Customer Reviews

Robert Francis: Collected Poems 1936-1976

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I first read this collection of poems when I was in high school. The students in my poetry class had to choose a poet to study. I had a feeling from the beginning that I would choose Francis, even though I toyed with Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsburg at first (both a little too raw for me). I finally picked up this collection and opened to a random page. I read a poem and was subsequently charmed. I read the surrounding poems and was equally pleased.

His earlier work is very structured and traditional and rather sedate. As he ages, his poems loosen the binds of tradition and, in his own words, "some are positively frisky." But his subject remains constant-anything and everything New England. If you compare 'Mountain Blueberries' (p 39) to 'Blueberries' (p 269) it is almost like seeing a single object from different angles.

Most of his poems are rather short, fitting two or three on a single page, the exception being 'Valhalla' (a good 70 pages), his only long poem. A very nice book of poems to have around when your attention is constantly being diverted. Most of his poems are quite happy and satisfying to read, with an occasional venture towards deeper and darker things (See the Three 'Sister' poems, p 20-22).

Good for people who enjoy the works of two other Amherst poets (Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson).