Family Lines

Poems About Parents and Parenthood

Simon Armitage, Rachel Bower

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571365067
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

A companion for life, this anthology is filled with unforgettable poems by, for and about parents.

Poems about parents and parenthood have been written throughout history, exploring the relationships that remain eternally familiar yet endlessly unfathomable. Family Lines traces this rich tradition, presenting diverse perspectives on subjects including pregnancy and arrivals, loss and letting go, mothers and fathers, ageing and farewells.

Simon Armitage and Rachel Bower's marvellous selection stretches from antiquity to the present day, bringing together adored classics and extraordinary contemporary poems. See how life is transformed following childbirth according to William Blake, Sylvia Plath and Liz Berry. Christina Rossetti, Philip Larkin, Mary Jean Chan and Selima Hill offer differing perspectives on mothers. There are powerful father-and-son encounters from Homer as well as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Li-Young Lee and Roger Robinson. Tony Harrison, Anne Carson and Fawzia Muradali Kane are among those wishing farewells.

Whether measured in 'sweet-wild weeks' or 'obstinate, exhausted mornings', through 'sharpest pangs' or 'each minuscule miracle' - this anthology illuminates what connects us across generations.

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• ‘I am the ship in which you sail’: PREGNANCY AND EXPECTATIONS
• ‘I think I’m going to have it’: BIRTHS AND ARRIVALS
• ‘I crossed the border into the Republic of Motherhood’: BEGINNINGS AND EARLY DAYS
• ‘Let the rivers pour over my head’: ABSENCE AND LOSS
• ‘A kind of faith prevails’: GROWING UP AND LETTING GO
• ‘To thee my lay is due’: MOTHERS AND MOTHER FIGURES
• ‘Only a dad with a tired face’: FATHERS AND FATHER FIGURES
• ‘We her children hold on like drought holds out for rain’: CHANGE AND AGEING
• ‘& the whole garden will bow’: FAREWELLS AND RENEWAL
• Thomas Hardy, ‘Heredity’
• Simon Armitage, Afterword
• Acknowledgements
• Index of Authors
• Index of Titles and First Lines
• About the Editors
• Copyright