BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like The new Oxford book of English verse, 1250-1950, chosen and edited by Helen Gardner

Loved The new Oxford book of English verse, 1250-1950, chosen and edited by Helen Gardner by Helen Louise Gardner? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from poetry, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Devotions

    Mary Oliver · 2017 · Poetry

    A career-spanning selection from a poet of attention and the natural world; the perfect place to begin.

  2. 2

    The Waste Land

    T.S. Eliot · 1922 · Poetry

    The fractured, allusive poem that became the emblem of modernism; difficult, dazzling, endlessly studied.

  3. 3

    And Still I Rise

    Maya Angelou · 1978 · Poetry

    Defiant, joyful poems of survival and self-worth; among the most quoted verse of the century.

  4. 4

    Death of a Naturalist

    Seamus Heaney · 1966 · Poetry

    Earthy, precise poems of rural Ireland and boyhood; the debut of a Nobel laureate.

  5. 5

    Ariel

    Sylvia Plath · 1965 · Poetry

    Fierce, exact late poems published after the poet's death; raw and technically brilliant.

  6. 6

    Borderlands

    Gloria Anzaldúa · 1987 · Poetry

    "Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume challenge how we think about identity. Borderlands/La Frontera remaps o

  7. 7

    The Portable James Joyce

    James Joyce · 1947 · Poetry

    Contains: Dubliners Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- Exiles -- Collected Poems -- From Ulysses -- From Finnegans Wake.

  8. 8

    Tears and laughter

    Kahlil Gibran · 1946 · Poetry

    The God separated a spirit from Himself and fashioned it into Beauty. He showered upon her all the blessings of gracefulness and kindness. He gave her the cup of happiness and said, “Drink not from th

  9. 9

    Generation of vipers

    Philip Wylie · 1942 · Poetry

    "Perhaps the most vitriolic attack ever launched on the American way of living - from politicians to professors to businessmen to Mom to sexual mores to religion - Generation of Vipers ranks with the

  10. 10

    Understanding poetry

    Cleanth Brooks · 1938 · Poetry

    Narrative and descriptive poems exemplifying the key elements are presented and analyzed.

Browse wider