Thanks to the social media, poetry seems to abandon its long slumber to regain its rightful place. A position once consecrated by great poets and orators who found in verses the perfect way to describe the world, to vibrate its many layers and turn emotion into lyrics. These best poetry books they define the evolution of an eternal and timeless art that, however, does not cease to renew itself.
Best poetry books
The Iliad, by Homer
The Greek epic that I would forever change western literature It was also the first great poem of our lyrics. Although its publication date is still unknown, it is believed that The Iliad dates from sometime in the XNUMXth century BC and consists of 15.693 verses They reflect the wrath of Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War, a city known as Ilion, in Greek. A whole classic.
Rhymes and Legends, by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Ambassador of a romanticismo which he tried to open up to new literary currents, Bécquer lived badly in Madrid for a large part of his life without seeing part of his published work. The Rhymes that make up this volume were published by his friends years after his death, shortly after a fire nearly wiped them out. The leyends included were published throughout the life of the author. An existence nourished by themes like love, death or references to the very literature that Bécquer wrote and who find in the pages of this book an opening to a world of new shapes and colors.
Would you like to read the Rhymes and Legends of Bécquer?
Blades of Grass, by Walt Whitman
Unanimously regarded as the great american poet of all time, Whitman worked on Leaves of Grassduring much of its life, so that the first version was modified on numerous occasions throughout different editions. Finally, the earliest poems were rescued, in order to preserve the impulsiveness of an author who spoke of his relationship with nature, with the time that he had to live and even of a president like Abraham Lincoln to whom he dedicated an elegy. Unlike the spirituality that exuded romanticism, Whitman knew how to endow XNUMXth century poetry with volume and form, of a materialism embodied in a man who also knows how to think and exist.
Poems, by Emily Dickinson
Despite the more than 1800 poems that the American Emily Dickinson wrote while she was alive, few of them were published. In fact, those who saw the light in the author's lifetime were modified by some editors who did not dare to show the world the unique poetry of this woman, locked for much of her life in a room. It would not be until his death, in 1886, when his little sister discovered all the poems and made them known to the world. Nurtured by the Bible and American humor, navigating between death and immortality that inspired her so much, Dickinson is considered one of the great figures of United States poetry.
Read the Poems by Emily Dickinson.
Twenty love poems and a desperate song, by Pablo Neruda
«I like it when you are silent because you are like absent. "
One the most famous poetic quotes from Hispanic letters It is part of this book, the first by Neruda and published by the Chilean author in 1924 at the age of only 19 years. Doing use of an Alexandrian verse and his own style with which he tried to get away from the realism that predominated in his early works, the book is made up of twenty nameless poems and a final one, The Desperate Song, which summarizes the author's feelings towards his youthful loves. One of the most significant works in Spanish of the XNUMXth century, definitely.
You will not be able to stop reading Twenty love poems and a desperate song.
Poet in New York, by Federico García Lorca
On August 18, 1936, Federico García Lorca was shot somewhere between Viznar and Alfacar, in Granada, leaving as a legacy the most significant collections of poems of Andalusia that he loved so much and works like Poet in New York. Published posthumously in 1940 in two different first editions but not coincident with each other for obvious reasons, Lorca's great work was the consolidation of the author, of a man who in the New York city where he lived between 1929 and 1930 tried to evoke a pure beauty, far from industrialization, capitalism and racism that prevailed in the United States. A work in which Lorca, in depression at that time, opens up to the world trying to find his best version.
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Before committing suicide in 1963, Sylvia Plath completed a collection of poems entitled Ariel to be published by her husband and literary assistant, Ted hughes, one year later. The controversy came when the work was modified by Hughes, who removed some of the existing poems and added other unpublished in order to reduce repetitive character to the work, which was criticized and defended equally by the experts. The work, a more dramatic twist compared to Plath's previous works, relies on nature as a canvas for the author's characteristic melancholy.
Poetic Anthology, by Mario Benedetti
Uruguayan short story writer and novelist, Benedetti also dedicated a large part of his life to poetry. Everyday life, extolled as an epic engine and seasoned with love and politics, humor and reflection, women and memories, permeate the pages of this Poetic anthologypublished in 1984. The best option when it comes to accessing the best verses of the author in a single volume.
Other ways to use your mouth, by Rupi Kaur
It all started on an account of Instagram in which the Canadian Indian poet Rupi Kaur began to publish excerpts from her work. Months later, and after a photo of the author leaving a trace of menstruation on the bed that revolutionized social networks, Kaur published two books: milk and honey (Other ways to use your mouth, in our country) and The sun and her flowers, works that bring together poetry for these and future generations where there is no lack of references to themes such as feminism, heartbreak or immigration.
What are for you the best poetry books ever?
Without Vallejo that list has no credibility