Poem Research

While In leeds I took the opportunity to do some primary research and see what Waterstones covered in terms of poems and how they represented in existing books and their pages.

There is an awful lot of gold foiling used within this section of books, on the front cover and on the spine. Certainty to enhance their perceived value, seen as though they're are just pages of poems. It's done to further the agenda that poems simply aren't a lower art form.

However with books like above, which make it look more accessible for the working class by making it  look simpler and stand out with the colour hierarchy and block text. Here is a book that is devoid of any gold foiling or decoration with it's main purpose to educate how to understand poems. It's audience is clear and voiced very clearly.

While below there is two contrasting book covers for Lord byron's poems, one incredibly greek looking decorated book with the other a plain penguin classics book. The plain penguin book being accessible with a portrait of Lord Byron. While the other is something you'd buy to look nice on your coffee table. It is a lovely book cover none the less, but it illustrates Lord Byron's poems a lot more then the penguin. In doing so it gives it a more luxurious feel rather then a simple anthology of poems does. More personal and what not.

Almost all of the pages of the poem books, where all rather plain, even in the decorative books. They have a more consideration put into the front cover then the actual contents. Although, yes they are set out nicely, they could be a bit more creative with it.

There really is an awful lot of foiling going on with these books. It's like every other book has it.

Foiling.

Foiling.

Foiling.

Foiling.

Foiling. 

(Although not a Poem book, I still really like the decoration on this book, would be very fitting within the Poem section.)

Foiling.

This was probably one of the nicest laid out poem books internally, pictures to compliment the poems, big coloured poem titles. The lot. It enhance the poem a lot more then been surrounded by multiple other poems. 

As well as having their own chapter pages.

Black Foiling.

Not sure if the above was a poem book, but the cover of this book is really convincing.

Not poem books, but these were all interesting in their own right. Penguins Shorts. The calligraphy lettering here is used to a really great effect coupled with embossing, a lot of work into such a little book.