📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Bluebells from Candlestick Pres

Candlestick Press
May 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

One of the most beloved of British wildflowers, bluebells are a brief glory in our ancient woodlands. They appear in April or May and dazzle us for a short while with their scent and colour, making us think of other blue places such as the sea and the sky. No wonder they are also beloved of poets.

The ten poems gathered here offer heady encounters with bluebells in woods, on hillsides and under hedges. They reflect the fact that even if we go looking for them, bluebells always manage to astonish us:

“there! – a flood of sky in the under-wood,

thousands of cloudless blues on strings.

Wait for a wind to play them. Wait for them to ring –”

from ‘Bluebells’ by Cheryl Pearson

This is an anthology to read when the bluebells are in full bloom – and to return to later in the year when we long to be reminded of the intoxicating beauty of those glorious days of spring.

Selected and introduced by Katharine Towers

Poems by John Clare, Stanley Cook, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Helen Dumore, Sylvia Kantaris, Patrick Kavanagh, Cheryl Pearson, Anne Stevenson, Charles Tomlinson and Katharine Towers.

Cover illustration by Jane Burn.

📖My Review

From its exceptionally pretty cover, to the beauty of the ten poems about bluebells, this anthology is the perfect antidote to the gloom of winter as nothing suggests spring more beautifully than a carpet of delicate bluebells. I’m fortunate to have an ancient woodland nearby where bluebells have been undisturbed for many years, they carpet the woodland floor with a delightful delicacy, hushed and unhurried, stunning in their simplicity.

“No one can count the bluebells

That gather together

Until they fill 

The woods with waves of colour..”

from Bluebells by Stanley Cook

As a child, I remember gathering armfuls of bluebells and taking them home for my mother to put into vases, the air delicately scented with the crisp, sharp smell of flower filled afternoons in the spring sunshine.

“In every wood hedgegap they’re shining through

Smelling of spring and beautifully blue 

- Childhood & Spring now beautifully dwells

Their memories in the woods we now walk through..”

From Bluebells how beautifull and bright they look by John Clare

This is a delightful anthology of ten really lovely poems which celebrate the special beauty of our native bluebells. Welcoming the spring months of April and May, bluebells shimmer and dance in early morning light or weave and glow in the crisp spring sunshine. This beautiful collection is the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who loves the start of early spring, maybe celebrating a birthday or an anniversary or quite simply as a gift to one’s self as a reminder that beauty exists in the natural world, it’s there, to be found, in quiet places. A special shout out to the talented illustrator who has captured the beauty of the bluebell with a delightful cover and colourful end papers.

©️Jaffareadstoo 

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Twitter/X @poetrycandle 

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