Customer Reviews

This Is My Beloved

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I first came across this work late one night when my father, just in from a very long hard day of work, sat in our dark living room nursing a short glass of scotch while Arthur Prysock's recording of This Is My Beloved spun on the turntable. The captivating words, though not yet understood by my young mind, wove a spell about me as I sat in my pajamas there in the hallway, unwilling to disturb my father in that quiet moment. Years later, when I lost the first love of my life. I asked my father about the record. He strode over to his cabinet - the one with all of his 'priceless' records - and put the tattered record jacket into my hands. As he handed the record to me, he rested his other hand on my shoulder and said, "Son, if you must love, love like this". Those words, especially from a man that didn't usually have much to say, touched me deeply. The sheer poetic power of Benton's words and majesty of his unique phrases also has touched me deeply over the years. It eventually led to a lifelong love of literature and a degree in English Literature. As with other masterpieces that speak to the soul, I discover a new gem with each reading. Throughout my life and loves, I've never been without a copy. It's the quintessential definition of love's pain and the bittersweet memories it leaves, like the tang of a lemon on your tongue. ..and as for the music, the recording by Prysock is now in my "priceless" cd collection, but I do have another copy, unopened, for when my son loses his first love.

"This is my Beloved," published during WWII, captures the full sense of the emotional and physical aspects of a doomed love, the joy of time together and the despair at the end of the affair. This is continued in the second volume, "No Greater Need," which is out of print. Both should be required reading for those who understand or have experienced such deep committments or who have lost their soulmate. One reviewer noted that "This is my Beloved" was recorded by Lawrence Harvey, and this is true. It was an excellent reading. However, there is a second recording, done by Arthur Prysock. It is a censored verson of Benton's poetry (some of the more descriptive lines left out and some poems merged in the reading) and Prysock does not always read the lines as one would expect, but it's still captures much of Benton's emotion and the musical background adds a lot. It's worth the few bucks for the CD.

This book is a sensual look of how a man sees a women when he loves her. I recomend this to all my fiends and feel it is some of the best poetry I have ever read and as a creative writing major I have read quite a few pieces of poetry.

This Is My Beloved IS my favorite book of poetry. Walter expresses love so completely. The true depth of love when it is real, honest and free. I absolutely love this book. I feel his words. This book has touched my heart. I've read it a few times and it can still bring tears to my eyes and evoke passion within me. I want to be loved in such a way. So deeply. I highly recommend it....especially to all hopeless romantics.

This book took my breath away-
I gave it to my fiancee as a birthday gift in August 2000-
he carried it with him- everywhere even on the plane-on business trips to Europe-he said that until he fell in love-he would have never understood it-but if you are madly in love-it is so moving it is almost hurtful.
Sometimes it is so moving- he had to stop reading-one just read a few pages at a time.
He died suddenly on February 18, 2000-
and this has great meaning for me.

Mark Hamilton enscribed a copy on 3 July 1964 To Jeanne, My Beloved, Mark. This birthday was like no other. Reading the words, seeing the images and feeling beloved stopped time. The blush from head to toe as I was younger in years and knowledge than I am now, recurred each time I read this book. It has been on the shelf for years now; periodic readings have not diminished the force of feeling beloved or loving another as Walter portrays. I picked it up 2 December 1997, noticed for the first time such details as printed in 1943, reprinted twenty nine times and, of course, Knopf name which always spelled quality to me. Curious as to whether this book could work its magic, I read August 9 entry about the forgetting in each season, a favorite, and wept. Reading the other journal entries of love found, lost, found and lost ever more, I came here to order another copy or two as the magic continues. I have been learning to write poems by writing them. Walter's poems suggest I have a ways to go before my beloveds over time are as well enshrined.

Seldom have I ran from the truth. This book-these words made me run and weep that I had never experienced such completely transforming love. I so aprreciate the opportunity to live in someone eles's joy knowing that the pain that he describes will only be his. This is the greatest writing of passion and emotions to ever be rendered on paper and every one who would love should go by here first. "... to be loved to sleep." The appropriateness of the thought beads sweat on my forehead.

This is My Beloved - A story of love found, love lost, and love remembered. This is the only book of love poetry (with the possible exception of Hafiz) I will need for the next 100 years. When Walter fell in love with Lillian he tapped into something amazing. I've had this book for about 10 years and it has never stopped blowing me away. With every reading I discover a new favorite passage. Gentlemen, sit down with a beautiful woman and read her this book...but only if you want to blow her mind. A passage of this book was recited in the movie "Cooley High." About 20 years after this was first published in 1968 the baritone jazz singer Arthur Prysock did an album where he recited select passages of this book. He did a great job, if you like the book check out the Prysock version.

I stumbled upon Walter Benton's books years ago, and have read through them many times since (this one, along with his other 'masterpiece' ~ "Never A Greater Need"). What I find so disarming about both of them is the fact that they were written in the 1940's! To think that a man could be so articulately erotic on love and sensuality from that 'era' is astounding to me!

One thing you come away knowing for sure (after reading these books) is that he truly loved his lady, and that she was probably the 'luckiest woman' around in those days! What a lover he must have been, and I feel sure that she was very 'grateful' to have known such love, and to be involved with such an aficionado on the subject! He makes the reader "feel" his deep, sensual love and need for her ~ so, if we [the readers] feel these 'feelings,' we can only imagine how she was able to receive his love and adoration for her!

What beautiful words and descriptions in these pages! So much better than anything around these days! O, that it were 1943 and if I had read these books, I would go searching the world over for Walter Benton myself! I want to 'know' a man like this! Every woman wants to! If you haven't read these aforementioned books, make sure that you include them in your library -- especially if you're a 'romanticist"! They are not to be missed, and you will never forget them!

One more romantic favor you might do for yourself, purchase Herbie Mann's CD called "The Family Of Mann: First Light" it contains the complete words from "This Is My Beloved" read by the late English actor, Laurence Harvey. He puts a beautifully poetic/erotic touch to this masterpiece, and I love reading the words along, as he speaks them!

We have nothing that even compares to these books today, and if you don't own them, you should buy them and place them on a permanent spot on your nightstand, to read and reread many many times over!

There are two striking characteristics in the relationship between Lillian and the author... first is the overwhelming commitment to Lillian (images, many of sexual nature, described with intense, vivid intimacy) and, second, the abject destruction of the author as the long affair with Lillian disintegrates bit by bit, complete with a failed attempt at reconciliation...