Customer Reviews

English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The price is certainly right. I used this book to teach a high-school poetry class. The selection of Blake is the weakest part of it: the selections from Innocence and Experience aren't ample enough to give a real sense for the book, and exclude some lyrics that I just couldn't do without (e.g. the "Holy Thursday" of Experience). The complete lack of notes (which originally I thought of as a plus :->) led to some unnecessary pain for students -- I remember one attempted close-reading of "The Extinction of the Venetian Republic" which toiled slowly through the poem, dealing with mysteries that wouldn't have been mysterious at all if there had been even a brief note on the political context of the poem.

On the plus side, there is not a bad poem in the whole book: every rift is loaded with ore. And it's an attractive paperback, nicely typeset, comfortable in the hands: it doesn't feel like a cheapo-cheapo book, which you'd rather expect from the price.

Dover Thrift Edition books are known for providing classical literature for a great price, without abridging the material (unless they say so of course). This anthology is no exception. The best poets of the English Romantic period are included, including two of my favorites, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Keats are also represented quite liberally.

Don't expect too much of this anthology outside of the actual poems themselves though. It is a Thrift Edition after all. The paper is strong, but not of the highest quality. There are brief introductions to each of the poets, but no real commentary or notes on the poems themselves. The editor does translate some of the ancient languages that the poets occasionally employ, like Latin and Greek. At the end there is an index of first-lines and titles. Also, I have to say, that these are not "romantic" as modern readers often use the term. "Romantic" refers to an era of art, music, philosophy, and literature where artists and writers allowed their emotions to overflow using a whole host of symbols, creating great works that owed more to the depths of the Imagination than the rational intellect. Coleridge was himself a theologian and philosopher and expressed many of his ideas of Imagination and eternal Symbol in his poems. Overall, this is a good sampling of some of the finest poetry available. Factoring in price and quantity, it is definitely 4 stars.

I think most readers know what they are going to get with a 'Dover edition or reprint'. An attractive, spartan looking volume( It has changed in recent years and their volumes are more colorful) without extensive commentary or note. The works themselves.
In this case it is a collection of the poetry of the great Romantics, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Byron.
There are of course many anthologies of this poet, most with more elaborate notes and explication.
But I love many of these poems so much that I am happy to see them again in any new edition.
The poetry of the English Romantic period is among the greatest Mankind has.
On that basis primarily I would recommend this volume.

If you like a small, lightweight decent anthology of English Romantic Poetry, this is it. Nice quality for the price and less bulky than so many of the volumes of English Romantic Poetry.

I was teaching the "English Romantics" to a small class of students. I needed something cheap. This did the job although it has no footnotes or annotations to the text. Introduction to each poet is helpful but limited in scope.

Bill Kurry

I have had this inexpensive Dover Thrift Edition anthology of English romantic poetry for many years. I keep it on a readily accessible shelf in my office and browse in it for inspiration. It is always a pleasure during a harried and wearying day simply to hold this little volume in my hands.

The book consists of a generous selection of 123 poems from six English romantic poets: William Blake (1757 - 1827); William Wordsworth (1770 -1850); Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834); Lord Byron (1778-1824); Percy Shelly (1792 - 1822); and John Keats (1795 - 1821). The book also includes a short introduction by editor Stanley Appelbaum, who has edited several books in the Dover series, together with a brief sketch of each poet.

For each poet, the selections include both short and long poems. The selections are extensive enough that they go beyond the familiar and will introduce most readers to works that are likely unfamiliar to them. The Blake selections include short poems from both "Songs of Innocence and "Songs of Experience" and other short lyrics. They also include longer works such as the "Proverbs of Hell" from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." Blake remains my favorite poet, and it is always good to be reminded of him. For example, here is Blake's short poem, "Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau", (p. 10) for my own edification and, I hope, to whet the reader's interest.

"Mock on, Mock on Voltaire Rousseau
Mock on Mock on! tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind
And the wind blows it back again

And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine
Blown back they blind the mocking Eye
But still in Israels paths they shine

The Atoms of Democritus
And Newtons Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore
Where Israels tents do shine so bright."


The Wordsworth selections include a collection of sonnets, the famous "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey", and selections from "The Prelude". Coleridge's inexhaustible "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is given in full together with "Kubla Khan" and other works. The Byron selections include several short love lyrics, including "She walks in beauty" together with selections from "Don Juan" and "Childe Harold". The Shelley selections include the great sonnet "Ozymandias" and the "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", "The Cloud" and "Adonais: an Elegy written on the Death of John Keats." Keats himself is represented by his four great odes and by sonnets such as "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" and "Bright Star."

As other Amazon reviewers have observed, this book includes little in the way of background, commentary, or analysis. The volume would not be suitable for scholarly purposes or, probably, for introducing high school or college students to this great poetry. But the Thrift Editions are not designed for these purposes. For readers who want an inexpensive, easy to handle and reasonably large selection of poetry from the English romantics to read from time to time and to refresh their hearts, this volume is ideal.

Robin Friedman

It has some of the best poems i have ever read in them! there is a need to buy this book if u are hopelessly devoted to love poems!