Poems to Live Your Life By

This was purchased as a birthday present for my granddaughter. On initial inspection the range of poems included in this substantial tome looks to fulfill the promise of its title.

Truly beautiful; the poems chosen are a lovely variety and the illustration are a joy to study and see the meanings matching the poems. Plan on buying more from this curator/author/illustrator

Lovely illustrations and a good selection of poems. It made a great present for my friend

Bought this as a gift for someone who loves poetry. It’s a lovely hardback book and glancing through it has a good selection of poems related to life in general. The illustrations are really nice and give extra emphasis to the poems content. I’m sure it’s one of those selections that you can dip into and find something to relate to whatever is going on in your life...maybe for inspiration, amusement or solace.

A lovely book, the drawings are lovely too. I bought it for myself. It would be a nice gift to send to someone as it very light too, so postage would not be too bad.

For the price of a glossy monthly mag you can buy this wonderful book. The selections will console you, make you laugh, cry, get angry. And you will marvel at the power of the poetry.Why not send one to some poor soul who is facing lockdown alone... molymolynu9@ gmail.com

Warning. This review will not make any sense to anyone under the age of sixty I would have thought.This book came today, intrigued by the quick deftly flowing lines of the illustrator I ordered the book via Amazon. I have to say I did not agree with the title there are much more relevant poems to live your life by than those selected. However I found the illustrations quirky and it was nice to revisit some old school poems and poets revered by the school teachers of my youth, even though some of them do deserve to stay in dusty corners. The passage of time has made some of them obsolete and irrelevant and unlikely to leave an impact on today’s generation. The one poem that struck a chord was Dulce et Decorum Est. Wilfred Owen. Unfamiliar as I am with the presumably Latin title, the graphic description of someone dying a horrible death from a gas shell not quick enough to put on a mask has stayed with me this afternoon probably given more relevance in these days of threats of chemical warfare. On a comical note how could I have learned the words of Cargoes by John Masefield and sang at school at the tender age of eight “Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir” etc. on several occasions without anyone really explaining what the song was about. Lol. I know now of course.

Excellent range of poems for my daughter fir Xmas !Arrived quickly and well packagedHappy customerPippa

I love how this book has been put together. The hard cover is solid. The mixture of classic and modern poetry is a great touch, and the drawings are absolutely beautiful. If you are an art admirer and a poetry lover this book is a great addition to your library. I bought it for a camping trip and I cannot wait to start my journey through its pages!

Superbe ouvrage. Très beau livre, belle qualité de papier, couverture magnifique et très beaux dessins/poèmes. Je l'ai offert et il a été très apprécié.

I gave this book as a gift .They loved it! And I bought a kindle version for me.

This is an anthology of forty-eight poems arranged into eight life-related topical areas. The connective theme is poems that the editor, Chris Riddell, found to contain valuable life lessons. The span runs from Rumi to poets of the present day. It’s a nice selection in that it includes not only old and new (thus varied styles of verse,) but also greater and lesser known poems and poets. [That’s not to say that any of the poets are unknowns, but some of the oldies are remembered through the ages more than others, and some of the newer individuals are better known for other activities – e.g. Neil Gaiman (novelist / storyteller,) Leonard Cohen (recording artist,) and Riddell, himself (graphic artist.)] There are several much anthologized inclusions that almost any poetry reader will have read, including: Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Shakepeare’s “Sonnet 18” and the “To be, or not to be” soliloquay from Hamlet, Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” and Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.” However, there are many lesser known gems as well, many by masters of poetry such as Seamus Heaney, Christina Rossetti, and Philip Larkin.The eight topical areas are: Musings, Youth, Family, Love, Imaginings, Nature, War, and Endings. Most of the sections contain five or six poems, though -- tellingly -- Love contains the most at twelve and War the least at three.While Riddell not only selected the poems and include a couple of his own, he also illustrates the book. There are beautiful line drawings throughout that offer insight into Riddell’s interpretation of each poem.I enjoyed this anthology. As I said, it’s a beautiful selection of poems, and the artwork is skillfully done as well. I’d highly recommend this book for poetry readers.

„Tread softly because you tread on my dreams“ (Original quotation from a Poem by W.B. Yeats, page 64)This beautifully illustrated book is a collection of poems, some well-know, some known but forgotten, and others that might be new for the reader. The different poems are grouped together by topics: Musings, Youth, Family, Love, Imaginings, Nature, War, Endings.I found my favorite poem by W.B. Yeats, as well as poems by Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas, together with song texts by Nick Care and Leonard Cohen. One of the poems that deeply impressed me is “Outgrown” by Penelope Shuttle.This collection definitely are poems to live your life by, an enjoyable book that is not meant to be read and shelved, but to be taken whenever you need time to reflect and unwind.