Last Words: Poetry & Readings

by Flame Tree Studio (Creator)

This collection brings together verses that mark the last moments of life, the passing of one stage to another. At a time of grief, we often search for the right words to say, words which will help us come to terms with death, with loss and with the fear of what comes next. The poems and readings in this collection gather together beautiful, lyrical, insightful writings on death, grieving and healing by poets including Christina Rossetti, John Donne, Emily Dickinson and John Keats. A source of comfort, solace and fortitude.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2020

Reviews

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
An excellent collection of poetry in a pretty little book that will fit the palm of your hand.
12 poems in particular really stood out for me and any of these would be particularly fitting at funerals.

[Kate Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last Words Poetry & Readings is a lovely collection of poetry sharing the theme of death. The contents is made up of poems and readings by a variety of authors from different time periods, split into four "different seasons of grief": passing, loss, remembrance and healing. It was nice reading through the healing process, identifying with the different emotions felt at different stages and I felt a nice rhythm passing through them, despite being from different authors. This book would be very useful for someone finding a passage to read at a funeral, or for someone grieving wanting to read something relatable. It is tiny, easily portable and simply stunning (all of Flame Tree Studio's books in this collection, Thoughts To Inspire, are beautiful, hardbacked and patterned. Why don't all books look like this?! 10/10 for the cover design). The introduction is written by Dr Peter Garratt, describing how poetry has timelessly captured the pain of losing a loved one. I love his reference to Tennyson, who described grief as a "cry of the whole human race" and the most universal, human experience.
Some of my favourite poems include:
The Beauty of Death, Part 1, The Calling by Kahlil Gibran - very lyrical, romantic and dark.
On The Death of Anne Bronte by Charlotte Bronte - heart breaking as always.
Those Who Are Near Me by Rabindranath Tagore - short but powerful.
Death by Emily Bronte - grief channelled through nature.
I'll defiantly reread this book at some point, but until then it looks gorgeous on my bookshelf.

[The Book Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetry collection begins with a Robert Frost poem, which is a poet that I personally really like and want to read more from. But from there...The problem with collections like these, the way the poems are arranged and structured does matter and in my opinion, they weren't organised well. Also, the poems they chose weren't ones that worked for me. I didn't like their structure or the style of the poem. And the link between that one and the next poem was usually tenuous at best.

I was disappointed, but at some stage in the second section, something slid into the place. The flow between the poems was so much better, and the poetry they chose were beautiful themselves. This is a collection I will undoubtedly return to one day.

Part of me wanted to give this a five star, but the thing is the first section went for over 50 pages in this 160 page book. And it wasn't until I was at least a decent amount into the second section that I started to enjoy it. That means around a third of the book I though was not well structured and I didn't actually like.

Also, why is there no Heaney poetry in this? That generally surprised me, but then again he has been in a lot of collections I have read recently so.