A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year - by Jane McMorland Hunter (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year is a glorious collection of 366 poems that celebrate nature and the changing seasons. It is the perfect morning companion for any nature or poetry enthusiast, featuring famous odes from big-name poets alongside unsung poems from less well-known writers.

Each poem is chosen to chime with the natural world through the seasons. Spring is a time of hope, a season of new life accompanied by William Wordsworth's famous daffodils, John Clare's lambs, and Christina Rossetti's birdsong. Summer shifts into a time of leisure, with long, idyllic holidays in the countryside: according to Henry James, the two most beautiful words in the English language were "summer afternoon," a sentiment echoed by Edward Thomas and Emily Dickinson. John Keats, William Blake, and W. H. Auden are the poets we associate with autumn, with the natural world and the human one holding onto the last lingering memories of summer before they turn to face the oncoming hardships of winter. Amy Lowell and George Meredith perfectly frame this time of year, with their silver-fringed leaves and crimson berries. Winter can be savored in poetry, rather than endured; bleak gray days are transformed into a world of glittering frost and snow-blanketed landscapes. Even in the darkest days life continues, and soon we can turn our attention to the rebirth of spring.

This is a wonderful collection of poems that help mark the daily turn of the seasons and all the rituals marking the significant moments of the year, from Candlemas to Christmas.

About the Author

Jane McMorland Hunter has compiled anthologies for Batsford and the National Trust, including collections on gardening, nature, food, friendship, books, London, England, and World War I. She also writes nature, gardening, cookery, craft, and children's books, and works at Hatchards Bookshop in Piccadilly. At various times she has also worked as a gardener, potter, and quilter. She lives in London with a gray tabby cat, in a house overflowing with books, surrounded by a small garden overflowing with plants.