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Little Poems
From Sappho and Li Bai to Sandra Cisneros and Ocean Vuong: a pocket-sized treasury of tiny, jewel-like poems from around the world and through the ages
Short poems have been popular for centuries, from the famous fragments of Sappho in ancient Greece to the traditional haiku of Japan, from the Imagist poems of Ezra Pound and H. D. to the witty couplets of Dorothy Parker and Ogden Nash, from lyrical gems by Shakespeare and Rumi to modern classics by W. H. Auden and Margaret Atwood. This collection brings together brief poems--defined as fewer than fourteen lines--from a wide range of poetic traditions. Together they make for enjoyable reading and easy memorizing and provide a wealth of appropriate lines ready-made to copy into a card or an email.
For any poetry lover--and anyone short on reading time--Little Poems offers a generous supply of verses that surprise, amuse, move, and delight.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
Short poems have been popular for centuries, from the famous fragments of Sappho in ancient Greece to the traditional haiku of Japan, from the Imagist poems of Ezra Pound and H. D. to the witty couplets of Dorothy Parker and Ogden Nash, from lyrical gems by Shakespeare and Rumi to modern classics by W. H. Auden and Margaret Atwood. This collection brings together brief poems--defined as fewer than fourteen lines--from a wide range of poetic traditions. Together they make for enjoyable reading and easy memorizing and provide a wealth of appropriate lines ready-made to copy into a card or an email.
For any poetry lover--and anyone short on reading time--Little Poems offers a generous supply of verses that surprise, amuse, move, and delight.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
- GenresPoetryAnthologies
256 pages, Hardcover
Published March 14, 2023
15 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 22, 2023
A delightful assortment of poetry by many authors that I know and love and some that I didn’t but will definitely research further. Love the simplicity of the “Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets” and will probably buy this book at some point to add to my collection.
May 30, 2024
May happiness/pursue you,/catch you/often, and,/should it/lose you,/be waiting/ahead, making/a clearing/for you.
- Salute, By A.R. Ammons
- Salute, By A.R. Ammons
February 16, 2025
A lovely little collection of short poems. Some astoundingly grounded and some are essentially "Eehh?"
As is life i suppose :)
As is life i suppose :)
Read
June 25, 2023I can't say I read every poem in the book, but I really enjoyed going through and finding ones I remembered from school and some new poems too!
I grew up not really liking poetry, but the small size of these poems gave an accessible introduction to poetry and I found a few that have become new favorites.
Also, one of the epigrams I read was scathing!
I grew up not really liking poetry, but the small size of these poems gave an accessible introduction to poetry and I found a few that have become new favorites.
Also, one of the epigrams I read was scathing!
May 7, 2024
Banger poems in almost all genres
November 9, 2023
I'm not a fan of this anthology. Some are excerpts from bigger works that can't really be enjoyed on its own. Some of the groupings didn't make sense.
As a middle school teacher, I find this to be too high brown for our school library or my classroom library.
As a book lover, I feel there are much better poetry collections. To create a book of little Poems for the sake of having a little book with short works/excerpts just isn't enough of a draw for me to encourage others to read this. There were a few gems in there, like the first ever written version of the rhyme which helps you remember how many days in which month.
As a middle school teacher, I find this to be too high brown for our school library or my classroom library.
As a book lover, I feel there are much better poetry collections. To create a book of little Poems for the sake of having a little book with short works/excerpts just isn't enough of a draw for me to encourage others to read this. There were a few gems in there, like the first ever written version of the rhyme which helps you remember how many days in which month.
July 15, 2025
BEST
What's the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;
Light, that never makes you wink;
Memory, that gives no pain;
Love, when, so, you're loved again.
What's the best thing in the world?
- Something out of it, I think.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 61)
This book is what is purports itself to be: lots of short poems (though some of them are excerpts from longer poems which feels like cheating). Some of the poems in here were great, but many others were meh.
What's the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;
Light, that never makes you wink;
Memory, that gives no pain;
Love, when, so, you're loved again.
What's the best thing in the world?
- Something out of it, I think.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 61)
This book is what is purports itself to be: lots of short poems (though some of them are excerpts from longer poems which feels like cheating). Some of the poems in here were great, but many others were meh.
February 3, 2024
To have known him, to have loved him
After loneless long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong...
"Here a pretty baby lies
Sung asleep with lullabies;
Pray be silent, and not stir
Th' easy earth that covers her"
After loneless long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong...
"Here a pretty baby lies
Sung asleep with lullabies;
Pray be silent, and not stir
Th' easy earth that covers her"
July 28, 2024
It has a few nice poems, but I was expecting more that I'd really enjoy. Not a great collection, but also not a terrible one.
January 13, 2025
I love this anthology. Many meditative pieces. 10/10
July 13, 2025
I didn’t care for many of the “mid-twentieth century” poems.
August 31, 2025
m'havia proposat llegir coses diferents, xro nse si sa poesia es lo meu... o potser no en aquest format.
un d'es poemes q m'ha agradat:
sunset glitters on the beads
of the curtains. spring flowers
bloom in the valley. the gardens
along the river are filled
with perfume. smoke of cooking
fires drifts over the slow barges.
sparrows hop and tumble in
the branches. whirling insects
swarm the air. who discovered
that one cup of thick wine
will dispel a thousand cares?
- Du Fu (712 - 70)
un d'es poemes q m'ha agradat:
sunset glitters on the beads
of the curtains. spring flowers
bloom in the valley. the gardens
along the river are filled
with perfume. smoke of cooking
fires drifts over the slow barges.
sparrows hop and tumble in
the branches. whirling insects
swarm the air. who discovered
that one cup of thick wine
will dispel a thousand cares?
- Du Fu (712 - 70)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews