Poems for Tortured Souls

by Liz Ison

Dear Reader, these poems are an introduction to the passionate words of some of the English language's most renowned poets. Inspired by today's greatest lyricist, Taylor Swift, this collection overflows with folklore, love, heartache, revenge and peace - the perfect balm for any tortured soul.

Featuring poems by William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and many more, this moody and melancholy anthology celebrates the most famous - and tortured - poets.

These poems might make you cry!

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

229 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 6, 2024

Reviews

[Fanny Reads ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta es una introducción a las famosas palabras de algunos de los poetas más celebrados de la lengua inglesa. Inspirada en la mejor letrista de la actualidad, Taylor Swift, esta colección rebosa de…folclore, amor, dolor, venganza y paz

Puedes encontrar distintos poemas con estos enfoques de autores conocidos y otros no tanto, sin embargo considero que no soy la persona indicada para esta lectura ya que yo soy más de poemarios que te hacen sentir cosas, que se te meten al corazón o mínimo en la mente y esta por desgracia no fue, ninguno.

Eso si, es un libro super rápido de leer así que si quieres un libro para adelantar con tu reto lector pues te puede servir.
Mil gracias a VR por el envío <3

[Josu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐

[laura (hiatus)]

My last book of 2025 and I really enjoyed it my mom gave me this for Christmas and I decided not to rate it because it had poems by a big variety of authors so some I didn't really enjoy but some I absolutely loved

Some of my fav lines-

To-day is far from childhood But up and down the hills I held her hand the tighter, Which shortened all the miles. ~Emily Dickinson

I wish I could remember that first day First hour, first moment of your meeting me ~Christina Rossetti

We might be fifty, we might be five, So snug, so compact, so wise are we Under the kitchen-table leg My knee is pressing against his knee. ~Katherine Mansfield

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

My mother said to me not to be talking with you to-day, or to-morrow, or on Sunday; it was a bad time she took for telling me that; it was shutting the door after the house was robbed. ~Lady Augusta Gregory

There is no magic any more, We meet as other people do, You work no miracle for me Nor I for you. ~Sara Teasdale

I need not gloom my days with futile dread, Because I see a part and not the whole. Contemplating the strange, I'm comforted By this narcotic thought: I know my soul. ~Claude McKay

Yesterday now is a part of forever, Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, With glad days, and sad days, and bad days, which never Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight, Their fulness of sunshine or sorrowful night. ~Susan Coolidge

[Miniikaty]

Reseña completa en el Blog Letras, Libros y Más próximamente

Este es un poemario que recoge algunos de los poemas o introducciones/fragmentos de algunos de los grandes escritores como Poe, Las Bronte o Emily Dickinson y otros menos conocidos. Inspirado en las letras de Taylor Swift, con una clara inclinación al folklore, el amor y el desamor, la venganza…

La edición es preciosa y está llena de detalles (con ilustraciones en cada página), además es un libro muy fácil de leer por su grosor y aunque puede costar un poco meterte en ellos porque son clásicos creo que viene perfecto para desconectar o salir de algún bloqueo lector. Está dividido en diferentes eras/temas y cada una con textos relacionados a ellas y eso me ha parecido muy chulo.

Pero no quiero profundizar demasiado porque este libro no ha sido para mí, ya que no soy su público. Nunca he leído poemarios y jamás los he comprendido o disfrutado así que para mí ha sido una lectura sin más y por eso no lo puntúo ni me meto mucho a analizar nada. Si buscas un libro ligero y profundo o eres amante de la poesía este es tu libro.

[Amy Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the poems and how they were organised into the different themes. However the blurb and title seem to be pure bait because I cannot see a clear link between most of these poems and Taylor swift lyrics. Maybe I’m missing the connection, I don’t know. This is the first poetry book I’ve read, so am still learning to appreciate it. Although I must admit I can see the connection in some of the poems. The ploy that this is tortured poetry is also misleading. Finally there seems a strange representation of the poets that the blurb suggest will contribute significantly to the anthology. For example, there is several of the named poets with only one poem in this book. Overall I enjoyed the poems I just feel that Taylor swift fans have been slightly taken advantage of…

[haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love this poetry collection! first of all, the references to taylor swift within the author's note, throughout the poems, and towards the end really sealed the deal for me, of course. i also enjoyed how it told a story, through segments that connect to taylor's music somehow.

this collection features many great poets, such as edgar allan poe, the bronte sisters, emily dickinson, and many others. i found some new favorites and reread some old ones.

this is one i would recommend to anyone who loves poetry!

[Erick Adams Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5★

Una antología con poemas buenos, malos, regulares, aburridos, malos y algunos que calan en el alma.
Lo que considero un abuso es que se use a Taylor Swift para venderla, no encontré ninguna relación entre los poemas y las eras, quizás con los conceptos generales de ellas sí, pero bien podría ser Taylor Swift o cualquier otra artista.

[Yeilyne Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems weren’t bad and they were chosen by themes. It’s just that since most of them is hard to understand because of how literature based it is I felt quite bored with it. If I’m being honest the main reason I bought this book was because the pages were beautiful. But don’t let me review deter you to not read it yall may like it.

[Jayme Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not my favorite collection of poetry. The poems themselves are great, but they do not go together cohesively. I wouldn’t classify any of these as “tortured” poetry and it’s clear the title and prologue were used as click bait for swifties.

[Kasee Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Taylor Swift-inspired curation of poetry, much of which I was unfamiliar with, but ended up loving. It's got a great, varied mix of classical poets, themes, and forms. It might have been nice to include some more modern poets within the different themes, but nonetheless, still an educational and thought-provoking collection.

I'm not sure *how* connected any of this poetry is to Taylor Swift (we can only lightly assume she's consulted poetry in her songwriting?), but I think it's a unique idea, and we can connect a lot of the themes from the poetry included to those in her songwriting. After all, Taylor's discography is full of the universal themes of heartbreak, revenge, folklore, and peace. It's also a timely tome with the recent release of TTPD. Another thing this book and Taylor Swift songs have in common? You'll need to keep a dictionary nearby. ;-) It's a way to include more scholarship in our pop culture, and I really enjoyed connecting with these poems.

I especially loved "The Sparrow," "A Noiseless Patient Spider," "Joy," and "Nature is what we see."

It's a book you want to buy and spend time with -- a book to pour over, muse, and find meaning in. A book to read and come back to. Also, it's a great gift for any elder millennial Swiftie!

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. POEMS FOR TORTURED SOULS is out 9/3/24.

[clari · Rating 4 out of 5]

siempre tuve una relación rara con la poesía, nos encontramos a destiempo. y este libro lo arranque muy esperanzada a una etapa nueva de mi vida, en otro país, lejos de todo lo que conozco. pero la vida me tiro sus tormentas y lo terminé en el balcón de mi casa, perdida en mi vida.
me gusto mucho porque leí poetas que no sabía que me podían interesar y ahora solo quiero leer más de elles y sobre elles. me ayudó a analizar que querian decir, pero a conocerme a mi misma mejor, un lugar más vulnerable y más intimo conmigo misma.
leanlo, porque todos tenemos un alma torturada por algo, alguno de estos poetas te va a hacer cuestionarte y capaz, encontrarte.
gracias taylor (indirectamente) por siempre estar conmigo aunque no me conozcas.

[Gia Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably one of my favourite collections of poems. I also like how she bunched the poems together in themes really unique. The poems she chose are so so good definitely some more popular poets and also a few smaller poets. If you love poetry you’ll love this.

[Abbie Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poems that embody the themes and intricate lyrics from The Tortured Poets Department!

[Roser Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aquest llibre recull poemes de diferents temes. No està malament, però alguns no m’han acabat de fer el pes.

[Tyler Andrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh not what I thought.

[Soomin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually i DNF-ed it. I do like that its a collection of poems with specific themes but I got lost halfway through and couldn't connect to it. Perhaps it isn't for me heheh

[Clover · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5
Baited.

This cover is beautiful. The title is alluring. But then you see a specific word and I knew this wasn't going to be for me.

"Selected"

It's a collection of poems from other poets. It has some pretty huge names of both men and women. It's sectioned into themes which is nice, but because of the huge array of poets it loses any semblance of cohesion.

The title is very melodramatic for what it really is. It went from being something interesting to something that made me cringe, I really should have read the blurb before picking it up. It's just marketing bait and I got baited.

The art and purple font is cute but it's just fluff in the end. It's like slapping a sticker on a Renaissance painting, it doesn't always help the older poems.

Thankfully this was free as I got it from my library! I think anyone is better off just reading each of the poets individually. Check your local library! Poetry is typically in 819!

[Yoselin Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poemas para almas torturadas de Liz Ison en colaboración con @vryamexico

“Cuando llegaste, eras como vino tinto y miel, y el sabor tuyo me hacía arder la boca de dulzura. Ahora eres como el pan de la mañana, suave y agradable. Apenas percibo tu sabor porque ya lo conozco, pero me siento nutrida por completo.”

Fue una colección que disfruté muchísimo, especialmente la manera en la que está estructurada, siendo una swiftie de más de una década fui la más feliz encontrándome con las diferentes Eras al ir recorriendo el sendero tras cada poema.

Un consejo que doy al entrar en este libro es que no esperen poemas que se vean muy similares con algunas de las canciones, pues tengo entendido que muchos fans entran aquí esperando encontrar un poema titulado “Clara Bow” (por ejemplo) y no es así.

Personalmente yo no llevaba esa expectativa lo cual me hizo disfrutar el libro por lo que es: una antología de poemas. Más allá de buscarle una similitud con Taylor, simplemente me sumergí en las vibras que me dan las Eras y disfruté los poemas, los cuales no conocía pues no suelo tener acceso a poesía en formato físico normalmente.

Yo voy a atesorar el libro con mucho cariño, es una edición muy bella, que me recuerdo a uno de mis discos favoritos, y además dentro alberga grandes autores que conocía por obviamente su influencia en el mundo literario, principalmente por haberlos visto mencionados dentro de otros libros, como son: Emily Dickinson, John Milton, Thoreau, Mary W. Shelley y muchos más.

Recomendado si disfrutas leer antologías y poesía.

¿Disfrutas de leer este género?

[Amorina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s 70% of a nice curation which in general is hard to find. I don’t really understand why Taylor swift was mentioned (even if she was inspired), I don’t find it reason enough to tie a relationship between the two, maybe it’s just a marketing scheme which, fortunately, is not what drew me to the book… and had I read that intro (decisively trying to relate it)… I wouldn’t have purchased it. Instead I too flipped to the middle of a book and found the illustrations endearing in collaboration with the poems. For that I really appreciated it. I re-familiarised the typical poetry education one would get in the states while adding some nice romantic Gaelic poetry.

I don’t know enough to criticise the collection but I appreciated that most of the content picked veered away from reading like lyrics nonetheless.

[Flor Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

La estructuración de este poemario, llevándote por las eras del folclore, amor, dolor, venganza y por último paz, es perfecto. Es como transitar un camino para que al final te encuentres con un atardecer. Me encantó, algunos nuevos autores se van conmigo por semejantes poemas escritos, algunos famosos poemas con los que no conecté y otros que me hicieron lagrimear.
Debo de admitir que por momentos fue un desafío para mi leer poemas tan estructurados y de época, pero me gustó porque es algo nuevo y de lo cual quiero seguir explorando para hundirme cada vez más en la poesía. (Pues poeta torturada)
Un recopilado de poemas y emociones que te llevan por los poemas y poetas más nostálgicos, torturados y conocidos para tocar tu alma.
Y que mejor que este relacionado e inspirado con taylor swift. Estoy segura que ella lo leería sin dudas. Lo recomiendo muchísimo💜

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the title of this book and was so excited to read it but it was a bit of a disappointment to me. I liked some of the poems in the revenge section but for the most part I didn’t find most of these classic poems particularly tortured or spectacular. And with the exception of The Raven, not a single one of my favorite poems that I would classify as perfect for tortured souls were in here — The Highwayman, Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight, Annabelle Lee, To Lucasta, Going to the Wars, On Being Brought from Africa to America, We Real Cool, anything by Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath… Sorry, but all chapters but one were rather meh for me.

I read a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

[Vitalia Strait · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was at Target listening to The Tortured Poets Department while wearing my TTPD sweater, so when I saw this book, it was an auto-buy. I didn't realize it was explicitly inspired by Taylor Swift until I got home, so that was kind of a fun surprise. With that said, I think that the Swift connections were mostly so that people would buy it... which again, I did, sooo... I guess it worked.

I was happy to see the poems are actual ones instead of Instagram poetry, but I was a bit salty about the omission of Sylvia Plath, since TTPD could easily be called a concept album about her. Still, it was a nice read and I don't regret adding it to my collection.

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this book when I was in my local Waterstones when I was in the poetry section, I immediately thought of Taylor Swift, then I found out the book was a Taylor Swift like book. I knew I had to get it. Not because it had poems that inspired some of 'Taylor Swift's greatest lyrics', but because I love poetry and most of the authors inside the book. Edgar Allen Poe, Anne and Charlotte Brontë, Lewis Caroll, and many other legendary classic authors. I was not disappointed by this collection of poetry and adored the layout of the book!

[Kendahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of poems fell flat for me. Some of the poems are just not my speed, which is whatever, but I don't think that the grouping of poems in any of the sections outside maybe grief stirred any actual emotions in me. I think a lot of them are very loosely grouped in an uninteresting way. Maybe it would hit better if I was more into Taylor Swift and there was some sort of connection there, but this book came across as a hodge podge of bland poems that's new arrangement did nothing to build each other up. That said, the book and the illustrations are gorgeous though.

[cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really lovely little collection of classic and famous poetry, fitting the themes of folklore, love, heartache, revenge, and peace. These are poems that may have inspired Taylor Swift but also just incredible poems that speak on the same themes that she does in her work, and it was a really beautiful read that I would recommend as a lovely gift for any Swiftie!

[May Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

This is such a nice selection of poems, but such an obvious clickbait for Swifties. Most poems didn't quite fit within their themes and although I don't know much about the lives of the Poets used in this anthology, it didn't scream "Tortured Souls" to me.

As much as I like Taylor Swift's songs, she's no poet so had I realised the target audience of this book, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

[Anahi · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verdad es que me gustó mucho este libro junto mucho mi pasión por escribir y el inglés realmente no disfrute todos los poemas porque si estuve muy centrada en acabarlo más que disfrutarlo si los disfruté muchos de ellos pero nunca uno me llegó como tocar el alma digámoslo así pero simple hecho de qué no están en mi idioma natal no tienenmis raíces no tienen no tienen mi corazón mi alma entonces creo que por eso aunque hay muy buenos poemas

[Lotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik heb zo het idee dat poëzie en ik niet helemaal een goede match zijn. Natuurlijk, er staan echt wel mooie gedichten in, dat kan ik ook wel zien. En het format vond ik ook mooi, met gedichten over wraak en liefde en vrede. Maar ik werd echt nergens emotioneel door geraakt ofzo.

Ik vond het wel cool dat "The Raven" er gewoon in stond en dat ik die toevallig las toen ik ook "Sunrise on the Reaping" aan het lezen was. Like, ik had gelijk meer context voor Lenore Dove.

[jennalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“our world, so worn and weary,
needs music, pure and strong,
to hush the jangle and discords
of sorrow, pain, and wrong.
music to soothe all it’s sorrow,
till WAR and CRIME shall CEASE;
and the hearts of MEN grow TENDER
girdle the world with peace.”
Songs for the People, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

iconic last poem of this book. such a good read, does get spotty in interpretational aspects imo.

[Mary C. Saavedra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yo no soy muy de leer poesía pero pues a mi me dicen Taylor Swift y yo tengo que ir corriendo a ver de qje se trata.

Este libro me ... sorprendió por la bonita selección de poemas curados para el mismo, así como por la elección de las canciones de Taylor elegidas para cada poema.

Aun así la poesia sigue sin ser lo mio, y a estas alturas no lo será.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Para un libro bonito que se lee rapidísimo y que recomiendo al 100% leer en su idioma original.