Poems Books

I am not usually a poetry reader but many of the poems in this book stopped me in my tracks. Marge Piercy knows how to get to the core of the matter and fully describes feelings and experiences I have had.

Here is an excerpt from Morning Athletes

"It is not the running I love, thump
thump with my leaden feet that only
infrequently are winged and prancing,
but the light that glints off the cattails
as the wind furrows them, the rum cherries
reddening leaf and fruit, the way the pines
blacken the sunlight on their bristles,
the hawk flapping three times, then floating
low over beige grasses,
and your company
as we trot, two friendly dogs leaving
tracks in the sand. The geese call
on the river wandering lost in sedges
and we talk and pant, pant and talk
in the morning early and busy together."

I bought this book about 18 years ago. For a little while it was on the shelf after I first read the poems. Then it came down. It's been unshelved for casual reading most of the remaining years. There are witty funny silly poems here. There are deep poems. There are honest revelations of different aspects of life. There are deep penetration into the nuts and bolts of love, into the politics of men and women. There are tears and laughter. There are mirrors to see and shar eyour own life and known you aren't alone, and neither is Marge.
Hope you can get the joy, the understandingt, the laughter and the humanity I got when I bought this book so long ago!

And not only that, but they are powerful and smelly and they MAKE MISTAKES. There is nothing more empowering than finding out that making mistakes is alright, and that was the strongest message I got from this book when I read it at the tender age of 15. It changed my life, ensuring that I would grow to tell boys "NO", and that I would tell myself "YES", and more than that, that I would be able to forgive myself for both of those answers. "Cats Like Angels" and "For Strong Women" should be required reading for all women, and everyone who LOVES women.

I like poetry with imagery that resolves into a shift in vantage point; this is something of which Marge Piercy is a master. The poems are in some aspects raw and gutsy, others are lyrical and meditative. I read "The Doughty Oaks" outloud to someone who also admired its tight imagery of a miser in rags, and the contradiction at the end of the poem. The last set of poems in the book are based on the Celtic Lunar calendar (in name only, this isn't Wicca) as a way for Piercy to celebrate the lunar calendar of the body and of the Jewish religion as well--whose festivals fall on lunar dates and account for our shifting Easter holiday. Well worth reading if you like poetry. This is one book I will be pulling off the shelf from time to time, to find new aspects of meaning.

My copy is the one dog-eared, worn volume always where I can find it on the bookshelf. Usually poetry volumes contain some winners and some losers, but I've read every poem cover to cover repeatedly, had favorites, sent copies to women who inspired me, and loved my copy in some rough times. Piercy's poems raise the bar for what women can be in poetry- hers are real- warts and all. And nevertheless, her first-person poetry makes those flaws both recognizable and even at times endearing. The tragedies are laced with revelation, the lovers are never perfect, and even Piercy's piece devoted to lost luggage evokes those little moments which become laughable and yet epic in their betrayal.

This book is a good buy even if you don't really plan to read a poem a day. This book is an excellent anthology that shouldn't be missed. As a student, I know that some poetry books can have some bad choices, but this book is not like that. Every poem is good and makes you think. You won't be sorry if you pick this book up.

I simply LOVE this book and pick it up every day to read a poem---that's how good it is. It's turned me on to many new poets and renewed my acquaintances with the old favorites. I was happy to see this gem on page 278 by Raymond Carver:

"And did you get what--- you wanted from this life, even so?--- I did.--- And what did you want?--- To call myself beloved, to feel myself--- beloved on the earth."

The power of the words shine through: the power of words to heal, strengthen, uplift, comfort, hurt, wound, enrage, succor and rejuvenate! This book is a celebration and a joy to read.

I enjoyed reading the words to Leonard Cohen's, "Suzanne Takes You Down", a favorite song from my past.

The poem, "from Jubilate Agno" written by Christopher Smart in the 1700's while in an insane asylum (about his cat!) was awesome and a must read for EVERY cat lover.

"The Falcon to the Falconer" by Jonathan Steffen blew me away. Here's a few lines:

"Unleash me from your hand--- And I will lance the light for you--- I'll cut a swordblade on the wind--- And pennant it with flight for you--- To signal I am yours--- If you will free me to be true to you. . ."

I could go on and on! I'm so happy that I found this book and recommend it highly!

If you like to read, you will delight in the book. If you enjoy words, you will revel in this book. "A Poem A Day" should be the next book in your library!

It does not matter if you have enjoyed poetry before today, because this is a splendid collection of poems especially selected to touch and tickle you. Poems of love and nature and joy and mundane; you will find yourself in these words.

The editors, Karen McCosker & Nicholas Albery, have done a wonderful job of selecting interesting and intriguing poems. The footnotes alone make the book worth the price because they only serve to draw you into the poets life, or experiences, or work.

I do not own or write poetry. I like words and reading. I love this book.

Read 'A Poem A Day.' You will regret not having this book yesterday.

This book, "Poem A Day", edited by Karen McCosker and Nicholas Albery has become a permanent fixture on my nightstand. It is filled with long forgotten favorites and new(to me) poetry that always stir me in some way.There are odes, sonnets, play excerpts and wonderful poetry to find a little escape and add something special to your day or night. Several from giants like Shakespeare, Shelley,Kipling,Bronte,Browning(Elizabeth and Robert),Emerson,Dickinson,Wordsworth,Tennyson,Plath are sprinkled throughout, and have a note pad and pencil ready, because you are sure to find new favorites, you will want to check out more closely as well.
Whatever your mood, you'll find just the right verse here. Romance, humor, deep thoughts, dirges,song lyrics, great play quotes and much more.

The poems, which range from olden days to contemporary, follow the calendar. Each day has it's own special entry, and has notes on the Author or the poem itself and usually has some special meaning for that particular day. For example, from Hamlet - Act III, Scene I, the great and celebrated soliloquy("To Be or Not To Be....") is given the March 16th page - "On this day in 1976, a performance with Albert Finney in the lead role opened the National Theatre in London, some 25 years after work on the building first started....."
Or on February 11th..Sylvia Plath's poem "Words", you not only get to drink in the beautiful poem but also learn that -"On this day is 1960, exactly three years before taking her own life Sylvia Plath had written to her mother and brother with news of her first book of poems, 'The Colossus', being accepted by Heinemann. 'Amaze of Amaze', she wrote.

So the book, not only serves to give the reader the beauty of the words of the Author's themselves, but on every page, you'll learn something new about your favorite. It will also open new doors to others you may be just discovering. The editors encourage you to study your favorites and make them your own. You can take just one a day,linger with your favorites, enjoy the pleasures to be found in the words, and maybe even take the time to memorize it. Or read several a day, whenever the mood strikes. There are treasures inside you can savour and then return to anytime.

A year's worth of wonderful poems, a lifetime to cherish. And yes, you even get one for February 29th - "Time Is..." by Alan Beam, born Feb 29th 1948
Enjoy....Laurie

I have been very pleased with this anthology, which is absolutely for people who love good poetry in a variety of forms and styles. Great selections by Yeats, Hopkins and Blake, and many poems that you may - like me - have loved once and lost, plus some that are less familiar but great finds. Happily no Rod McKuen or Susan Polis Schulz and also, happily, no T.S. Eliot. In other words, nothing mediocre, but also nothing effete and academic. McCosker is obviously very widely read, very open-minded, and has a love for the musical, the meaningful and the memorable. The notes on the poets are very good reading. Let's hope it will inspire some good poetry writing in the next generation!

My husband got a copy of this when he was younger, and we have it here at home and have read it to our 3 children countless times. It has great poems, and makes a great bedtime reading book since you can just read a short poem or two instead of a huge story book. Jack Pretlutsky is wonderfu, he is very clever and his poems are all so cute. I recommend everyone get a copy of this book! Its the top rated book in our house

My favorite book is Something Big Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky. It is a very very funny book of poems. My favorite is "My Fish Can Ride a Bicycle." It is about a fish that can do almost everything. If you like funny books, you'll like this book.

I first read this book when I was about 10 years old (I'm now 22.) Though I haven't even laid eyes on this book in at least 6 or 7 years, I can still recite by memory several of the poems, including "Something Big Has Been Here", "The Early Worm" and "I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies."

As a child I loved poems, but often felt Shel Silverstein's were too morbid (especially some of the drawings.) Though I'm a huge fan of his now, at the time Something Big Has Been Here was a wonderful, more mellow book of poems that really got me loving cleverly written poems.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is that even though it's written for children, it never talks down to them or oversimplifies emotions or actions. And it's funny enough that even adults can get a snicker or two.

This is an awesome book. The poems are very clever, funny and appealing to kids, along the lines of Shel Silverstein. The difference is the very sophisticated vocabulary that Prelutsky uses. I use a poem per week from this book for my remedial middle school students for oral reading fluency, plus I create our weekly vocabulary word list from words from the weekly poem.

This collection of Jack Prelutsky's silly and goofy poems is a must-have in any self-respecting poetry collection. The subjects of the poems range from mask-wearing earthworms to a room-trashing robot; from wishes to be bigger, to fishing in the desert. Children will laugh at the fearsome pirate "Captain Conniption," terror of the seas, who always obeys his mother. Many will sympathize with the longing of the boy in "My Brother is a Quarterback" who yearns to be a great athlete like his brother is.

"I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies" is an excellent example of the oddities of the English language. The poem turns such common phrases as "pocket change" and "coffee break" on their ears and makes them into something new. There are subtle puns on condiments in "We're Fearless Flying Hotdogs" (can you find the one for saurkraut?). The emptyheadedly happy expressions on the five flying franks make the whole idea even funnier.

James Stevenson's line drawings accentuate the levity and absurdity of the poems. His artwork for "An Elephant is Hard to Hide" demonstrates even better than words the impossibility of stuffing an elephant into a dresser drawer. The expression of glee on the face of the boy reveling in "Mold, Mold" is identical to expressions seen in mud puddley schoolyards.

This volume is a treasure for both children and adults. It's a great way to spend some time laughing with a child (or by yourself).

I fell in love with this book when I first perused it many years ago at the house of a friend. Whenever I would go over there I would grab it from off the shelf. It was very old, so I never suspected it was still in print. Needless to say, I was thrilled to obtain my own copy, which remains on my bedstand.

I love this book. The poems are great and I can find the poems that Anne says in the movie, "Anne of green Gables" and "Anne of Avonlee" I love the poems. I like These are the Times That try Mens Soals.

My father had an old copy of this book that he read as a child. He loved to read his favorites from this book, or simply recite them from memory. They are classic rhyming poems. Another favorite book of mine is "Poetry for a Lifetime", a beautiful volume which includes a number of these poems, including "Plant a Tree" and "Home". It has a much larger number of poems and is illustrated and has comments from the editor. I highly recommend both books.

I read this book as a child 40 years ago. The poems in this book are timeless classics. I look forward to sharing them with my own children.

This was my Dad's poetry text at college in the thirties. Every Christmas during his life he would read the 'holiday' poems to our family. I have carried on the tradition for my children and grandchildren and each year they await the reading of 'Bairnies Coodle Doon' and 'Jes for Christmas', two wonderful stories that bring forward the lives of children of a hundred years ago. If tradition is important to you and if you want to introduce your family to poetry as America knew it for the first 200 years, this collection if highly recommended.

Beautiful Moments of Joy and Peace by Connie Arnold is exactly what the title says. A collection of fifty-two lyrical poems illustrating the small wonders we can enjoy everyday, if we just stop long enough to appreciate them. Whether her subject matter is the beauty of the seasons, or the wonder of a small child, or God's love for us, Connie Arnold creates poems that speak truths to the heart and soul. This would be a wonderful book to have on your shelf for those moments when you need a little emotional boost, or when you just need some help finding a speck of calm in the chaos.

Review: By Author Nancy Lee Shrader
IS IT NOW? The End of Days!
IS HE MESSIAH? Messianic Prophecies!
The Curse of Mayweather House

Beautiful Moments of Joy and Peace
By Connie Arnold
Rated: 5-STARS

Connie Arnold has written a beautiful book of poetry. While reading Connie's book for this review, I found her poems just like the title of her book, a beautiful moment of joy and peace. Leaving my review desk, I was soon curled up on my sofa with a feeling of healing calm. In each poem, I felt God's love for all of man and womankind and personally for me. I must admit that I have read Connie's book several times. I keep it close for times that sadness darkens my heart. Only a couple of months ago, my seven year old grandson was near death and I found comfort in Connie's poetic words. The Lord Is My Shepherd on page 40 and How Great the Love on page 34 and Gifts from God on page 32, became very special for me at that time. I could list many others, but that would make this review longer than Connie's book. Anyone who feels the love of God in their lives will love this book of poetry. Thank you Connie, when I read your poetry, my heart sang.

"Beautiful Moments of Joy and Peace," by Connie Arnold has to be some of the most inspiring, encouraging and uplifting poetry that I have ever read. There is a God given message in each of Connie Arnold's poems, and there is music in poetry as well as beauty and Connie Arnold has so elegantly shared that music and beauty with her readers. Life is hard and has lots of pain, sadness and frustrations, but "Beautiful Moments of Joy and Peace," will bring you back to the true source of joy and peace, which is our Heavenly Father. Christian based, Godly poetry is hard to find and that is what sets this book above the rest. You will want a copy of "Beautiful Moment of Joy and Peace," for your personal library as you will find yourself reading this book time and time again, be refreshed and finding you way to the beauty that God has created.

Tom Ward, author
The Enemy Within
Outposts of Hell or Portals to Heaven
Now, What's Next?
Was Satan Ever an Angel in Heaven?
If My Peopl

WOW! Great job, if anyone feels low, sad or depressed this book would be the perfect medicine to make it all better! Her poetry is truely refreshing and inspirational! I recommend it to everyone for a fresh outlook towards life and everything it involves, I think she covers it all! May God Bless you Connie!

So much of my current work day is hectic with deadlines filled with stress. These poems are a very pleasant read and help me to slow down and remember the important aspects of our life. I especially like that the poems have positive outcomes that leave me with a happy felling that all will be well. Everyone can use some inner peace in their lives.

Kay Gerlach

After checking out Divine Comedies at the library and reading a few chapters of The Book of Ephraim, I knew I was willing to read the entire epic of The Changing Light at Sandover. Nearly six months later, after having read and reread Ephraim, Mirabell, Scripts and the Coda (the four sections of Merrill's magnum opus) I am ready to pass judgement. This epic is great but probably not GREAT. It requires a very heavy investment from the reader, not unlike Dante's Divine Comedy, or Joyce's later work. This investment pays dividends, but not the astronomical sort that one hopes when one is flipping through an opera dictionary, trying to discover Merrill's point.

Sandover is full of allusions, contradictions, and virtoso poetry, the latter being why I highly recommend it. As the other reviews tell you here, Merrill, elitist that he is, has not made the work accessible. Which is fine. So here is my short list of writers to be familiar with before you read it: Dante, Homer, Auden, Pound, Eliot, Proust, Wagner, Merrill's earlier work, Blake and Yeats. I also highly recommend Robert Polito's A Reader's Guide to The Changing Light at Sandover, which is more of a handy index followed by a compilation of reviews (including Bloom's and Vendler's) than say, a line-by-line explication of the sort available for Pound's Cantos. Thankfully, The Changing Light at Sandover does not require that.

The Book of Ephraim stands alone and whether you like it will probably be the best gauge of whether you will like the whole of Sandover. Mirabell I found very difficult going and, in all honesty can probably be skipped, like most people skip Purgatorio. Scripts for the Pageant is much more fun and The Higher Keys is really of a piece with it, tying up the loose threads. For all my pessimism, this really is the best modern epic I've found, a thousand times better than The Waste Land or Blake's prophetic works, or even Milton's Paradise Lost. The poetry and storytelling are so overwhelmingly confident that, once you have assimilated the scattered references, it is easy to get carried away. Large questions of free will, life after death and the nature of love are tackled with wit and sincerity. I'm glad I bought it and have it on my bookshelf. Since I put in the sweat, it is now a treasure-box I can open at any time.

There was a lot of attention given to Merrill when his Collected Poems came out, so I went out and read it. (The fact that I hadn't heard of him before should indicate that I don't read a lot of modern poetry). What was astonishing was how effortlessly the poems read, how thoroughly Merrill had mastered the technical aspects of the craft. The poems read as smoothly as prose, but line after line stayed in the memory - and when you went back you realized what a complex and subtle rhyme scheme many of the poems had.

But for some reason, there was a lot I could admire but very little I could love. They didn't just feel like exercises in style, but there was something too cool and smooth about their surface: there wasn't enough humanity in them.

The same isn't true of The Changing Light at Sandover. Don't be put off by the Ouija stuff: the heart of this poem isn't some sort of half-baked spiritualism, but simply the relationship between two people that love each other - the poet and David Jackson.

Let me quote a line from The Book of Ephraim that I memorized without trying, just from reading it a few times. The same technical mastery is there, but now there's something alive in them. Enough of the other reviews tell you what the poem is about, so here's a sample of how beautiful this strange masterpiece can be in its smallest details:

We take long walks through the turning leaves
And ponder turnings taken by our lives.

Look at each other closely, as friends will
On parting. This is not farewell,

Not now. But something in the sad
End-of-season light remains unsaid.

The Changing Light at Sandover is Merrill's magnum opus. It is also the greatest example of epic poetry in modern literature. Divided into four sections (four being a mystical number [seasons, elements, etc] and possibly alluding also to Eliot's "Four Quartets"), Sandover, is, as far as I am aware, the longest single poem in the modern cannon. Yet length alone is not what qualifies this as an epic poem. Like all true epic poetry, it borrows heavily from its classical predecessors, so Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton and even Tasso are alluded to throughout the poem.

The method behind the poem is fairly well known, and is in fact included in the poem's narrative. Merrill and his life-partner, David Jackson, would ritualistically cleanse themselves for a stipulated period, then consult the spirit-world by means of an Ouija Board. Merrill served as a kind of amanuensis, taking dictation from spirits from another dimension and translating the messages into poetry.

Merrill has been branded as an elitist by some, and there is no getting around the fact that he did consider himself and his partner as members of an order higher than that of most of mankind. He believed in a quasi-Gnostic hierarchy, wherein human beings are ranked according to their spiritual development. Unfortunately, the belief system he invokes leans more closely to Third Reich mysticism than to Buddhism or Hinduism. A great many people, according to Merrill's tenets, don't even have souls. They exist only on an animal level. One can see where this sort of thinking can, and has led.

I don`t want to infer, however, that Merrill, or this work, are in any manner political or polemical. This is a true work of art, full of imagination and of ideas. The sheer scope of creativity on display in "Sandhurst" is unsurpassed in the past 100 years of poetry, with the possible exception of "The Waste Land." It should be read and studied (and hopefully, cherished) by all lovers of literature. Whether or not Merrill existed on a higher plane than most of us is certainly debatable, even questionable. Whether or not his excursions into other spiritual realms were "real" or were delusional is also debatable. What is not debatable, is the fact that he produced a remarkable and very important poem in the process.

First of all I felt somewhat intimidated when it came to starting this epic work. I was afraid that my own background might prove inadequate for a product of such ethereal literary heights. It came as a relief when I found that I was well enough read to appreciate the majority of the literary and cultural references (at least I believe that I did.) Part of this was no doubt due to what I brought to the work, but equally part was due to the poet's uncanny ability to draw you in and connect you with the most intimate and obscure reference. I actually felt like I belonged to the circle- that I might be able to hold my own in such august company. This company included not only the poet, his partner, and their friends, but also the supposed spirits of Plato, Pythagoras, Robert Morse, Wallace Stevens, W.B. Yeats, Maya Deven, W.H. Auden, and even more.

So much for the exquisite and impressive poetic and literary aspect of the epic- the metaphysical basis was a another matter. Here I felt more than adequate. It is reported that Merrill and his partner styled themselves as metaphysical adepts. Indeed they drew the old criticism of being "spiritual elitists." Frankly, I do not sense that they were such. Such individuals exist, but they do not naively and uncritically seek out contact with the lower astral plane via ouija board. They do not take at face value the identities and messages of the beings so contacted. True, this may provide "interesting" material for the poet to run with, but it is of dubious value otherwise. In fact, some of the specific information (such as no souls escaping Hiroshima) just sounds plain wrong. As for three billion dead in the immediate future, or Mohammed being the servant of the Adversary and destined to bring about the last holy war, well, I'll let you judge for yourself. There is also something about treating the subject of spiritual patrons and the pattern of the wallpaper with seemingly equal weight in the poem that is somewhat disconcerting...

Just the fact that multiple "characters" reveal in the course of the poem that they are not who they originally said that they were (sometimes for decades) should tell you how much credence you should place in anything that they have revealed.

What irritates me is that some would equate this work with William Blake's. Yes, it is a remarkable work of art, an exquisite poem, but it is not Revelation. You have about an equal amount of gems and dross in a most impressive setting. However, it is up to you to judge which is which. You see, a true poet-prophet (such as Blake or Dante or Milton) rely on their own direct, intuitive connection with the Divine, and not upon a secondary entity to contact the Essence that will impart true immortality to their work. But then again, as far as I know, the poet himself never claimed that this was anything more than a most skilled riff of poetic art. It is indeed that.

The stage adaptation is included in the back of this volume. It is my humble recommendation that you read it first in order to make the main poem a little more accessible.

One furthur note, the "God B" refered to so often here is obviously the Demiurge- Yaltabaoth.


"Now the archon (ruler) who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas ("fool"), and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, `I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come."
---Apocryphon of John, circa 200AD

How can I start a review of the book that captured me into poetry? that led me to actually read and enjoy Dante and Milton? that even led me to reading odd epic poems and novels in verse that rarely make it into the top million rank here on Amazon?

How about "Great book - a life-changer in wholly unexpected ways."

I got my copy gratis back when I was doing occasional book reviews of the more traditional sort and not the slightest bit interested in the slender wisps of poetry that crossed my desk. There was something different about this one, though. This was five pounds of poetry ! Five-hundred and sixty pages ? One poem? How could that be? WHAT could that be?

But you've got to decide whether to spend a few bucks here, your situation is different. So the real question is what brought YOU to this page in Amazon. Needless to say, my five-star rating means that I will try to convince all comers to read "Sandover", but you must realize that you are a rather lonely explorer to have come this far. Your path reveals the nature of your search.

Maybe you've read some of Merrill's other work from the recent, rather successful "Collected Poems". Wonderful! While the critics can tell you about commonalties in all those poems, you probably noticed more of the vast range in that collection: from the tiny, surgically incisive "Little Fallacy", to the weirdly evocative "Lost in Translation" (bet you read that one more than once), to the extended, languorous narrative of "The Summer People", to the challenging and often enigmatic mythos in "From the Cupola."

This wholly different last pair, my favorites, were unexpectedly conjoined as the only two poems in the UK-published early book entitled "Two Poems." Together, they hint best at what "Sandover" will deliver: carefully crafted narrative and delight in poetic form along with intellectually challenging and sometimes cryptic layering. Expect some strangeness wrapped in a reassuring pale, cream cape, until the cape is tossed back to reveal a startlingly, spookily omni-dimensional vision. Sounds like fun ? Jump in...

I guess it's possible that you came here after reading Alison Lurie's recent lurid little "literary memoir." If so, congratulations for stepping over that indelicate little pile to consider the man's most epic work, instead of a shrewish listing of his peccadilloes. Of course personality and autobiography inevitably fuel poetry, and Merrill's "Sandover" is no exception. You might even, legitimately wonder, as I did, how the poetry of a rich gay man, who sounds suspiciously like an aesthete of the flightiest sort in Lurie (and apparently had a weird, mystic streak) can do anything more than entertain you. And how is that possible for 560 pages ?

You won't find the glib and thoughtless dilettante of Lurie's portrayal lurking beneath "Sandover." Merrill was not an overtly autobiographical poet, but he collected the pieces and wrote the tale of Sandover through 20-odd years of his life, In doing so he revealed the reality of privilege without arrogance, mysticism within a wry skepticism, and appreciation of love and beauty in all their forms. "Sandover" is actually a fine place for one who is neither gay, nor rich, nor mystical and, perhaps, like me, aesthetically-challenged, to get drawn-in to a world that twines these elements together in an endlessly interesting and attractive way. If you've read Lurie, I think you will find "Sandover" an especial pleasure - a much more graciously framed journey toward much more extraordinary horizons.

I suppose you might be here because you have developed a taste for the long poem: the epic or the novel in verse (maybe from my own `listmania' list of such works right here on Amazon). If so, you face a more interesting challenge. "Sandover" will offer many things that are familiar but probably some quite different. If the story in Vikram Seth's "Golden Gate" captivated you, you will find a quite compelling story here - but not one quite so down-to-earth. If the different cultures circumscribed by Walcott's "Omeros" or even Budbill's "Judevine" intrigued you, you will find other worlds here - otherworldly locales, indeed.. If Merwin's "Folding Cliffs" satisfied while it challenged you as a reader, you will find "Sandover" to be a surprising combination of the eminently readable and the multi-layered and re-readable. If Dante's, Milton's or even Frederick Turner's epic reach inspired you, you can count on "Sandover" to take you to the inner and outer reaches of the universe.

Finally, of course, you might be here just because you've heard that James Merrill was one of the finest poets of the 20th century. He was. In "Sandover" he combined many, many talents - as a formalist and as an experimenter in form and as one of the last poets to show a pure delight in words and their infective enlodgement in the human brain. The atomics of the poem satisfy and surprise no matter what magnification your readerly microscope is set on. Over and over you will find yourself startled at a just plain perfect piece of short verse - as tersely powerful as William's "red wheelbarrow." Then you will find yourself so captured by the narrative of the story, that only part-way through will you realize that you are in the midst of two pages of elegant "terza rima." Even the largest structural elements partition, loop-back and break off in ways that build a magnificent whole that is as captivating in its large-scale structure as in its single word choices.

Sandover is an endlessly captivating work - I've read it, all 560 pages, four times in ten years, and still pick it up and read a section or two every few months.

There is so much to praise here, where do I start? How can I possibly communicate what these poems mean to me? "Renascence" alone takes my breath away - "The soul can split the sky in two, And let the face of God shine through." These words too, allow the divine to shine through. "Interim" is, perhaps, as beutiful a poem as I have ever read. The author brilliantly captures the essence of loss, that grief and confusion, the mind's inability to accept the notion of a life alone: "...part of your heart aches in my breast; part of my heart lies chilled in the damp earth with you. I have been torn in two, and suffer for the rest of me..." There are still so many other passages that leap off these pages. Her phrases are like literary gem stones: Sonnet XXVII: "I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year" - could it be said any more succinctly? This collection is a must for anyone who cares at all about poetry - American or otherwise.

This book of collected poems is the most treasured book that I own. My copy is absolutely falling apart - I have to keep it in its own special box.

Over the years, I have worn the binding to pieces touching, flipping, - and don't hate me - earmarking the pages of this book when I wanted to remember something and couldn't find a spare scrap of paper for a marker. There is something so exposed and fragile about her work and, at the same time, she is very strong and beautifully resolved to her observations. She doesn't communicate in frilly riddles. She speaks to everyone. "Here in a Rocky Cup" on page 471 is one of her finest. It may break your heart! Enjoy.

how delightful to find a beautiful copy to introduce my granddaughter to Edna St. Vincent Millay.

"Time does not bring relief; you all have lied/ Who told me time would ease me of my pain!"

Old and wise beyond her years, Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote the majority of her most beautiful and famous works at a startlingly young age. One of few moments of comedy in Millay's otherwise (too) serious, brief life, was that as a published and award-winning poet while still in her teens, Millay entered college literature courses, taught by older teachers there to `instruct' her, even though they, themselves, had in most cases never published a line of verse or captured a single award!

"I burn my candle at both ends/ It will not last the night...."

This famous and oft quoted line about living the hectic life was Millay's, but many have forgotten that. A half-century after her passing, she is largely unremembered, lost among a crowd of later, lesser writers, ignored by subsequent ages that placed scant value on poetry. Hers was a life often lived invisibly behind her words. Though the events of her personal life, with her promiscuity and radical ideals, at times gained notoriety beyond even her professional achievements, Millay the poet is the force this book celebrates. Even the biographical section in this anthology is terse and respectful, which I found befitting. Edna St.Vincent Millay's poems, from the startlingly powerful Renascence, to her sonnets (the best composed in the English language in centuries) to her final experimental output at the time of World War Two, everything Millay achieved succeeds in taking the consciousness of an attentive reader into a higher realm, where the mind and soul are meditatively fused as at few other times in the human lifetime, and the voyage is one of utter transcendence.

I find John Donne's poetry distinctly representative of the 17th century. It oscilates from being passionately sexual to passionately spiritual, and every detail seems to have been considered. The poems are augmented by Donne's allusions, but they are still beautiful to read without pondering the deeper meanings.

I prefer the alphabetized format of this collection, since chronology and subject matter are fairly nebulous when it comes to Donne. The endnotes are brief enough for readers looking for something simple, but add enough interest that those with a more scholarly bent will have plenty to play with.

I am greatly enjoying this book. The notes at the end explain some of Donne's more obscure imagery. A potentially controversial choice by the editor was to change the spelling of many words to more modern forms, which makes the poems easier to read at the expense of authenticity. Some people will like that and some people won't. Another odd choice was to list the poems in alphabetical order, instead of grouping them by subject matter or attemp to list them in approxiamte chronolgical order.
Buy this book and enjoy the breathtaking poems. You could do a lot worse with your time.

This book of poetry is quite wonderful. Donne's imagery and words are truly beautiful. His poetry displays wit, beauty and perception. Donne wrote in the sixteenth century, but his ideas and thoughts were actually quite modern. His work is incomparable when it comes to displaying the feelings and emotions of love and of friendship. Donne's poetry is often referred to a metaphysical, but it is also witty and fun. He was an extremely intelligent man, and this is reflected in his work. At times the poems can be difficult to understand, but it is well worth taking the time to do so since they are so beautiful

Finally, I've found a poet I really like reading. Donne's poems suit me more than Shakespeare's sonnets or Poe's verse, and apart from someone like Yvor Winters, I just don't get modern poetry (apologies to Sylvia Plath fans).

What rings well with me is, well, ringing well! Reading a poem out loud with a bit of drama should just sound good. That's why rap and hip hop can really be considered poetry (well, some rap and hiphop anyway).

A great example of this is Shakespeare's sonnet 129 (The expense of spirit in a waste of shame/Is lust in action; and till action, lust...). Most (not all) of Shakespeare's sonnets are harder to understand than this one, which is why they don't resonate with me as well as I'd like. Donne on the other hand is different; most of what he writes in English sounds good and is immediately understandable.

Not that I understand everything in these poems, there are many contemporary allusions that are lost on me, but there's enough in there that sounds very good to allow me to right away enjoy myself. Here are two great lines, which open the sonnet "Community", to illustrate what I mean by good sound.

Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still...

There are problems, themselves interesting, that bring discord to a poem. For instance in Donne's England "love" rhymed with "prove" but because today these words don't, a couplet with this rhyme is marred to our 21st century ears.

A personal note: I was in bed reading "Soul Made Flesh" about the discovery that the brain is the seat of consciousness, made by Oxford scholars in 17th century England. I had reached an account of how large audiences of curious onlookers gathered to see doctors perform autopsies. I put the book down and decided to dip into Donne before going to sleep. I flipped out when I read The Damp's opening lines:

When I am dead, and doctors know not why,
And my friends' curiosity
Will have me cut up to survey each part...

Talk about serendipity! Now if I had just read an explanation of these lines in the notes, they would not have meant much to me. But because reading "Soul Made Flesh" had transported me into Donne's England for a few moments, the dramatic effect of the opening was multiplied immensely.

In a nutshell, I find that I love Donne and I recommend this comprehensive easy-to-carry well-annotated edition. My only negative comment is that the editing is a bit unimaginative: the editor places the sonnets in alphabetical order of title simply because there is no accepted canonical ordering... Oh well.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Songs and Sonnets, Epigrams, Elegies, Satyres, Letters, The Anniversaries, Divine Poems. These are some of the categories of this collection of Donne's complete works. The volume also has a short life of Donne, and an overall introduction to his poetry.
Donne, is generally considered the greatest of the Metaphysical poets. His two great subjects are Love and Death, and his passionate intellect dares to connect elements of diverse worlds into a rich metaphorical texture of poetic conceits. The bold comparisons , the bringing of all modes of experience into relation with the Divine mark out his truly great work.

One of the most famous - and infamous - letters in all of literature, De Profundis is a strange little piece of work: either much more than it appears on the surface, or much less. It is something I think everyone should read, if only for its insight into the human character, particularly that of one under great personal suffering. Wilde wrote this extraordinarily long letter from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, his friend, lover, and the man who - by all accounts - was the reason Wilde was in jail in the first place. Despite repeated assertions in the first few pages alone to the contrary, Wilde seems reluctant to blame himself. He clearly blames Douglas to the hilt, and harbors a certain bitter resentment towards him. And yet... he clearly still hold much dear affection toward - and even loves - Douglas. He still seems to be asking for forgiveness - despite the fact that, by all accounts hardly excluding his own, he was the man wronged. It is quite clear from reading this letter that, desite the view history holds of him, Wilde was clearly a man of very high moral character. Certainly, one would not put Wilde atop a pedastal as the zenith of ethics - he himself says that morals contain "absolutely nothing" for him, and clearly admits - and is proud of - his having lived the high life to the hilt during his youth - but Wilde was a man of principles, and he stuck to those principles to the tragic, bitter end. Perhaps you might say he carried them too far. One gets the sense in reading this letter - or a biography of Wilde - that, not only could he have stopped his immiment imprisonment, but could have severed his ties with Douglas completely - had he wanted to. Apparently, he had his own utterly compelling reasons for not doing so. Whatever the case, Oscar Wilde is one of the most fundamentally and perpetually interesting characters in the whole of history. A self-described man of paradoxes - Wilde was subsequently the true essence of his time, while also being far ahead of his time - De Profundis makes for required reading by one of the most endlessly fascinating individuals you'll ever read about, and also provides a startling - indeed, perhaps too much so - insight into human nature.

De Profundis, though long for a letter, is not a long work in the conventional sense. Consequently, as many editions of Wilde's collected works are available, buying this on its own may be deemed questionable. I highly reccommend purchasing a Collected Works of Oscar if you have not done so already - it's well worth the price - but, should you desire to have more compact editions of specific works, an edition such as this will be privy to your needs.

This is a very moving account of a heartbroken man who was betrayed by a person he loved dearly. The pain, the trauma, the love, the anger, the frustration is evident in every single well-written sentence. This book is not only a window into the mind of one of the best British writers of the late 19th century. It is also a timeless lesson on what can happen when one falls in love with someone who doesn't truly appreciate what they have before them. Of course there are other lessons to be learned in this book but rather than point them out here, I'd much prefer you pick up a copy of "De Profundis" as soon as you can.

Not actually a "letter," though it had to be originally presented as such for him to be allowed to write it while in prison, *De Profundis* is Wilde's masterpiece--one has to have really lived and really, really suffered to have written it and it's amazing that he achieved it.

I only very recently read it--and "got" it. It rings true to me, and is very, very moving and "profound." It ain't summer beach reading.

Wilde is still and will probably always be best known as a "Personality"--that and the author of a couple of decent period plays, a short novel, a few stories, and lots of forgettable poems and such. But THIS--THIS is IT.

He really WAS a great writer, it turns out, after all.

So many people concentrate on De Profundis' accusations cast towards Alfred Douglas. Yes, it's true that the letter was written to him and that Wilde is ruthless in letting Douglas know exactly what he thinks of him but that's not why De Profundis is a great piece of work. It is great for three reasons. Number one - It contains the best account of the life of Christ. Christ as the romantic artist is the only account that has moved me to tears and the only account I can personally embrace. Number two - it is chock full of the Oscar Wilde voice and wit and as a result it reverbates as a true work of art and number three - It is ultimately a work that celebrates the things in life worth feeling - failure, love, injustice, strength and forgiveness.

Don't waste your time with the accusations towards Douglas. He is unimportant. Oscar Wilde is what's important and De Profundis is Oscar Wilde bare.

Ah, me...one doesn't know which to be more irritated
and exasperated with: whether it be Walt Whitman doing
his dissembling shuck-and-shuffle about the children
he had sired (to throw off a probing, serious John
Addington Symonds) -- or Oscar, in this "j'accuse," which
he should have spoken while looking in a mirror, rather
than writing it on paper to Lord Alfred.
This is without doubt a fascinating, horrifying,
and yet in places humorous, "piece de Miserere mei"
(to combine a bit of French with Latin).
If one chooses to believe Oscar, his only fault
was weakness in "giving in" to Lord Alfred. Oh,
come now. Blinded by Eros, reason flies out the
door...if ever reason was in control. There are
some sentences which are devastatingly revealing,
but Oscar doesn't seem to see it. "The trivial in
thought and action is charming. I had made it
the keystone of a very brilliant philosophy expressed
in plays and paradoxes." Ye gods, and little fishes!

And this man dared to call himself a "Classicist?!"
Yikes!!!
The best exercise for the reader is to just take
many of the things which Oscar accuses Lord Alfred
of, and turn them toward the self-blind, self-
justifying Oscar, to see their devastating hitting
of the mark. Never having met the young man, but
only having the "benefit" of hearsay (mostly from
Oscar's literary defenders) Lord Alfred seems to have
been calculating, temperamental (using anger to get
his way), manipulative, etc., etc., etc. The best
description of him may be Wilde's referring to him
with the lines from Aeschylus' play AGAMEMNON,
about the lion cub being raised in a house and
being let loose to wreak havoc and ruin.
But Oscar bears his share of blame -- more than just
that of the "sin" of weakness which he constantly falls
back upon in his own justification. Even in the midst
of what purports to be some sort of penitent cry from
the depths of hell...Oscar still is ever the poseur:
"And I remember that afternoon, as I was in the railway
carriage whirling up to Paris, thinking what an impossible,
terrible, utterly wrong state my life had got into, when
I, a man of world-wide reputation, was actually forced
to run away from England, in order to try and get rid
of a friendship that was entirely destructive of everything
fine in me either from the intellectual or ethical point
of view...." Er, when was the last time that the
"everything fine" had last seen the light of day?
Was Oscar an "Artist," as he consistently claims?
Was he the wronged, harmed Artist? Perhaps only the
reader can decide that for himself. Without doubt
he was witty, acerbic, funny, cute, clever, perhaps
even charming (to some -- sort of like a Pillsbury
Dough Boy with flair and a clever tongue), perhaps
stylish (in a frumpy, velveteen sort of way). Was
he wronged by a predatory clinger and manipulator,
and a hypocritical social prudery and class power
play (Oscar is no Socrates--that's for sure!)? He
hardly seems worthy, in some ways, of being a poster-boy
for Gay Pride parades. More likely, he is a better
warning poster boy for the self-excusing, and never
take-responsibility-for-your-own-actions crowd.
But this is an incredible piece to read and think
about. There is some of it that is mordantly hilarious.

Saadia's writing always leaves me wanting to read more...and more...
Her poems are powerful, confident, honest, funny and sexy. Never dull and always lively. The juxtapositions in her work never cease to amaze.
These are the kind of poems I wish I had written. That I want to send to my friends, because it's what I'm thinking. I love 'Mischief: Inspired by Tequila' ... ("My discarded/ red dress/watches us rejected and/dry"). And 'Kerouac's Lover' is just plain hot.

Her poetry has a way of making you root for sin. Always.

I'm not going to try to wax poetic here. I just want to say that Saadia's poetry is top notch! She can write about anything imaginable, and that is the mark of a true artist. Like the title says, her poems have the ability to hit you like a bullet, and other times like a nice soft pillow. The variety is amazing. Reading her poems is a joy and at the same time educational. Those of us on Xanga refer to her as our "poetry professor." I have learned more about poems, poetry, forms, and creativity in the last few months, than I have learned in my lifetime. I am grateful to have found the writing of this talented poet, and I am also grateful that I can call her a friend. -Randy Van Otterloo

She's a lover, and a lady, a mother, and a wife, a sinner, and a saint sharing pieces of life. She, and her words, so beautifully irresistible, that she will lure you in with her "Lavish Lines and Luscious Lies". You will go happily to your demise. What better way to go. Give in to her sultry temptation, and you will be rewarded with "Flirtations and Booze"

Saadia's writing, is a weekend in the finest hotel with the lover of your dreams, and memories that will last a lifetime..... She takes you for a ride in a BMW Z8 through the canyon roads of southern California at 100 miles an hour... Hang on tight! The ride is an intense one, but she has everything under control. ..... and now, I can't wait for the next ride :o)

Brent

This may be a "short," but it's long on brilliance. Aschemann's keen intelligence and stiletto wit carries the reader along breathlessly into worlds wished for but never quite achieved. Perhaps she's holding us up to the prism of her reality, forcing us to look inside ourselves, holding us responsible for our forbidden thoughts. Whatever it is, she certainly knows her way around words and makes them work hard for the money.

Required reading.

Amazing! This is one of those things that I downloaded with every intent on reading it later when I had time. But once I took a peek, I couldn't stop, everything else went on the back burner. This was the best 'me' time, I had in quite a while. Sultry Saadia draws you in with the first poem, leaving you breathless to the end....