Every now and then, Britain remembers its poetic past and decides to celebrate verse with a great fanfare. There is a new Poet Laureate, a fuss over Oxford’s Professor of Poetry, and BBC2 and BBC4 are showing a series of programmes examining poetry.

At the same time, Faber has published a six new hardback editions of 20th-century poetry, each with a specially commissioned cover, featuring poetry by WH Auden, Sylvia Plath, John Betjeman, TS Eliot, WB Yeats, and Ted Hughes.

The wipe-clean hardback covers reminded me of the textbooks that once filled the shelves in my 1970s primary school. The covers feature striking wood-cuts and the endpapers are colourful and clearly drawn.

I particularly enjoyed the Betjeman collection, introduced by Hugo Williams, and found for the first time the heart-breaking poem Pershore Station, Or A Liverish Journey First Class. The uncollected poem, 1940, was also a new discovery for me. Each volume costs £8 and looks built to last — a perfect way of celebrating Britain’s latest poetry renaissance.