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Books We Read: Poetry

The third in our series promoting library resources for pleasure reading, this poetry appreciation guide will provide information on how to locate and enjoy poems available for Rutgers users.

Selected Titles from Rutgers Libraries: Click on the Image for More

Poets to Discover

Interested in trying poetry but not sure where to start? Here are some names to check out! Looking for more? Take at look at the New York Times' suggestions (subscription required, log in with your NetID)!

Billy Collins

Billy Collins is the first poet I recommend to people who think they don't like poetry. Dubbed "the most famous poet in America" by the New York Times, Collins writes witty, nimble poems, often on familiar topics––poems that are easy to love and rewarding to talk about and share. Enjoy his description of a "Snow Day," a childhood memory in "Boyhood," or thoughts about smoking and writing in "The Best Cigarette" (not recommended for those trying to kick the habit!). He was also a keynote speaker at the Writers' Conference in New Brunswick in 2020.

Robert Frost

Are you a stickler for poetry having some kind of regular regular rhyme or meter? Robert Frost is just the ticket. If you've been to high school in the United States you probably already either love or hate "The Road Not Taken," but "Acquainted with the Night" and "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" reward a second look (or listen) outside the classroom. As a bonus, Frost might also convince you to expand your horizons: "Birches" lacks a rhyme scheme or a strict meter but still conveys the pleasant rhythm of swaying trees.

Li-Young Lee

Li-Young Lee's poems often feel intensely personal, wrapped up with family and memory and religious experience. His frequently-taught "Persimmons" tells an immigrant child's coming-of-age tale through the prism of a fruit he associates with family and a distant home; "A Hymn to Childhood" paints a darker picture of childhood, a youth cut short by trauma and violence.

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith is a former Poet Laureate of the United States, whose poems show off a range of moods from playfulness and wonder to sorrow and melancholy. "The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," from her science-fiction-themed collection Life On Mars, imagines the Big Bang and everything after as an album. "Wade in the Water," from the collection of the same name, explores the legacy of slavery through the traditional "ring shout" of coastal Georgia and South Carolina's Gullah people.

Emily Dickinson

Famously, Emily Dickinson was unappreciated in her lifetime and beloved afterwards when her scraps of verse were discovered and published. Her 'poems' have no formal titles, and are conventionally known by their first lines. Try After great pain, a formal feeling comes or I heard a Fly buzz––when I died for the detached melancholy and sparse, precision-tuned language that she's best known for.

Selected Rutgers Poets

Check out some world-class Rutgers faculty and alumni poets!

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