A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature.
“Does anyone know more about poetry than John Carey? Almost certainly not.” – The Times, Best Books for Summer 2020
What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special, so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work - over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. This little history is about some that have not.
John Carey tells the stories behind the world’s greatts most wonderful and I LOVED it!' *****