The power of poetry and plays to help us find courage, solace, and energy is widely acknowledged. In reading poetry we are free to extract our own meanings, and we accept that there is no one right answer. Plays bring to life the stories we tell, encouraging empathy and imagination.
Amanda Gorman's powerful and historic poem "The Hill We Climb," read at President Joe Biden's inauguration, now available as a collectible gift edition.
A new collection from Eavan Boland, a pioneering figure in Irish poetry who has been credited with inspiring a generation. This will be her final collection, following her passing in April 2020.
As the world celebrates and reflects on the beautiful life of Maya Angelou, Virago presents an updated collection of her works of poetry, collected together for the first time.
Seamus Heaney had the idea to form a personal selection of poems from across the entire arc of his writing life, small yet comprehensive enough to serve as an introduction for all comers. But now, finally, the project has been returned to, resulting in an intimate gathering of poems chosen and introduced by the Heaney family.
Set in the mysterious landscape of the bogs of rural Ireland, Carr's lyrical and timeless play tells the story of Hester Swane, an Irish traveller with a deep and unearthly connection to her land.
Thirteenth-century Persian philosopher, mystic, scholar and founder of the order of the Whirling Dervishes, Jelaluddin Rumi was also a poet of transcendental power. His inspirational verse speaks with the universal voice of the human soul and brims with exuberant energy and passion.
The definitive critical edition of Miller's tragic masterpiece featuring a comprehensive commentary together with notes and questions prepared by one of the leading international Miller experts in consultation with the author's estate.
An exquisite collection from a poet at the peak of her powers, A God at the Door spans time and space, drawing on the extraordinary minutiae of nature and humanity to elevate the marginalised. Extending the territory of her zeitgeist collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, these new poems traverse history, from the cosmic to the quotidian.
From a fountain where 'all the roads in the village unite', concentric circles expand into the distance: the young and old, fields, a river, a mountain - the fountain's stone counterpart, where the roads end, human time superimposed on geological time. This title evokes a Mediterranean world with luminous precision.
The poems in this new collection, by arguably the most important living Irish woman poet, seek out the delicate intersections between generation, identity, and the deep losses inflicted by history on those who can bear them least.
Intended for all readers of Shakespeare, this beautiful and ground-breaking book arranges Shakespeare's sonnets printed in 1609 in chronological order and intersperses the sonnets from the plays among them. A lively introduction provides essential background, while explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases illuminate the sonnets' meanings.
A representation of Irish poetic achievement in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from poets such as Austin Clarke and Samuel Beckett who were writing while Yeats and Joyce were still living.
In her first collection of new poetry since 2011's acclaimed Family Values, Wendy Cope celebrates 'the half-forgotten stories of our lives' with compassion, wisdom and wit.
Upon the publication of her posthumous volume of poetry, "Ariel", in the mid-1960s, Sylvia Plath became a household name. In addition to the facsimile pages of Sylvia Plath's manuscript, this edition also includes in facsimile the working drafts of the title poem "Ariel" in order to offer a sense of Plath's creative process.
This volume contains all of Sylvia Plath's mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963. It was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. An appendix contains 50 earlier poems.
A book of poems for adults. It combines a deep engagement with history, mythology and the natural world to forge a work of impressive and unsettling force.
A new play from Brian Friel whose previous works include "Philadelphia, Here I Come". Set over two days in a house just outside the Irish village of Ballybeg, the play tells the story of the five Mundy sisters, their brother Jack who is a priest and the illegitimate son of the younger sister.
The collection of a lifetime from the bestselling novelist and poet By turns moving, playful and wise, the poems gathered in Dearly are about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals. Due 10th November 2020.
Reissues Seamus Heaney's collection, which on its appearance in 1966 won the Cholmondeley Award, the E C Gregory Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
In her collection Dog Songs, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Mary Oliver celebrates of the unique bond between human and dog. Published for the first time in the UK, this is an essential gift for dog lovers of all ages.