Review Detail

POEMS FOR TORTURED SOULS is a wonderful collection of poems from a myriad of poets both classic and relatively modern, compiled by Liz Ison.

This book is brimming with beautiful poetry that mainly fits into one of five categories: love, heartache, revenge, folklore, and peace. Any poetry lover or tortured soul will find solace, clarity, heart, and beauty in the pages, and Taylor Swift fans will adore the playlist that Liz Ison included in the back of the book.

Poets include Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, and many, many more. These are all some of my favorite poets, and I was especially excited to find a handful of Sara Teasdale poems as she is unequivocally my favorite female poet and I rarely see her delightful work included in anthologies of this kind. 

I would have loved to see more lesser-known voices added and celebrated, but as this is predominantly a collection of some of the most famous poets that anyone can recognize, I still enjoyed it immensely. The range of poets from different periods is remarkable. The ancient poetry of Sappho to Edna. St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) and everything in between is highlighted.

Poems for Tortured Souls is truly a unique and beautifully compiled anthology of some delightful poets and their best works. I highly recommend it to all poetry enthusiasts.