Best Poetry Books | 10 Best Poetry Books Of All Time

1. 100 Selected Poems, John Keats

Author : John Keats

One of the most notable romantic poets of the early nineteenth century, John Keats had a poetic career lasting less than a decade. And in this short time, he produced some of the greatest verses of all time. This collectable edition brings together his early poems along with his finest sonnets and remarkably flawless ODEs composed in the years before his death. It includes ‘imitation of Spenser’, ‘to Lord Byron’, ‘calidore: a fragment’, ‘Oh! How I love, on a fair summer’s Eve’, ‘I stood tip-toe upon a little Hill’, ‘sleep and poetry’, endymion, ‘Isabella’, ‘lamia’, his beautiful lyric ODEs composed in 1819, and both the versions of hyperion. Each poem is a Specimen of his vibrant imagination, sensational lyric, and thoughtful recognition and appreciation of beauty in everything.

2. Milk and Honey

Author : Rupi Kaur

New York Times bestseller Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss and femininity. The book is divided into four chapters and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

3. The Prophet

Author : Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time and is called Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece. The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such diverse topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

4. 100 Selected Poems

Author : Emily Dickinson

One of the most striking American lyric poet, Emily Dickinson came to be known only after she passed away. This collectable edition brings together her finest poems including ‘heart! We will forget him!’ (47), ‘Success is counted sweetest’ (67), ‘“hope” is the thing with feathers’ (254), ‘I’m nobody! Who are you?’ (288), ‘The soul selects her own society’ (303), ‘I measure every grief I meet’ (561), ‘because I could not stop for death’ (712), ‘My life had stood — a loaded gun’ (754), and ‘Rearrange a “wife’s” affection!’ (1737). Dickinson did not give titles to her poems. They are known either by the first line of the poem or the numbers allotted to them in the Thomas H. Johnson’s edition, the poems of Emily Dickinson. We have used the numbers to identify the poems. A Specimen of her exquisite craftsmanship, each poem gives an insight into dickinson’s life and the emotions she experienced.

5. yesterday i was the moon

Author : NOOR UNNAHAR

Noor Unnahar is a young female voice with power and depth. The Pakistani poet's moving, personal work collects and makes sense of the phases of collapsing and rebuilding one's self on the treacherous modern path from teenager to adult. Tinged with the heartbreak of a broken home and the complexity of a rich cultural background, yesterday i was the moon stands out from the Insta-poetry crowd as a collection worth keeping. yesterday i was the moon centers around themes of love and emotional loss, the catharsis of creating art, and the struggle to find one's voice. Noor's poetry ranges from succinct universal truths to flowery prose exploring her heritage, what it means to find a physical and emotional home, and the intimate and painful dance of self-discovery. Her poetry and art has already inspired thousands of fans on Instagram to engage with her words through visual journal entries and posts of their own, and her fan base only continues to grow.

6. Rumi A New Translation

Author : Farrukh Dhondy

Marked by lyrical beauty and spiritual insight, a deep understanding of human suffering that coexists with rapturous abandon, the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi continue to be relevant almost eight centuries after they were composed, with contemporary audiences finding new meanings in them. Rumi's poems bring together the divine and the human, the mystical and the corporeal to create a vivid kaleidoscope of poetic images. While many recent 'translations' have sought to give Rumi's poetry a certain hippy sensibility, robbing it of its true essence, Farrukh Dhondy attempts to bring out the beauty and sensibility of the verses whilst imitating the metre of the original. Dhondy's translations provide a modern idiom to the poems, carefully keeping intact their religious context.

7. Madhushala (Hindi)

Author : Harivansh Rai Bachchan

हरिवंशराय 'बच्चन' की अमर काव्य-रचना मधुशाला 1935 से लगातार प्रकाशित होती आ रही है। सूफियाना रंगत की 135 रुबाइयों से गूँथी गई इस कविता क हर रुबाई का अंत 'मधुशाला' शब्द से होता है। पिछले आठ दशकों से कई-कई पीढि़यों के लोग इस गाते-गुनगुनाते रहे हैं। यह एक ऐसी कविता है] जिसमें हमारे आसपास का जीवन-संगीत भरपूर आध्यात्मिक ऊँचाइयों से गूँजता प्रतीत होता है।

मधुशाला का रसपान लाखों लोग अब तक कर चुके हैं और भविष्य में भी करते रहेंगे] लेकिन यह 'कविता का प्याला' कभी खाली होने वाला नहीं है, जैसा बच्चन जी ने स्वयं लिखा है-

भावुकता अंगूर लता से खींच कल्पना की हाला, कवि साकी बनकर आया है भरकर कविता का प्याला; कभी न कण भर खाली होगा, लाख पिएँ, दो लाख पिएँ! पाठक गण हैं पीनेवाले, पुस्तक मेरी मधुशाला।

8. Greatest Poetry Ever Written

Author : Grapevine

Poetry gives meaning to our lives. For many of us, it's a way of understanding the world around us. This book is an attempt to bring together the greatest words ever written by some men and women to have walked this planet.

9. Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry

Author : Khushwant Singh

Urdu is a beautiful language and it has earned fame for its beautiful poetry. Celebrating The Best of Urdu Poetry is a tribute to the language and a treat for the lovers of Urdu shaayri. for the past two centuries, there have been many known and unknown legendary Urdu poets, who have contributed innumerable poetic works. This book is an attempt by the author, to present a collection of these poems in one place for Urdu poetry fans.

10. SHE- Screw Silence

Author : Reecha Agarwal Goyal

Have you heard the whispers? She woke up different today. She smiles like she is hiding a secret. She holds her head high, like she is wearing an invisible crown. The air Around her is charged with confidence, strength, and courage. Have you heard the whispers? She woke up different today. Yet it feels she has been like this always. Maybe it’s the story that has changed.