About the Book

  • Kirkus Most Anticipated YA Books of Spring 2026

This stunning anthology of favorite poems about our relationship with the natural world, visually interpreted by acclaimed comic artist Julian Peters, breathes new life into some of the greatest poems of all time.

These are poems that can change the way we see the environment, and encountering them in graphic form promises to change the way we read the poems. In an age of increasingly visual communication, this format helps unlock the world of poetry and literature for a new generation of reluctant readers and visual learners.

Following the seasons of the year and of life, Nature Poems to See By will also help young readers see themselves differently. A valuable teaching aid appropriate for middle school, high school, and college use, the collection includes favorites from the canon already taught in countless English classes.

This sequel to the artist’s award-winning anthology Poems to See By includes adaptations of poems by Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Wordsworth, Mary Karr, Robert Frost, Edward Thomas, William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Robert Burns, Rhina P. Espaillat, Joy Harjo, Alfred L. Tennyson, Matsuo Basho, Gwendolyn Brooks, Stevie Smith, Li Po, Carl Sandburg, e. e. cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, and Philip Larkin.

 

Book Trailer

Tablet of Contents

Summer

  • Daybreak in Alabama by Langston Hughes
  • Adlestrop by Edward Thomas
  • And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time (Jerusalem) by William Blake
  • Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare
  • Truth by Gwendolyn Brooks
  • Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

Autumn

  • Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath
  • There Came a Wind Like a Bugle by Emily Dickinson
  • To a Mouse by Robert Burns
  • Butchering by Rhina P. Espaillat
  • This Land Is a Poem by Joy Harjo
  • The Voice of God by Mary Karr

Winter

  • Three Haikus About the Moon by Matsuo Bashō, Masaoka Shiki, Ueda Chōshū
  • The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
  • Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith
  • Alone Looking at the Mountain by Li Po
  • Fog by Carl Sandburg

Spring

  • i thank You God for most this amazing by e. e. cummings
  • Sandpiper by Elizabeth Bishop
  • A Birthday by Christina Rossetti
  • The Trees by Philip Larkin
  • I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
  • God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Tags:
Graphic Novels
Poetry and Literary Fiction