go around."
5. Great Goddesses: Life Lessons From Myths and Monsters by Nikita Gill- Poetry Collection
- Nikita Gill is my favorite poet and this is my favorite collection of hers. There are so many poems from Great Goddesses that I often think about and I love picking it up to reread many of them.
"When I was a child, I loved rainbows.
The way the sun scrambled into the sky after the rain to shine through the prisms of blue, make violet, indigo, blue, green- I tried to catch them between my small fingers but ended up empty-handed. Still, I never stopped trying." -"Iphigenia, Daughter of Agamemnon"
6. Bull by David Elliot- Novel in Verse
- One of the best novels in verse I have ever read. It is a retelling of the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth and is told from many different perspectives, including Asterion the Minotaur. Each perspective is written in a different form of poetry, which David Elliot explains at the end of the book. I love when poets do this in their novels in verse.
"Mommy has a little calf.
Little calf.
Little calf.
Mommy has a little calf.
His nose is black as tar.
She calls her calf Asterion.
Asterion.
Asterion.
That's my name — Asterion.
I'm Ruler of the Stars."
7. Amber and Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz- Novel in Verse along with Prose
- The next two novels in verse are two of my most recommended books on this list. Amber and Clay was one of my favorite books of 2024. It is an intricately woven story told through artifacts, verse, and prose. Each artifact is illustrated and precedes a section of the story. The artifacts are meant to be exhibits in a museum which we then get context for in the poetry or prose that follows. It was brilliant how Laura chose to play with format throughout the entire book. This is a story I highly recommend reading physically so you can see the illustrations/formatting and also listen to with the audiobook. Rachel Botchan and Tom Picasso do an incredible job creating voices for each of the characters. Hermes is probably favorite of the voices in the book, though I highly enjoyed reading from them all.
"Hermes here. The Greek god-No. Don't put down the book-I'm talking to you. If the lines look like poetry,relax. This book is shorter than it looks."- "Hermes Speaks"
8. Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge- Novel in Verse
- One of my all-time favorite pieces of nonfiction. The illustrations are absolutely stunning and the writing is impeccable. Going into this book, I knew very little of Mary Shelley's life and really enjoyed how it was depicted here. I will always be a fan of books that are written in verse. It was a great idea to get so much of it from her journals. This was just such a fabulous book inside and out.
9. Enter the Body by Joy McCullough- Novel in Verse
- Enter the Body focuses on four of Shakespeare's heroines: Juliet from Romeo and Juliet, Cordelia from King Lear, Ophelia from Hamlet, and Lavinia from Titus Andronicus. It is told through both verse and a dialogue between the women. The first part gives verse versions of the original plays and then the second gives the versions the heroines wanted. Such a beautiful book with deeply heavy messages that hit hard.
“But only notice me
When you have use
And I will scream
So loud I'll wake the dead,
And they might have
Some words for you.”
10. Now We are Six and When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne- Poetry collections
- Two of the earliest poetry collections I ever read. There was a collection of Winnie-the-Pooh books and these poetry books in my elementary library that I absolutely adored. I vividly remember signing it out and reading through it multiple times. To this day, one of my favorite book finds was being able to find the same collection from those days. The picture I have below is the book.
"She wore her yellow sun-bonnet
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,And whispered to her neighbour:'Winter is dead.' "- "Daffodowndilly"
Some of my other posts on poetry if you would be interested:
- Happy National Poetry Month! - A post all about my favorite examples of poems, poetry collections, epics, etc. It also includes ones I would like to read soon. I had a great time making this post for April.
- 26 Books Written in Verse and Poetry Collections : Jan-Feb- The first in my series where I want to read 26 Novels Written in Verse and Poetry Collections throughout 2026. I'm doing pretty well with this challenge.
I love the poetry focus on this post. Yay for poetry!
ReplyDeleteI love the book Lost Spells. I have it sitting on my dresser at all times!
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