I bought a few poetry collections and one anthology for people as gifts according to their interests and internet recommendations, and it made me want to try to read poetry. I have never done this before outside of the very minimal and shallow level in school. I'm not looking for an academic style anthology (there are a couple common suggestions that are considered good because they often serve as the main anthology for intro poetry college courses) but also don't mind some context about each poem, especially if something specific was going on in the author's life or when it was written in response to a particularly relevant piece of history. I think I would prefer an anthology (multiple authors) over a collection because I want to get an idea of what authors and styles I like. I don't care if the poems selected are the author's most famous or landmark or anything like that, I just want them to be good and approachable.
I tend to enjoy themes such as nature, grief, the seasons, love, siblinghood and friendship, and morality. I tend not to enjoy themes like eroticism, racism (I just read a bunch of this for a class), and poems that are purely religious. I think I would enjoy some about the feelings in religion, but I don't really want to read an entire anthology praising God, for example. Also, the themes are just guesses based on what I've enjoyed from other media, but I don't actually know what kind of poetry I like. I also like silly or whimsical stuff.
I don't know if there's a better sub for this, since all of the poetry subs I could find looked to be about posting actual poems. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'm looking forward to your suggestions. Thank you.
by OurCommonAncestor