Finished reading 2025: Poetry for the Many by Jeremy Corbyn 📚

As both a Corbyn and poetry fan, this was an easy Christmas gift to get me. Some of the selections feel a little too on the nose but in the current political and social climate, perhaps that’s necessary. The themes of social justice, community, and the power of the many against the tyranny of the few are more relevant than ever.

The book introduced me to poems I’d never read before, and maybe would never have sought out. And I guess that’s the point. Some of these voices, though not always widely known, have long spoken to the struggles we still face today. The world seems to be getting darker by the hour, but it is reassuring to know that these fights aren’t new—and that history reminds us that light always finds a way through.

My favourite discovery in the book was Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth by Arthur Hugh Clough. It captures the perseverance and hope that define movements for change, reminding us that even when progress feels slow, it is still happening.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.