Customer Reviews

Famous Love Poems Explained (Famous Poems Explained Series) (Famous Poems Explained Series Volume 1)

5 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Literary criticism at its very worst. Humorless and mired in the type of literary interpretation that has turned off young readers for generations. No wonder whoever wrote this is never named, it was most likely part of the contract. Worse yet, it might have been taken from some 1910 edition of a college poetry text now in the public domain. The choice of poems is limited to a few English poets, mostly men, no one from the 20th Century and only a few from the 19th. The poems themselves are fine even if the choices are not particularly daring. The explanation of Andrew Marvell's wonderful and sly "To His Coy Mistress" is weighted down with lines like "Haunted by death, he would seek transcendence in the fiery release of violent embrace, consuming himself in desperate and blind groping." Give it a rest, the guy simply wanted to develop a non-platonic temporary relationship. Supposedly there are more of these books coming out covering other types of poetry. That would be a waste of perfectly good trees. If zero stars were an option, this would get zero stars.

The book is really interesting because it not only has a great collection of classic love poems, but it also provides you with commentary and interpretations of the poems. Just the ticket for a romantic gift to my husband on our anniversary!