Fatherhood:Poems about Fathers

A celebration of fathers and fatherhood, this one-of-a-kind anthology features the richly varied voices of daughters and sons, and of fathers and grandfathers themselves.

From eleventh-century Chinese poet Su Tung-p'o's witty On the Birth of His Son to Dylan Thomas's poignant Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, from Sylvia Plath's searing poem Daddy to Yeats's tender A Prayer for My Daughter, from Homer to Seamus Heaney, from Shakespeare to Milosz, the poets and poems collected here range across cultures and centuries and speak to birth, death, and all the facets of the father-child relationship. Gratitude, tenderness, and awe infuse some of the poems. Others express anger or sorrow. Many are moving tributes to the first man in a child's life. And each one conveys the profound nature of fatherhood.