Death Poems

Death Poems – Classic, Contemporary, Witty, Serious, Tear Jerking, Wise, Profound, Angry, Funny, Spiritual, Atheistic, Uncertain, Personal, Political, Mythic, Earthy, and Only Occasionally Morbid.

Pretty much every poet in every age has written about death and dying. Along with love, it might be the most popular subject in poetry. Yet, until now, no anthology has gathered the best and most famous of these verses in one place.

This collection ranges dramatically. Withmore than 320 poems, it goes across all of history, from the ancients straight through to today. Across countries and languages, across schools of poetry. You’ll find a plethora of approaches – witty, humorous, deadly serious, tearjerking, wise, profound, angry, spiritual, atheistic, uncertain, highly personal, political, mythic, earthy, and only occasionally morbid.

Every angle you can think of is covered – the deaths of children, lost loves, funeral rites, close calls, eating meat, serial killers, the death penalty, roadkill, the Underworld, reincarnation, elegies for famous people, death as an equalizer, death as a junk man, death as a child, the death of God, the death of death . . . .

You’ll find death poetry’s greatest hits, including:
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
• “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman
• “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas
• “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” by Walt Whitman
• “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

Paperback
328 pages