April may be the cruelest month – rainy, muddy, and (at least in my part of the world) crusted with the evil yellow pollen – but it’s also National Poetry Month, so at least we have that going for us! I have fun choosing poems (and sometimes songs, like this week) to feature on Fridays every year, but this year I’ve been leaning in extra and reading poetry almost every day. It’s been a delight, of course, not least because there are some extremely pretty poetry collections floating around out there. At the risk of enticing you all to judge books by their covers, here are three sets that I’m loving.

Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets. First off, you can’t go wrong with a classic. The Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets collection is popular for a reason. The dust jackets are gorgeous; the small octavo size fits easily into a tote bag – or even a coat pocket – and the volumes are many, widely available, and competitively priced. I don’t have a complete set, by a long shot. But I’ve gradually added to my collection over the years, and I’ve got some gems. My favorite so far is Poems of Gratitude, which I’ve read multiple times (it’s a particularly good choice for around Thanksgiving); next up, I plan to curl up with Poems of Rome.

Candlestick Press “Instead of a Card” Collection. I saw these on BookTube and was immediately enamored. These slim volumes contain ten poems apiece on a particular subject, and come with an extra-large envelope so that you can mail them to a lucky recipient instead of a card. I believe they’re sold in bookshops in the U.K.; I ordered a handful from overseas, via BookDepository. I’ve read Ten Poems about Walking; Ten Poems for Spring; and Ten Poems about Birds thus far – I need to decide whether I’m more in the mood for baking or sheep next. I dream of the day someone actually sends me a Candlestick Press volume instead of a card. In the meantime, it’s BookDepository for me.

Faber Nature Poets. Of all the themes in the general poetic landscape, I am on record as preferring nature. And since apparently no one does poetry collections better than Faber & Faber, I was naturally intrigued (see what I did there?) by the Faber Nature Poets collection. The set of six volumes – this is a complete collection – features six different poets who focused their writing on the natural world: Wordsworth; Keats; Thomas; Clare; Hardy; Coleridge. Again, these are not widely available in the U.S. (so far as I know – I’ve never seen them in stores) but I was able to get them from BookDepository. I’ve only read the Wordsworth volume so far, but I’m looking forward to curling up with each one in turn.

Volumes of poetry don’t strictly need to be pretty, of course, but it doesn’t hurt. I love seeing these lined up neatly on my shelves, and I’ve been enjoying making my way through each collection in turn.

Do you enjoy collecting pretty volumes of poetry?