The Year's at the Spring: An Anthology of Best-Loved Poems Illustrated by Harry Clarke

by Harry Clarke (illustrator), Fiona Biggs (Editor)

This delightful collection of poems, illustrated by celebrated Irish artist Harry Clarke, is based on a book published nearly 100 years ago. This new book will delight Harry Clarke fans everywhere, bringing together many of the original poems and illustrations, together with some new additions.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Hardcover

First published September 13, 2013

About the author

Full name Henry Patrick Clarke. Irish artist known for stained glass and book illustrations.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful book! I'm a fan of Harry Clarke anyway and to see his illustrations accompanied with poetry is just wonderful.

This book is a re-issue, the original was published over 80 years ago.
Some lovely poems in it and the design is just beautiful, including the hardback, and the ribbon!

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of poems and amazing illustrations.

[Lisa Wynne]

The Harry Clarke illustrations are, of course, sublime. It’s a mixed bag, as far as the poetry goes. The poems included in this 2013 edition differ from the original 1920 edition, though it’s not clear exactly which were added later or how many overlap with the original collection. If the changes were to appeal to a more contemporary audience I think the changes could have gone much father, as the collection has an overall very dated sense - a lot of pretty-words poetry with heavy rhyme and little depth. But then again there is Yeats and Keats and Wilde and Hardy etc. and I think many poems that children would enjoy. The illustrations though, sublime.

[Le Maistre Chat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardcover, second version (2013? 2014?)
Why I bought it: collecting Harry Clarke-illustrated books

Illustrator Harry Clarke contributed 12 color and 12 B&W full-page illustrations as well as many smaller ones in-text to a 1920 anthology of poems by poets both well-established and new (all now obscure). I thought all the large illustrations were striking and did a good job capturing the mood of the poem accompanying them.
There were maybe 100 poems in 128 pages, and so some originally weren't illustrated. The 2014 edition I found removed some and substituted short poems by such authors as Wilde and James Joyce.

[Kaye Salter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect read for the first day of Spring! Artwork is beautiful. Just wish the poems were a bit more diverse. Very Ireland/UK/Eurocentric