Poems That Make Grown Men Cry Compiled By Anthony And Ben Holden

[amazon_link id=”147113489X” target=”_blank” ]Poems That Make Grown Men Cry[/amazon_link]’Poems That Make Grown Men Cry’ is an anthology of poems compiled by father and son team Anthony and Ben Holden in aid of Amnesty International.

It is said that grown men aren’t supposed to cry. But in this fascinating anthology, one hundred men – distinguished in literature and film, science and architecture, theatre and human rights – confess to being moved to tears by poems that haunt them. Representing twenty nationalities and ranging in age from their early 20s to their late 80s, the majority are public figures not prone to crying. Here they admit to breaking down when ambushed by great art, often in words as powerful as the poems themselves. Seventy-five percent of the selected poems were written in the twentieth century, with more than a dozen by women. Their themes range from love in its many guises, through mortality and loss, to the beauty and variety of nature. Three men have suffered the pain of losing a child; others are moved to tears by the exquisite way a poet captures, in Alexander Pope’s famous phrase, ‘what oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d’. From J.J Abrams to John le Carre, Salman Rushdie to Jonathan Franzen, Daniel Radcliffe to Nick Cave, Ian McEwan to Stephen Fry, Stanley Tucci to Colin Firth, and Seamus Heaney to Christopher Hitchens, this collection delivers private insight into the souls of men whose writing, acting, and thinking are admired around the world.

The anthology is a collection of poems chosen by artists, musicians, writers and other influential people who have favoruite poems that have touched them in an emotional way. Amongst the favoured pieces are poems by Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin and W.H. Auden, to name just a few but with 100 poems and each one with a brief introduction and reason as to why it impacted on the person’s life, there is something for everyone

This anthology is definitely a clever and interesting concept and one I that enjoyed reading. I found it to be a nice change reading poetry instead of a story and appreciated gentle flow of words. Sadly none of the poems made me cry but I did find myself getting a choked up at the poem called ‘For Ruthie Rogers In Venice’ by Craig Raine. A poignant and intense collection of poetry about love, loss and war ‘Poems That Make Grown Men Cry’ is an emotional read in aid of an inspirational charity.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”147113489X” target=”_blank” ]Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.

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