There is more to The Pocket Guide to Poets and Poetry than the potted biographies and main word details of more than 250 poets from Homer and Chaucer to Andrew Motion ad Carol Duffy, the current Poet Laureate, through that in itself is impressive enough.

This England, Winter 2011

Andrew Taylor has done a stirling job with this terrific collectionm of poets and examples of their work. For many people poetry is a difficult and deeply personal subject, and much modern poetry is viewed with suspicion. I, myself, for example, can see perfectly well why Betjeman should have been the poet laureate but can't drum up any enthusiasm whatsoever for Andrew Motion, who didn't really prodice anything of note in his long and ultimately boring tenure, and I couldn't really tell you who the current incumbent is, although she does crop up from time to time in my WRITING magazine. I love Tennyson, Shakespeare, John Milton, Pope, Byron and the rest of the Romantics. Benjamin Zepheniah makes me laugh (sometimes) - and the War poets are always good for a bucketful of tears and anguish. This book helps you through the minefield of poetry - up till the 1970s or thereabouts, most of it is readable and much of it is very, very good. Modern poetry? I wouldn't give it houseroom. This terrific book will help you to make up your own mind about poetry, with information and examples a-plenty. Brilliant!

Books Monthly - May 2011