As I get older I have a greater appreciation for poetry. I enjoyed this because it reintroduced me to some poems I haven't encountered since school, as well as many that were new to me. The illustrations are the really joy here. Peters does not stick to any one style of artwork, but seems to let the poetry take his art wherever it needs to go. I also like that he included the text -only version of the poem after each illustrated version. ( )

Spring 2020 / Netgalley;

This was a gorgeous read from start to finish. Julian Peters has collected together dozens of the most well known and lauded poems of the decades, setting each to comic, but not only that. Each comic's design, style, and layout is different from all of the others around it, and it's chosen specifically to fit the feel and messages of each of the poems. I deeply, deeply, deeply loved read this. ( )

I enjoyed this one, and have recommended it to others.

I have only recently discovered the joy of graphic novels, never having read comics in my youth. I really enjoy reading poetry from time to time and hadn't come across all these English poems before, some very classic (in language) and others more modern. A range of different art styles are used, from black and white to watercolours. Many are very striking; some with similar themed interpretations of the words. It would be really interesting to see different comic artists contribute to such an anthology and see the differences in interpretations.

I found it useful that the full poem was listed after the comics as my head filled with images and I wanted to absorb the poem both with the images and then without.

The book also made me want to explore some of the poets and poems further. ( )

This is an interesting book. I love the premise - comics and poetry make such a natural pairing that I can't believe it hasn't been done more often. And there is a decent variety of works to be found here, and the artist explores a number of different styles, taking care to match the art to the poem.

A few downsides: one is that the artistic interpretations here are extremely literal. The other is that this book would have benefited greatly from being a true anthology: having a single artist means many similar interpretations over and over again, and similar choices made. (Did we need two Emily Dickinson poems here? In a volume already dominated by white folks?) Having different comic artists interpret different poems would have been a great improvement.

But overall this is a good book and not quite like anything I've seen before. I'd love to see more like it in the future. ( )