Kelly's To the Place of Trumpets (1988) is a unique and startling collection that launched her career. Often tantalizing and ambiguous, its poems examine themes such as religion, death, and the natural world.

October (2004), by Louise Glück, who was the American poet laureate in 2003 and 2004, is a stark and direct collection of poems that often uses mythology to develop its themes.

Edith Hamilton's Mythology (1942) is one of the best available overviews of ancient Greek and Roman myth, and it is world-renowned because of Hamilton's flair for the subject.

Subterranean (2001), by Jill Bialosky, is a carefully crafted book of poetry about motherhood, grief, and desire that often makes reference to classical mythology in order to bring out its themes.