This book like much of Atwood's work is a little disquieting, yet beautiful and precise. Many poems focus is on death which within a year marked by death or the threat of it is timely. But her poems of the wildness of nature definitely harkens back to her childhood yet can speak to even the most dedicated city dweller. The poems require interpretation sometimes but are well worth it.

I am not a poetry person, but I was willing to give this a try. I enjoyed some of the poems but to me, most of them felt like notes for a larger piece of writing that were begging to be expanded into a story. Some of the twists and turns were provocative, but others just puzzled me. I think Dearly was my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I thought this was very okay. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but I enjoy Atwood's writing so I thought I'd give this a try. Compared to other poetry I've read, this did not stand out very much.

Great example of why I try to read out of my comfort zone (and encourage others to do so). I'm not a huge poetry person and I didn't really enjoy the writing style of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, but I really enjoyed this! Enough that I'd consider purchasing a copy. As with any collection/anthology, some parts were better than others, but overall I enjoyed the themes/descriptive language.

Margaret Atwood's first poetry collection in ten years felt to me like a vignette of quiet thoughts and memories, with little secrets tucked inside and in between. Atwood has a talent to make simple passages feel palpable and real, admittedly to the point where I found myself repeating lines out loud to just see how they tasted. The poetry is tight, and rarely did I feel like it moved on to rambling, or if it did it felt honest and necessary and complete. I found myself most affected by a series of poems in the latter half of the collection that focused on plastic and the toll we ultimately will pay for the little niceties we collect/use in our lives.
Poetry is not typically something I delve into, but I would definitely recommend this collection to those who, like me, have enjoyed Margaret Atwood's work, or enjoy reading works that feel honest to the human experience/ condition. 4.5/5.
Thanks to Harpercollins and NetGalley for this digital ARC of this lovely poetry collection.

Is there anything Margaret Atwood can't write well? I have been in awe of her novels and short stories since I was in my late teens, but this latest collection of poetry shows that I have ignored a crucial part of her ouvre.

I bought the hardcover and the audiobook and allowed myself to be lulled by the author's words as I swayed in my hammock. Before I knew it over an hour had gone by and I was done with the book. The poems are wry, at times fantastical, and always sharp. This is a collection I will revisit and savor more slowly next time as I identify which poems are my favorites.

I enjoyed the Handmaid’s Tale but I didn’t know she wrote poetry. I was excited to dive into Dearly and thank NetGalley for the ARC. In all, I found this collection very endearing. I was highlighting line after beautiful line and taking the time to digest my favorites. Some poems hit me more strongly than others (I will probably never love zombies) and some hit me hard. None were too short or too long. I will likely reread several of these poems between now and it’s publication date.
#book review

I liked this poetry collection enough but I didn't love it. I also didn't connect to the poems which is important for me when it comes to poetry. Or to make me feel something. Even though, I didn't connect with them, I think others would enjoy it.

This new poetry anthology by the legendary Margaret Atwood is divided into sections and there were some sections that I really liked more than others. To be honest, there were times when I slogged through chapters and kept going only because I had an ARC to review and because it's Atwood. Towards the end of the book, there were poems that I really loved, though. The chapters aren't titled, but one of the later chapters deals with the environment and "Oh Children" was a really wonderful and heartbreaking addition to that.

Oh Children.

Oh children, will you grow up in a world without birds?
Will there be crickets, where you are?
Will there be asters?
Clams, at a minimum.
Maybe not clams.

We know there will be waves.
Not much needed for those.
A breeze, a storm, a cyclone.
Ripples as well. Stones.
Stones are consoling.

There will be sunsets, as long as there is dust.
There will be dust.

Oh children, will you grow up in a world without songs?
Without pines, without mosses?

Will you spend your life in a cave,
a sealed cave with an oxygen line,
until there's a power failure?
Will your eyes blank out like the white eyes
of sunless fish?
In there, what will you wish for?

Oh children, will you grow up in a world without ice?
Without mice, without lichens?

Oh children, will you grow up?

I bookmarked many of the poems in the later sections to come back to or share with family members. While some poems didn't do much for me, it's a great anthology with some poems that were so good it pulled the rating back up for me.

I read a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

“It’s an old word, fading now.
Dearly did I wish.
Dearly did I long for.
I loved him dearly...

Dearly beloved, gathered here together,
in this closed drawer,
fading now, I miss you.
I miss the missing, those who left earlier.
I miss even those who are still here.
I miss you all dearly.
Dearly do I sorrow for you.”


1.5 stars.

When I got accepted for the advance reader's copy of a book of Margaret Atwood's poetry, I was so excited I immediately opened the book up and started reading, eager to take in every word, every little story littered amongst the (electronic) pages. After about 15 minutes, I put it down and didn't pick it up for a week.

This anthology of poems was ... interesting. There is no question that Margaret Atwood is talented, nor that she is creative. She is definitely both of those, as her other works can attest. Her creativity shines through in her poetry, but they were so quirky they were almost ... too much. I'm not sure how to explain it beyond the fact that it sort of felt like I was reading a book by Roald Dahl but then there were mentions of sex and things that made it clear that the wackiness was not meant for children. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of poetry, whimsical, sort of random, sometimes very deep, but I am not part of it.

I was expecting something entirely different based on the flowery cover, the almost cutesy name, and of course a well-known author. This was not what I received. I think what didn't work out for me the most was how all over the place everything was. There was no underlying narrative (that I could find), no way to tie things together, honestly some of the poems that were even grouped together felt forced there. Out of the entire book, only three poems stick out to me (Songs for Murdered Sisters, Invisible Man, and the titular Dearly). Clearly, she has a way with words, this just wasn't the way for me.

Please note that I received an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Sorrow: that’s another word
you don’t hear much any more.
I sorrow dearly.”

Unfortunately, I do not have the comprehension skills to dissect and fully understand these poems. A lot of them sound really good, but without proper background and upstanding, I have no idea what these poems are trying to say.

This collection reminded me of poems that my English teacher would make us break down word by word and line by line. Unfortunately, I don’t have the attention span to do that anymore.

Overall, if you are looking for complex poetry, I would definitely start here.

When a conversation turns to Margaret Atwood's publications, most will not know of her poetry. She is an accomplished writer whose skills have drawn millions of readers into a world she created. Her poetry does the same. The poems range over a lifetime's topics, bringing us into her memories with vivid phrasing, sure to satisfy the hearts and minds of all readers. This would be an excellent gift for any age, I've several people of my holiday list that are receiving it.

I've loved Atwood's prose since discovering her works in high school (in the early 2000s). The way she tells a story is imaginative and grips you unexpectedly. Her poetry has the same effect, especially as time passes and I age into a deeper experience of life. This collection includes a variety of topics that string together to tell the story of life in today's world, though it doesn't dive into digital culture or current politics. Overall, I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes for a while.

"The hand on your shoulder. The almost-hand: Poetry, coming to claim you."

Wow! Wow! Wow! Margaret Atwood did not disappoint! This amazing book of poetry is deep, relevant, and incredibly smart. Atwood covers topics such as love, loss, nature, relationships, and many other things. Her choice of words makes the reader dive deeply into the feelings described. Even though I was never a huge fan of poetry, Dearly made me want to read more of it .... way more ....

A huge thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this e-book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Altogether, an eerie, beautiful, and haunting collection of poems and prose from one of the world's most iconic writers.

What am I supposed to say? I mean, c’mon, it’s Margaret Atwood. She’s a literary icon. Overall, every bit of poem and prose was well-written and compelling. Atwood takes the simplest pleasures or heartbreaks that life has to offer, and expands on them: spinning them into something beautiful in her legendary style.

Big thank you to Netgalley + Ecco for sending me a review copy of this book!

I hadn’t realized Margaret Atwood started as a poet, so I was interested to read her new poetry collection, “Dearly.” A lot of it reminded me of the Atwood I’m familiar with from “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Testaments”—powerful poems about violence against women and about a future dystopia resulting from climate change. But most moving for me was Part V, the last and seemingly most personal section of the book, filled with poems about aging and the mental and physical decline of a loved one, such as “Mr. Lionheart,” “Invisible Man,” “Within,” and the haunting title poem, “Dearly.” There’s much to enjoy in this collection (along with one strange bit on aliens which I really couldn’t wrap my head around), but it’s this final section of poems that I will most remember and come back to.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

Margaret Atwood's long-awaited return to poetry is rich with the usual concerns of poetry (life, death, love, nature), but there are political moments sprinkled throughout. Many of the poems are spiked with human failing, particularly our devastation of the natural environment. However, the collection is not earnest or preachy, and at times, it is quite haunting and beautiful. A welcome return of a strong poetic voice.

In this brand new book of poetry from Margaret Atwood, there's an assortment of compelling, impactful poems, each that tells a story full of compelling language. These poems aim to make you think, feel, dream, desire, yearn, basically all of the feels. There are some wanderlust motifs that make me just want to be able to travel again and messages about being remembered, which from story to story we will remember everything Atwood has shown us long after we've closed the book's pages. Each poem effortlessly flows from one to the next and the book is impeccably organized that I can see how poems and stories are related to each other thanks to seamless and well-positioned transitions. The tones and points of view are very realistic to the modern world, and while less doe-eyed optimistic, it skews on the darker side. There are rhyme schemes that just flow so well when you read these poems aloud. There's definitely a motif of sisterhood and women sticking together in their fight for survival, forgiveness, love, and strength and would you expect anything less from Atwood's work, because she does feminist writings very well at covering such meaningful themes. The poems have such rich language and captivating word choice that tells complex stories that capture the readers thanks to strong symbols and metaphors.

The artist, gently aging, looks back on her life so far and what does she see? Memories mostly, both precious and painful, of the small moments and the big events that have shaped her existence. Departing from the narrative formats by which most readers are likely to know her work, she chooses to express her reminiscences and messages through poetry. That turns out to be the perfect vehicle for the concise and introspective nature of the whole endeavor, even if it requires a little more effort from those of us who are unaccustomed to the genre.

In <i>Dearly</i>, Margaret Atwood offers more than five dozen (depending on how you choose to count some of the stanzas) short poems on subjects such as the tribulations of getting older and the pain of memory loss in loved ones, changes in our natural world, gender roles, animal rights, and heartbreaking acts of violence. These are clearly topics the author is passionate about and she brings a forceful and thoughtful approach to addressing them all, which is exactly what you would expect from one of our greatest living writers. What I did not expect was to be so moved by her poetry instead of by the more familiar channel of her long-form fiction.

While each of the poems in the volume stands on its own merit, I definitely had several favorites, including ‘Late Poems’, ‘Salt, ‘Souvenirs’, ‘Betrayal’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Songs for Murdered Sisters’, ‘Zombie’, ‘Invisible Man’, and ‘Blackberries’, to name a few. I was quite struck by just how powerful and personal some of these verses were, although I have to confess that it was not until I read them for a second time that I felt their real force. Of course, that is my shortcoming and not the author’s; you really cannot read poetry at the same pace or in the same way that your read fiction, which is something I had to remind myself of repeatedly. Still, for both Atwood devotees and those new to her work, <i>Dearly</i> is a book that merits attention.

This short volume of poetry from one of our great living authors was a delightful balance of clear, powerful imagery and esoteric reference. The topics felt both personal and universal. It was well organized, and contained some lovely language. This is a must read for Margaret Atwood fans or poetry lovers.