World's Best Poetry, Volume 3: Sorrow and Consolation (Part 1)

Since the beginning of language, humans have turned to poetry when words fail us. This volume gathers some of the finest English-language verse on life's hardest passages: the ache of love that wouldn't take root, the sharp pain of goodbye, the dark seasons that seem they will never lift, and the terrible weight of loss. But this is not a book of despair. These poems trace the arc from grief toward grace, from isolation toward the strange comfort of knowing others have stood in the same darkness. Edited by Canadian poet laureate Bliss Carman and featuring an introductory essay by theologian Lyman Abbott, the collection spans centuries of voices united in one purpose: to give form to sorrow and, somehow, to transfigure it. Whether you return to these pages after a loss or simply to dwell in the company of those who understood that grief and love are never far apart, this volume offers what poetry has always offered humanity: the assurance that no feeling is too heavy for language, and no loneliness lasts forever.