I can’t believe this isn’t done more often. It’s a magnificent way to experience poetry. Great for visual learners. Very diverse artistic styles. A great selection of poems. I hope the quality of the printing and binding reflects the work.

The poems chosen by Julian to illustrate are interesting. Mostly American and British authors, of the 19th and 20th century. Langston Hughes and Emily Dickenson are

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And even though it is all done by the same illustrator, the interpretations vary widly.

Even poems that I know so well, such as William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us" has a modern interpretation.

And although we have the poems in our heads, it is enlightening to see how others, such as Julian, sees these, and illustrates these. Breaths new life into things that thought we knew.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

What a great way to read poetry, especially those who may not like poetry. Graphic art accompanies each poem to illustrate the ideas, and makes great sense to visual learners. This is in short clips, like a book of short stories. This would be amazing to use with those with dyslexia, ESL students, reluctant readers, or those who have to read poetry but wouldn't be caught dead doing it. Loved this title. Would love to see more.

I LOVE the originality of the concept behind Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry. What a wonderfully creative, unique way to introduce/reintroduce some of the great poems to new generations!

Julian Peters' visual interpretations really help bring these "old" poems to life, and make them very understandable. I was immediately spellbound by the book and couldn't put it down until I finished it.

An absolutely delightful read. I'd like to see more of this type of book available to our youth. Well done, Julian Peters!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Plough Publishing House for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Inspired by the beauty of poetry, Julian Peters has created a wonderful collection of images depicting 24 classic works written by poets such as Emily Dickinson, William Ernest Henley, Maya Angelou, e.e. Cummings, Christina Rossetti, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Hardy, Jess Gallagher, Edgar Allan Poe, and more.

Peters said, "I wanted to pay tribute to the way these poems made me feel, to spend time with them, to pull them in as close to me as possible in the way that felt to me, as someone who draws comics, the most natural."

I read a digital ARC and some of the poems don't have artwork yet. I love the way Peters used different styles for each poem. My favourite is Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Poems to See By illustrated by Julian Peters is a collection of illustrated poems broken into groups of seeing -- nature, love, time, death and others. Julian Peters is an illustrator and comic book artist living in Montreal, Canada, who specializes in adapting classical poems into graphic art.

Many of the best poems are presented in the collection from Invictus to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  Some of the poems and art combine to produce emotions such as Conscientious Objector by Edna St. Vincent Millay others light and with a touch humor like e.e. cummings' May My Heart Always  be Open.  Maya Angelou's Caged Bird appears to be embroidered on a quilt, and watercolors illustrate Langston Hughes' Jukebox Love Song.  Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us is illustrated with a modern theme of cell phones, and Shelley's Ozymandias has a historical twist. 

Great poetry supplemented with a variety of art from pen and ink to manga gives an added appreciation to the original work and sometimes adds a modern touch or interpretation without changing the poem's intent.  A very well done selection of poems and inspiring artwork to match. 

Available March 31, 2020

This was a very pleasant book, although not one I would deem an urgent must-buy for either poetry lovers or fans of adapted works in graphic form.  It's a very canonical poetry collection, from cummings to Eliot and from 'Not Waving But Drowning' to a bit of death and glory from Poe of all things, and we get the plain text after each illustrated version.  But the key to the book of course is going to be the visual interpretations.  And these work, those that managed to surface before the cut-off for my e-proof sampler.  They are suitably varied, so the Heaney is desperately wind-blown and colourless, whereas Maya Angelou (yes, that one) gets the patchwork quilting circle approach.  But that's not to say more off-kilter choices have not been made – Wordsworth now comes to us via mobile phone messages and memes, which in this instance does actually work, as does the modern politics given to Ozymandias.  The media used vary suitably, too – a lot is nicely painted, or at least looks water-colour, only for Yeats to be dressed up like a manga.  Many times the text appears within the image as part of it, and not just as caption.  If anything knocked the marks down, I think it's a misreading of the Poe – I'm sure he enters her sepulchre for a nightly kip, and not just stays beside it like a lovesick sea otter waiting for a beachcomber – and that for all its merits it will probably best serve as the publishers suggest, as evidence for school use of how poetry can be reinterpreted by other creators.  It sounds daft to knock a book for doing what the publishers want, but I would have thought this format could perhaps have done more.

I really enjoyed the fresh and innovative techniques used by the illustrator and the diversity of different types of styles that were used. Some of the poetry was a bit bland for me the art was always exceptional.

Julian Peters' Poems to See By collects 24 popular poems and pairs them with illustrations drawn by Peters based on his interpretation of the poems' meanings.

I found this collection to be a refreshing reread of poems by Maya Angelou, Christina Rossetti, W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and others. While Peters included some of the most well-known poetry taught in high school and college-level classes, he also featured lesser-covered poets and their works, which I appreciated.

Peters' idea of illustrating popular poems will be useful for English teachers and poetry readers--close readings are enhanced by being able to actually see what is going on in the scene itself. His illustrations offer new images to go along with these poems, as well as a new spin on how to interpret them in more modern times.

I was shocked at how many different art styles Peters was able to do; they not only seemed to fit the overall style and tone of the poems, but furthered the experience of the reading. It was as if continued meaning was being given to them.

Overall, this is a book I'll be recommending to faculty who teach poetry and high school English teachers. I'm excited to go out and get a finished copy when it's released in March!

This book contains 25 classic poems converted into comics. I loved how the artist used different colours, panel structure and drawing style for each poem. Each comic is interpreted in a way that suits the theme of the poem.

As someone new to poetry and a comic lover, I appreciated how this book illustrated lines from classic poems as comics followed by the full text of the poem. This book would be of interest to ardent poetry lovers and poetry newbies alike.