"For those of us north of the equator, winter officially arrived last week. The early darkness and the chill in the air demand a change in our habits. For many, the season provokes an unmistakable turn inward-toward our warm homes, or the loved ones we see on holidays, or meditative thoughts that, in other times of year, might be crowded out by the light and noise of the world."
"Perhaps saying so is sentimental, but these feel like the perfect days and nights for poetry. The form can capture, perhaps better than any other, the muffled quality of cold afternoons and days spent indoors. Its winding paths of language can describe both the season's comforts and its harsher qualities. As 2025 winds down, we've selected some poetry to accompany you through the last days of December."
"Once, after an epiphany in a high-school class, my best friend declared that she had made up her mind to study literature in college. This was years ago, but I remember that day well: She said that analyzing a Darío poem had made her realize how beautiful an arrangement of words can be. Many of his works double as fairy tales, and have been adapted into children's books."
Winter's early darkness and chill prompt inward habits focused on warm homes, holidays with loved ones, and meditative reflection often crowded out during brighter seasons. Poetry excels at capturing the muffled quality of cold afternoons and the contrast between seasonal comforts and harsher elements. A curated set of poetry collections offers companionship for the last days of December, matching different wintry moods and encouraging slower reading before busier times return. Personal memories of encountering Darío show how translated poems can preserve dreamlike, hypnotic qualities and sensual imagery—nightingales, angels, silks—that make certain collections ideal for evenings beside the hearth.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]