Ten Poems About Babies

These ten poems have been chosen to help welcome a new baby into the world. They capture the joy of the new arrival, relishing the many ways in which life will be transformed and enriched. In the opening poem, the family home becomes a place of softness and calm:

“We brought you lambs’ wool with a memory.

of snow, the softest corduroy, felt, muslin,.

papooses and clockwork. Our flat filled up.

with a flock of cards…”

from ‘Newborn’ by Jenny Pagdin.

Not surprisingly, sleep and interrupted sleep are recurring motifs, and there’s tender humour in trying to keep the house quiet. Who would have thought washing flapping on the line could be too loud? These irresistible poems are a reminder that with a new baby comes a whole new world.

Poems by Niall Campbell, Sarala Estruch, Matthew Hollis, Jackie Kay, DH Lawrence, Sarojini Naidu, Jenny Pagdin, Christina Rossetti, Maggie Smith and Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows.