This volume comprises 190 poems by 133 poets: old favourites such as Tennyson’s ‘The Song of the Brook’ and Wordworth’s ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ are joined by 20th century poetry from both sides of the Atlantic, with writers including A.R. Ammon, Wendell Berry, Carol Ann Duffy, U.A. Fanthorpe, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion, Sylvia Plath and William Carlos Williams. Poets muse on the particularity of rivers, use the river as a metaphor for life’s journey, from spring to the sea of unknowing, and explore the magical qualities of water, its transformations and patterns. Yet in Britain our rivers are still retreating from a post-war onslaught: the lowering of water tables, draining of water meadows, chopping down of trees and destroying wildlife habitats. This book reasserts the timeless importance of rivers to our environment, to the poetic imagination, and indeed to life itself.

This volume comprises 190 poems by 133 poets: old favourites such as Tennyson’s ‘The Song of the Brook’ and Wordworth’s ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ are joined by 20th century poetry from both sides of the Atlantic, with writers including A.R. Ammon, Wendell Berry, Carol Ann Duffy, U.A. Fanthorpe, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion, Sylvia Plath and William Carlos Williams. Poets muse on the particularity of rivers, use the river as a metaphor for life’s journey, from spring to the sea of unknowing, and explore the magical qualities of water, its transformations and patterns. Yet in Britain our rivers are still retreating from a post-war onslaught: the lowering of water tables, draining of water meadows, chopping down of trees and destroying wildlife habitats. This book reasserts the timeless importance of rivers to our environment, to the poetic imagination, and indeed to life itself.