The RHS Book of Garden Verse

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free collection of poetry.*

I am a huge fan of English gardens and poetry, the combination of both thus was quite nice. You find a lot of well known poets but also some lesser known ones. I overall enjoyed most of the poems, I'd say. The illustrations work well with the poems.

The only criticism is that most poems are very old and mostly very white and English. Sure there is more out there?!

4 Stars

I absolutely adore this book and will buy it once it is released so as to have it in my home library. The combination of verse and illustration is well executed. Each of the poems evokes a sense of a place, a season, a feeling or more. Starting with verses from Ecclesiastes and moving through poets in many time periods this book is an engaging resource. Gardeners and flower lovers, those who enjoy poetry, give this one a look!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of both plants and poetry I was excited to dive in to this beautiful volume. The poems are taken across the length of history, from the Bible to Modernist works, which kept the collection interesting. I do wish there had been a little more diversity in the breadth of the selection though, I would have loved to read more poems in translation, for example.

The illustrations selected pair beautifully with the poems and make this book a real pleasure to leaf through. I imagine many gardeners would be delighted to receive this book as a gift.

A perfect read for garden and flower lovers!
This collection of poems takes you back to the era of Romanticism when nature was its own goddess and embracing her beauty was a common past time.

Prose of the Garden

This is a beautiful book of pictures and poetry relating to the garden. Flowers, bugs, fairies and the garden in general, from trees to bees. It consists of a collection of famous poets.

I love the illustration and the poetry contained in the book. It’s a lovely calming read for a quiet afternoon or a few minutes waiting for something such as an appointment. If you love poetry, if you love gardens, or both you will fall in love with this book.

Many thanks to The Royal Horticultural Society, Quarto Publishing Group, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this lovely book for an honest review.

Uncomfortable with their intimate dependence upon plants, human beings have asserted dominion over their lowly green companions. For generations, from Gilgamesh's whacking at the holy Cedar Forest, to the expulsion from Eden, to medieval botanists collecting herbs for their signatures to healing, to Charlotte de la Tour's explication of flower dialects, to Luther Burbank's seed catalog, and Monsanto's genetic insertions into corn and soybeans, humans have considered plants as cultivars and instruments, like pebble-tools, fire, querns, or rototillers. Uncomfortable with the thought that plants might be transcendent beings with long-term strategies of their own, most humans maintain a strictly I-It relationship—except for poets. Decorous in the best sense of a well-matched counterpoint of the verbal and visual, the Royal Horticultural Society Book of Garden Verse, published by Quarto in the Frances Lincoln collection of illustrated gardening books, is a splendid addition to the long tradition of miscellanies and anthologies of horticultural verse. Happily neither comprehensive nor predictable, but concise and surprising, it is like a country walk, welcoming inquiry at every turn. The expected favorites make an appearance—Kilmer's Trees, Herrick's Cherry-Ripe, Housman's Loveliest of Trees. But all is not cowslips and golden daffodils. Here also find Sharon Olds' lowly slug with its gelatinous trail, Sylvia Plath's mushrooms who "shoulder through holes", and the weedy patch that will not yield, no matter how much Housman "hoed and trenched and weeded." The prints are as dramatic as they are apposite to the text. With no sign of desiccated, flattened specimens or botanical preciosity, the roses and marigolds float from page to page like greetings from a country walk to Colley Hill or Banstead Heath. Like Edwin Morgan's "strawberries/ like the ones we had/ that sultry afternoon/ sitting on the step," these prints and poems make a sweet gift for the gardener with muddy knees and for the wintry-minded bookish naturalist who takes her greens in water-colors, in this garden of diction, you will find palms with island dialects and low plants with American vowels, mingling with the verbal cataracts of English Romantics, and the word-intoxicated intensity of Elizabethans. References to other works, like the poem, "April," from Vita Sackville-West's The Garden, will lead, like the "couch-grass throwing shoots at every node" into the larger company of green beings with lives and minds of their own. #TheRHSBookofGardenVerse #NetGalley
--Richard L. Rose Review: https://frameshifts.com/ Author Site: https://formsofresistance.com/

See links at https://www.facebook.com/Richard-Rose-335826440462518, https://twitter.com/Frameshifts/status/1344047011176329217,

An ode to anyone who loves gardening. Beautiful illustrations in poetry commemorate the garden and the gardener. I adored this book.

An absolutely exquisitely crafted book that I intend to buy in hard copy as soon as I can to fully appreciate its beauty. I struggled a little to access it but had very helpful advice from Alicia in the Netgalley team from the other side of the world which kind of added to its charms. It is rather old fashioned in its choices ( Clare, Cowper, for example ), but again that adds to the delight.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Alicia in particular for the opportunity to experience this beautiful book.


I

This is a lovely poetry book for garden and nature lovers. It's composed of poems about gardens, plants, seasons and creatures from a period of several hundred years. They are decidedly American and British poets with a few rare exceptions. Poets include Shakespeare, Alfred Noyes, Ogden Nash and Sylvia Plath, plus a Bible excerpt or two. Most are in the public domain. Each poem is illustrated with an illustration from the RHS collection, which is a nice touch. Like all collections, the poems will be hit or miss in terms of being enjoyed by the reader. There were many longer ones especially that I didn't care for but I found a few new gems. This will be a good book to own in a physical version and look through on a lazy afternoon, either in the garden or snowed in inside and dreaming of it.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

It is tempting to review this book by simply offering a series of quotes. For everyone’s favourite garden poem is somewhere in here. Plus a good few that will be new to many.
There is humour too as in the poem ‘Capability Brown’ by William Cowper. The owner of the recently made-over garden smiles,
‘‘Tis finish’d, and yet, finish’d as it seems,
Still wants a grace, the loveliest it could show,
A mine to satisfy the’enormous cost.’
Or Vita Sackville-West’s The Garden which sneaks in a put-down of Wordsworth:
‘The sheeny celandine that Wordsworth praised
(He was no gardener, his eyes were raised’)’.
My own favourites are all here: Ecclesiastes ‘To Every Thing there is a season; Browning’s Home Thoughts from Abroad, Keats, To Autumn, Blake’s Ah Sunflower!, Marvell’s The Garden and more.
But I also discovered Gael Turnbull’s A Fragment of Truth and John Agard’s Palm Tree King with its trenchant criticism of the number-crunching, sight-seeing tourist industry:
If 6 straw hat
and half a dozen bikinis
multiply by the same number of coconut tree
equal one postcard
how many square miles of straw hat
you need to make a tourist industry?
This is a five-star collection, beautifully illustrated and organised by seasons, gardening, plants, creatures, gardens, past, present, future.
I highly recommend it as a classic anthology for your reference shelf.

I have to start mentioning the cover: I loved it! It is really beautifyl

I say that I found these poems clear and to the point. The author I expected the least to show here is Dorothy Parker - I didn't even know that she had written poetry. There are also other unexpected sides of gardening, as the mentioning of bugs and bees. And when I read them, I thought Of course! they belong to the ecosystem of a garden.

My favourite poems are a close draw between Plath and Keats, and my least favourite, the Sheakespeare one. It was the most difficult poem for me to read, and the one that didn't flow at all.

On a more touchy-feeling side of my opinion, my mind wandered several times to spring and summer and I absolutely LONGED for winter to end. And the pandemic. I also want that to end. This book was a consolation.. Spring will show up as usual later in the year.

Sorry if I haven't mentioned the illustrations. An excellent edition. Quarto has nailed it!

What a beautiful book!

Structured by theme, including Seasons, Plants, and Gardens, each poem is paired with a stunning illustration from the RHS Lindley Library.

The poets are mainly of the English literary canon. Likewise, the gardens and nature they celebrate will be familiar to British readers.

This collection will appeal to lovers of gardens, poetry and botanical art. A great gift idea.

My thanks to NetGalley and White Lion Publishing for the ARC.

This anthology, which marries classic garden poems with illustrations from the Royal Historical Society's own art collection, is an undeniably beautiful book, fit to grace anyone's bookshelf.

While the verses selected for this anthology are unlikely to offer anything new to poetry-lovers, the illustrations - be they woodcut or watercolour - are all worth spending time with in their own right. And while the poetry may be familiar and unchallenging, it has been thoughtfully selected: relatively recent poems from the likes of John Agard and Sharon Old sit very comfortably alongside Rossetti, Milton, and even Bible verse.

A wonderful gift for nature-lovers who dabble in poetry, poets who dabble in gardening, or those who simply admire a beautiful book.

The RHS Book of Garden Verse is a beautifully curated collection of poetry accompanied by garden related images from the RHS' Lindley Library collection . Due out 2nd March 2021 from Quarto on their Frances Lincoln imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is such a restful and lovely book. The images are varied and beautiful and the poetry is well curated and classic. The selections are arranged roughly thematically: seasons, gardening, plants, creatures, gardens, and past present & future. The poetry and the illustrations represent a broad range of styles, schools, and times. There are selections from incomparably famous poets and writers (Dylan Thomas, Coleridge, Browning, Kipling, the Bible, and many more) as well as ones who were previously unfamiliar to me. The illustrations run the gamut from 14th century woodcuts to 19th century botanical prints, and on to the 20th century.

The book also includes a couple of useful appendices in the form of first lines from the included poem offerings along with an image index.

This would make a superlative gift for a gardening friend (or oneself), as well as a lovely acquisition for public library, and gardening club lending library use.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is a wonderful collection of old poems grouped around nature, plants and gardens. I love such poems, so to be totally honest with everyone here, making me love such a collection is not that hard. Especially when it's combined with the most beautiful horticultural illustrations one can imagine. In a way this are two collections for the price of one: one of poems, and one of illustrations.

This gorgeous book from the Royal Horticultural Society combines poetry and exquisite illustrations to celebrate all things garden. From classic verse to later poetry by Plath and Parker, this compilation makes a fine gift for the gardener in your life who prizes verse.

4 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 02 Mar 2021
#TheRHSBookofGardenVerse #NetGalley

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a wonderful collection of old poems grouped around nature, plants, and gardens. I love such poems, so to be totally honest with everyone here, making me love such a collection is not that hard. Especially when it's combined with the most beautiful horticultural illustrations one can imagine.
This gorgeous book from the Royal Horticultural Society combines poetry and exquisite illustrations to celebrate all things garden. From classic verse to later poetry by Plath and Parker, this compilation makes a fine gift for the gardener in your life who prizes verse. There are poems on the subject of bees and insects, plants, and even the garden of Eden and the accompanying illustrations, from the RHS' own botanical art collection, some of which are colour and some merely black and white, each complement the poems effortlessly and help create an exquisitely designed book that was a pleasure to read and enjoy and if anything it's a reminder of all the beauty we will be able to re-acquaint ourselves with fully when the current situation eventually come to an end.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group/White Lion - Francis Lincoln for a temporary digital copy via NetGalley of The RHS Book of Garden Verse in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of poetry curated by the RHS that celebrates the garden. The poems are arranged in six themed sections: the seasons, gardening, plants, creatures, gardens, and finally past, present, future. It draws on a wide selection of poems though most are what I would describe as classic poetry, rather than more modern or experimental forms.

Each poem is illustrated with a botanical print, a hand-coloured or black and white engraving, or a watercolour drawing. These all come from the collection of botanical art at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library, which is acknowledged as the world's finest horticultural library.

I will admit that I often find poetry impenetrable with the result that I shy away from it. Yet I was very pleased to find that this collection proved very accessible.

This really looks to be a beautifully presented book and as a result I have ordered its hardback edition for my home library to encourage myself to explore its poems in greater depth.

This is a book that would make a perfect gift for a gardening enthusiast.

The RHS Book of Garden Verse is a delightful anthology of poetry for anyone interested in gardening, or nature poetry more generally. The book is divided into sections such as Seasons, Gardens, Creatures, and Plants, and features an array of classic selections alongside the work of some more recent poets.

Here you will find old favourites from W.B. Yeats, John Clare, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, John Milton and many others. The choices tend toward the buoyant, making this a fitting volume to pick up as we enter spring. A perfect collection to dip in to when you've a quiet moment. And, adding to the charm, colourful botanical illustrations feature on almost every page.

I received an advanced digital copy for review, though if the RHS' previous publications are anything to go by, the physical copy will be beautifully printed. Recommended.

This is a beautifully illustrated poetry book. The poems are very traditional and evocative. It would make a lovely coffee table book, something to enjoy now and again, rather than all in one reading. There are six sections: Seasons; Gardening; Plants; Creatures; Gardens and Past, Present, Future, creating a good, balanced variety. Thank you to the RHS, Net Galley and Quarto Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The RHS Book of Garden Verse is a stunning anthology of poetry encompassing pieces from a wide range of talented wordsmiths. A plethora of prominent, much-loved poets grace these pages with their green-fingered and timeless offerings, including contributions from Keats, Alfred Noyes, Ogden Nash, Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath, to name a few. There are poems on the subject of bees and insects, plants and even the garden of Eden and the accompanying illustrations, from the RHS' own botanical art collection, some of which are colour and some merely black and white, each complement the poems effortlessly and help create an exquisitely designed book that was a pleasure to read and enjoy and if anything it's a reminder of all the beauty we will be able to re-acquaint ourselves with fully when the current situation eventually come to an end. It would make the perfect coffee table book or gift to grace the shelves of those keen gardeners and nature lovers among us. I cannot recommend this highly enough.