Ode to Love: 100 Great Poems of Love and Lust

The Good Book Guide’s Dannie Abse has selected 100 memorable poems to say ‘I love you’.

From the Song of Solomon, Catullus and Ovid, to recent masterpieces by the Irish Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and the British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, each poem is preceded by pithy, introductory biographical notes. With favourites from WH Auden, Carol Ann Duffy, Federico García Lorca and Jacques Prévert, this is a comprehensive collection to treasure.

From the thrill of a new romance to the knowing celebration of an enduring one, from the comedy of lust to the tragedy of profound loss, celebrated poets of past centuries and renowned modern ones confess their love, or beg for it or rage against it, sometimes with humour and often with elegance.