The Calling of Kindred Poems from the English-speaking world | Cambridge University Press

The Calling of Kindred, published by Cambridge University Press in 1993, collected poems from 17 countries, ranging from Australia to Zimbabwe, divided in 5 sections.  How the poems are divided, I struggle to find some reason.

Poems from familiar names such as William Wordsworth and William Shakespeare were chosen, as were poems from names unfamiliar to me such as Gillian Clarke and Philip Larkin.

Somehow, in those faraway pre-pandemic times, reading poems might be seen as odd, with people rather spending their times on IG and Youtube videos.  As I continue to remain unable to be physically anywhere else, poems now offer an escape from the neverending news on vaccines into long forgotton times.  Though I must admit poems take a lot of work to read and understand.

Some poems connect more than others, and I'm listing down the most "connecting" poem(s) from each section.  I suppose I can't reproduce the poems here due to copyright restrictions, so I will just list the titles.

SECTION A

The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb (10 Feb 1775 - 27 Dec 1834)

I had no idea this is such an old poem (until I googled about Charles Lam), yet the feeling evoked by the words seem to leap across time and still feel so relevant and current.  I suppose as I grow older, this poem may resonate with me even stronger.

SECTION B

You're by Sylvia Plath (27 Oct 1932 - 11 Feb 1963)

The first line of this poem feels happy, and sets the tone for a brighter poem compared to Plath's other creations.  What a way to describe her unborn baby without ever explicitly indicating that the poem is about an unborn baby.

SECTION C

Folding the Sheets by Rosemary Dobson (18 Jun 1920 - 27 Jun 2012)

Is this merely about folding sheets or about people from different civilizations coming together (hopefully with no prejudice and discrimination against one another)?

SECTION D

The Tiger by William Blake (28 Nov 1757 - 12 Aug 1827)

I've known this poem since I was a child (but I have no recollection when I first heard/read it).  Yet it is with a shock that I realised that the original version is spelt Tyger (old English) instead of Tiger.  I wonder why the editors of the Calling of Kindred chose to spell it as Tiger instead of the original Tyger?

SECTION E

In This City by Alan Brownjohn (28 Jul 1931 - )

I live in a city too, and sometimes it feels like in a big city, we go back to our cubby holes and forget the existence of each other (Zoom meetups notwithstanding).