National Poetry Day 2021 occurred on the 7th of October. This annual celebration of poetry has been happening since 1994. According to the National Poetry Day’s own website, this is a day “all about enjoying, discovering and sharing poems.” In 2021, the theme was Choice. The following words were inspired by a previous theme a […]
September 2020 sees the launch of the latest edition of the annual Forward Book of Poetry, published by Faber. Winners of the prestigious Forward prizes have their work presented alongside other poems published in the previous year, chosen from hundreds of examples. 75 poets have work showcased in a publication that represents the best of […]
Looking back at the history of writing for children, not all well-respected authors considered that poems were suitable reading. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (nee Aikin, 1743-1825) was a significant figure in late Georgian and early nineteenth century educational theory and a respected writer. Described by the Poetry Foundation as “a figure of eminence in the world […]
The post of Poet Laureate has existed in Britain since the 1600s and has included a number of household names. Whilst glancing through the list of previous holders of the honour, however, there were (to me at least) some unknown figures. Famous, or perhaps infamous, for supposedly being the least talented and least read of […]
Simon Armitage CBE will be the new Poet Laureate, taking over from Carol Ann Duffy. Simon Armitage likes to write about modern life and contemporary issues. The post of Poet Laureate has existed for hundreds of years and was originally for life. Now the post is held for ten years. Officially an appointment made by […]
I had recently heard about apps for writing poetry and was intrigued. Can computers really create poems? Let me consider for a moment what poetry actually is. It is surely a difficult concept to pin down, but better minds than mine have had a go. William Wordsworth, who wrote quite a few poems himself, describes […]
Hearing the news that Julia Donaldson (writer of The Gruffalo and other hugely popular books for children) had been awarded a CBE in the 2018/19 New Year’s Honours list reminded me of the important place that rhyming tales (narrative poetry) have had in literature and society for perhaps thousands of years. The ballad-like Gruffalo is […]
The Golden Treasury has been hailed as one of the most popular books of poetry ever to be published. First appearing in 1861, this was an anthology of what you might call the “grand masters” of poetry in English, compiled by Francis Turner Palgrave, and it is still in print to this day. The 2011 […]
My most recent poem was written to follow the theme of last year’s National Poetry Day. TRUTH Truth I touch, smell, see myself, It’s not the words of someone else; So if I trust from being told, That is not truth; that’s faith I hold. Yet sometimes when I look I find That what I […]
I decided to have a quick look into published poets who were children, as opposed to those writing for children. It turns out that some of these were writing a very long time ago. Incidentally, this is going to be more of a “fact meal” than a “fact bite”, and I have only researched four writers! […]
Free verse is a form of poetry which usually does not rhyme and, instead of having a fixed pattern of syllables or stressed beats in the lines, more closely follows the rhythms of natural speech. In the later nineteenth century, a group of French poets established the “Vers libre” movement, from which the English term […]
