A Poem for Every Summer Day

A Poem for Every Season

by Allie Esiri

Within the pages of Allie Esiri's gorgeous collection, A Poem for Every Summer Day, you will find verse that will transport you to striking summer scenes and inspire adventure. The poems are selected from Allie Esiri's bestselling poetry anthologies A Poem for Every Day of the Year and A Poem for Every Night of the Year.

Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, this book dazzles with an array of familiar favourites and remarkable new discoveries. These seasonal poems - together with introductory paragraphs - have a link to the date on which they appear.

Includes poems by Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats and Langston Hughes who sit alongside Brian Bilston, Michael Rosen, John Agard and Kate Tempest. This soul-enhancing book will keep you company for every day of your life.

Genres: Poetry, Summer, Nonfiction, Anthologies, Summer Reads

288 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2021

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now have all four of these Season Poetry books, and although they are aimed at children, I derive much pleasure from their content. There are two for each day, mostly well-known, but some surprises too; attractively produced; not too big to handle; the two dated poems with my morning tea sets me up for the day.

[Lizzy]

This should have been titled "Bible Verses, Shakespeare, Nursery Rhymes, Poems About Things That Happened at Some Point One Summer, and a Few Seasonal Poems for Every Summer Day"

I read all four books of these seasonal selections and thy were not what I was expecting but I still enjoyed them and would read them again. If you come to these looking for one very specific feel, I fear you will not find it. However I think these are really good if you arnt sure what kind of poetry/poets you like to read and want to try something new.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
Despite currently reading the ‘A Poem a day’ version, meaning that quite a few were already familiar from June and July, I thought this would make a nice summer holiday afternoon escape and it did! A lovely selection of all types of poems but perhaps not the most summery of collections due to the theme of the days picked

[Gina House · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m realizing that perhaps poetry is not for me. I love so many things about poetry - short snippets describing a moment in time or life, the rhyming parts and the (sometimes) intense feelings.

This particular collection of poetry books has helped me to find which poets I enjoy and, the poems that I did like, have really stuck with me.

Overall, this poetry collection was very hard to love because I assumed the tone of the poems would be about summer itself (as a season) and all of the wonderful things that summer brings - sunshine, warmth, fun, vacations, cookouts, getting together with friends, cold drinks, etc.

Unfortunately (for me), this book (and all of the other books) usually goes by dates in history during these months and includes a poem about a person or political event that happened on that day. I have no interest in politics and almost every single poem was incredibly depressing or painful to read because it included someone suffering, unhappy or mistreated in some way.

I’m reading the last book in this series (about autumn) and then I’m going to give them all away. I had such high hopes for these books and i’m just so disappointed. Out of the several hundred poems I’ve read in this collection so far, only a few have brought me joy or a smile to my face. Is all poetry entirely about suffering, heartache, war, pain, or death?

Are there any poems that celebrate moments of happiness and joy or gratitude?

[Carlota Ferro Bernardino · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did find some really good poems and new favorites through this anthology, most of the poems weren’t even that summery and this really really really lacked variety (both in terms of poems and poets), to the point where most of the poems felt too similar

[Rozarka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this collection perhaps a little bit less than the spring one but it was still an enjoyable read.

I'd prefer less Shakespeare though :)

[Kelly (kellyinbookland) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 3 in the set for me, technically it should be the last but I started with Winter. So far this one has been my least favourite from the other two. I think it was maybe that the poems were more “flowery” and sweet and in the others they were darker and a little more cosy which was more to my taste.

I found I didn’t tab as many favourites in this one as I have the others but over all I still enjoyed a a poem in the morning and one at night.

I’ve now read Winter, spring and Summer and I’m finally onto my favourite time of year. Although I was meant to start with Autumn I saved my favourite season for last and I’m so looking forward to it.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been another wonderful season, starting and finishing each day with a poem. I've gotten to know so many poets and learned a great new many historic events through their poems.

[reece t · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun!! I love reading this every summer 💛🌟🌸

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Poetry is not my favourite medium in the world but I do enjoy some that particularly tickle my fancy. I picked this book up entirely based on it's pretty cover and it was, for the most part, quite delightful.

- Each date between 1st June and 31st August has a couple of poems assigned to it. These are often on a theme, for example, 19th June discusses Juneteenth, 4th July has a poem about the US.

- There's good variation of poems and poets, although old, white, male poets seem to have more representation. It would have been nice to see some of the repeated poets replaced with something new and diverse.

- The quality of the poems varied too. Some were fun and witty or beautiful and evocative. But some were just dull, overly long and boring.

- This sort of collection would be perfect in an educational environment. A lot of the poems would be good conversation starters or useful for discussing different ways to use language. There are other seasonal books edited by Esiri so the whole year could be covered.

A nice little collection of poems and although autumn has now very much set in, it allowed me to keep a connection to summer for just a little longer.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really been enjoying these collections. I want to read more poetry on a regular basis and this helps me achieve that goal in a very accessible way by providing a themed collection to absorb in small doses. I do think this collection was a little less on point than the Spring collection, as many of these poems didn't feel very connected to Summer, or historical events that happened during the summer months. However, it is still a really great selection and includes one of my all time favorites, "The Late Passenger" by C.S. Lewis.

[DarkStar's Book Cavern · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the same happens with this collection as with the A Poem For Every Spring Day. For all its title of Summer you would think that there would be poems depicting sun, seaside, holidays, friendship, bbqs etc. But no, depressing, political poems page after page with some Shakespeare thrown in for good measure. Not one for me. I have only the Autumn season to read but my expectations are not high.

[Alicia Lovely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have now read all 4 of these seasonal poetry collections and I’m very sad to say that this was my least favourite of the 4.
I didn’t really find much intriguing, inspiring, attention grabbing poems in this collection, even though there were a few that I liked. In comparison to the others, I really didn’t like it as much and it took me a long time to get through it. The Autumn and Winter versions are much better.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al igual que los otros libros de compilación de poemas editados por Allie Esiri, me gusta mucho cómo está presentado, la breve reseña que contextualiza los poemas y la selección que Esiri hace, pero debo admitir que no hubo tantos poemas que me gustaran en la colección de verano comparados con la de primavera e invierno.

[Miriam James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection of poems, although I did find there wasn’t as much variation in this one as others, with several days in a row often following the same theme. I do really like the variety of poets though, and the fact some are related to the date, which gives me something new to learn. An easy way to get into reading a couple of poems a day.

[Karina Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 I haven’t read every poem yet but of the ones I did read there were a good amount that were nice and summery but some of the others were kind of depressing and not really how I wanted to start my day lol. They did all mostly pertain to summer or the specific date though.

[Horatian (amy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

You had me at lots of Byron poems

[carley · Rating 4 out of 5]

this 1 year of poems has been v cool 😊😊

[Manon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this collection of poems!

[Paula-Diane Lufflum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great poetry of all sorts for every day.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

* 3,5 stars A really good collection of poetry. It's great if you want to get into poetry because you get to read about a lot of different authors and their writing style.

[Amanda Hunsberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my level of poetry.

[Kimberly Zonaras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!

[Kandace Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fly away, fly away over the sea,
Sun-loving swallow, for summer is done;
Come again, come again, come back to me,
Bringing the summer and bringing the sun

[Jane Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book but not the worst

[Lottie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

someone needs to make a Southern Hemisphere edition of this, stat

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
As with the other poetry books of the other seasons I enjoyed some poems more than others but found the historical significance which preceded the poems interesting.

[Eriiiiiii · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️. 75

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una gran idea que podría beneficiarse de un poquito más de diversidad. Me ha encantado la experiencia de ir leyendo dos poemas al día durante el verano y también me ha gustado mucho el enfoque. Pensaba que iban a ser mayoritariamente poemas sobre la naturaleza pero en esta colección hay de todo un poco gracias a las efemérides de cada día. Las breves explicaciones de cada poema también ayudan a ponerlos en contexto sin ser agobiantes, y por eso creo que es una gran manera de iniciarse en la poesía. Sin embargo, mi mayor queja es la poca diversidad que hay en la selección de poemas, pocas mujeres y poc, ningún poema reciente o más moderno. Si realmente se busca atraer hacia la poesía a la gente, una selección un poco más equilibrada y actualizada tendría mucho más éxito.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wraps up our first read through of all 4 seasons of this series! My biggest complaint is that I really wish each book had focused a little more on the actual seasons and the sensory aspects that help us romanticize each season, rather than focusing on historical events and whatnot. Still, there are some good ones mixed in. We've been tabbing our favorites to revisit in future years and will likely skip most war and biblical poetry pieces.