The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time [Paperback]

Leslie Pockell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003

Words of Love ...and seduction, heartbreak, adoration, and passion. Here in this portable treasury are the 100 most moving and memorable love poems of all time, each accompanied by an illuminating introduction. Revisit the Classics: "He Is More Than a Hero" by Sappho Sonnet 18 ("Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds") by William Shakespeare "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron Enjoy Old Favorites: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear "When I Was One and Twenty" by A. E. Housman Make Surprising Discoveries: "Your Catfish Friend" by Richard Brautigan "To Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein "Valentine" by Donald Hall "True Love" by Judith Viorst Carry this book wherever you go. It's a perfect companion to read alone or to share with that special person in your life. The 100 Best Love Poems of all Time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Entering the tradition begun with The 100 Best Poems of All Time and The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is Leslie Pockell's anthology The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time, offering measured doses of cupidity. Working with Adrienne Avila and Katharine Rapkin, Pockell takes readers from Dante's Vita Nuova to love works by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Milton and by Rabindranath Tagore, Wislawa Szymborska and Frank O'Hara through to Gregory Orr, Judith Viorst and Sandra Cisneros.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446690228
• ISBN-13: 978-0446690225
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and Classic, March 30, 2006

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time (Paperback)

How can I keep my soul in me, so that it doesn't touch your soul?
How can I raise it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote lost objects,
in some dark and silent place that doesn't resonate
when our depths resound. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Leslie Pockell has created a collection of 100 Love Poems in order to explore the many facets of love's expression. The poems range from passionate longings to realistic portrayals (Judith Viorst's True Love). There are images of love's transcendence and safety. Everything from ecstasy to grief is included. Classics like To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe are very familiar.

The River Merchant's Wife by Li Po brings elegant beauty and Strawberries by Edwin Morgan dips into memories of storms while eating strawberries in sugar, one of my all-time favorite poems because of the ending. Katherine Mansfield's poem about tea is warm and satisfying. The flow and rhythm in many of the poems is especially comforting.

The wide range of emotions within the poems also allows for a few moments of sarcasm (Love 20 Cents the First Quarter Mile by Kenneth Fearing) and even humor that is adorably funny. Your Catfish Friend by Richard Brautigan is witty and cute and looks at love from an especially creative perspective. This allows for poems with personality and lightens the heavier content and melancholy love often reveals.

Complete poems and extracts mingle effortlessly through the pages. Each poem is accompanied by an insightful explanation that also sheds light on historical facts and the life of the poet. In Love Song by Rainer Maria Rilke we learn of his lifelong melancholy and Leslie Pockell explains how he is conscious of the distance between lovers playing an "essential part in sustaining the mystery of love and life." Her ideas flow with the poems in a beautiful celebration of poetry. She gives only enough information to introduce the poem and does not provide extended commentary.

Poets featured in this collection include: Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Howard Moss, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Burns, Robert Graves, Rumi, Sir John Suckling, E.E. Cummings, Frances Cornford, Sir Philip Sidney, Guillaume Apollinaire, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Walt Witman, Pablo Neruda, William Blake, Robert Frost, Catullus, Octavio Paz, Tzumi Shikibu, Sylvia Plath, Li Po, D.H. Lawrence, John Keats, Ted Hughes, Margaret Atwood and many more...

There are 100 poets featured in this book. Whether you are a hopeless romantic or enjoy thinking about the many aspects of love, this book has much to offer. I can almost guarantee you will find 5 poems to adore, 10 you want to read again and again and 20 new poets you are happy to have found.

~The Rebecca Review

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book of poems!, February 18, 2004

By 

M. Sheesley (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time (Paperback)

The title says it all. Great Poets with great love poems equates to a pleasurable read. If you like romance and love, then this book Love poems are for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great variety, July 5, 2007

By 

Geoff Hazel (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time (Paperback)

I like the variety of Love Poems in this book, from serious to ribald, from classic to modern. Also includes notes from the "author" which may offer some interpretive assitance.