Best Poetry Collections for Beginners
In short: Start with an anthology: Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins, was built for people who think they don't like poetry. For one poet, try Mary Oliver's Devotions (nature, clear language) or Billy Collins (funny and easy to follow). For contemporary voices, Ada Limón, Ocean Vuong or Rupi Kaur. Save Plath's Ariel and Whitman for when you're hooked.
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Most people's idea of poetry comes from school, where the poems chosen are often old, dense and analysed line by line. Plenty of poetry is nothing like that. The books below are clear on first reading, and the order runs roughly from easiest to most demanding. Read a few poems at a time, aloud if you can, and skip anything that doesn't land.
Anthologies: sample first
Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins (2003). Collins made this while he was US Poet Laureate, choosing one short, clear contemporary poem for every day of the school year. The best single starting point for someone who thinks poetry isn't for them.
Staying Alive, edited by Neil Astley (2002). A big, popular anthology of "real poems for unreal times," arranged by themes like love, grief and survival. Good for dipping into.
Easy to love
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (2017). Oliver chose these herself from five decades of work: geese, ponds, grasshoppers and the question of what to do with "your one wild and precious life." Plain language, deep feeling.
Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins (2001). New and selected poems that start somewhere ordinary, a library book, a dog, a class, and end up somewhere surprising. Often funny, never obscure.
Contemporary voices
The Carrying, Ada Limón (2018). Poems about fertility, illness, horses and the natural world, written in calm, conversational lines. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Limón was later US Poet Laureate.
Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong (2016). The legacy of the Vietnam War on a family, and growing up queer in America. Some poems are experimental, but most are direct and devastating. It won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2017.
Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur (2014). Short, often single-sentence poems about love, abuse and healing, first self-published and then a huge bestseller. Critics call it simple; for many readers, simple is exactly the point. A good on-ramp.
Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine (2014). Prose poems, essays and images about the small and large moments of racism in daily American life, addressed to "you." It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry and reads in an afternoon.
When you're ready for more
Ariel, Sylvia Plath (1965). Published after her death, with "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus." Fierce, brilliant and dark; it rewards rereading. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman (first edition 1855) is essential American poetry, but long: start with "Song of Myself" rather than the whole book.
Our verdict
Get Poetry 180 and Devotions. Between them you'll find out which kinds of poems you like, and the poets in Poetry 180 will tell you whose collections to read next.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rupi Kaur good for beginners? Yes for accessibility: her poems are short and direct, which is why Milk and Honey sold millions. Critics find them slight, so if you enjoy her, try Ada Limón or Ocean Vuong next.
How should I read a poetry collection? Slowly, and not in one sitting. Read a few poems a day, read the ones you like aloud, and skip any that don't speak to you.
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