Though our National Poetry Month celebration is still a few months away, today our friends across the pond are having their own national poetry celebration with the U.K.'s National Poetry Day.

National Poetry Day was founded in 1994 by English poet William Sieghart as “a day of mass celebration of all things poetical.” Sieghart is also the founder of the Forward Arts Foundation, a national charity organization committed to increasing awareness and appreciation of poetry through their initiatives and programs, including National Poetry Day, the Forward Prizes for Poetry, and the Forward Book of Poetry, an annual anthology of the year’s best poems.

This year’s National Poetry Day theme is messages. Find out more about the Forward Arts Foundation and National Poetry Day on the foundation website.

In honor of National Poetry Day and the important role English poets have played in the tradition of American poetry, we’ve created this new collection featuring poems, books, essays, and more from classic and contemporary English poets.

browse English poets and poetry

find out more about National Poetry Day