The Best Underrated Poetry Books Everyone Needs to Read

Especially For People Who Don’t Normally Read Poetry

Can I tell you the truth? Even as a writer who creates poetry and took a college class to hone her skills in the genre, I find it hard to read poetry. Even though I gravitate towards it in the bookstore, I find it hard to know which poems are “good” or have a deeper meaning. Learning about poetry in an academic setting has always been easier for me, I enjoy annotating each line, finding patterns, and understanding the mind of the author. In my opinion, that is what one must do with poetry, not just consume it as fast as possible since there aren’t as many words on the page. Therefore, I get stuck on one poem and don’t graduate to the next. And sometimes, I think some poems are simply just words on a piece of paper.

It can be easy to tell when an author creates a poem just because the words sound pretty together, and then publishes the first draft. There could be a thousand different obscure metaphors for a past lover’s kiss, but an author should expand their whole book to more than just that.

This list, however, is a great start for those readers who don’t know which poetry books to pick up, wondering if they will understand the meanings, or worried that they will get too bored. This list is also perfect for avid poetry readers, as well.

Here I have compiled a list of five impactful, meaningful, and memorable books that I believe everyone should read…