Poetry Books

There is a reason Robert Louis Stevenson is so well-remembered. He had a knack for finding the right word in the right place, and his poems about childhood always hit the right spot.

The illustrations in this book complement the rhymes perfectly.

Please note that this edition is oversized, and it may be difficult to put on your bookshelf.

The illustrations are bright and engaging, complementing the poems nicely. My 4 yo and 2 yo love this book!

This book is pure magic. The Provensons' beautiful artwork has been etched onto my brain from early childhood. Stevenson's beautiful verses coupled with the delightful illustrations make this book truly magical. You will love this book!!!!

Imagine my happiness when I found a copy of the book that night after night my mother had read to me as a child in the late 50s and early 60s - My copy had long fallen apart but this was the correct edition and as I opened the pages the illustrations welcomed me like old friends. I got the flu and my husband kindly read the entire book to me and then next time my Mom came to visit I read a few to her and watched her smile.

Expose a child to this book and they will develop a love of poetry, the whimiscal and when you watch Rocky and Bullwinkle next time you will know where Bullwinkle gets all the poems that he recites !

I was skeptical that he'd like this book when he found it,
believing my 2 year old was a bit young for poetry beyond
Dr. Seuss. But he loves the sound and rhythm of the words
as well as the pictures in my old Golden Book edition,
and asks for it nearly every day now. For myself it's a
nice change from the usual kids books.

This book is loads of fun! I bought it for my third grader, who is taking a field trip to see "Romeo and Juliet." I wanted him to have some familiarity with the storyline so he wouldn't be yawning cluelessly by the end of Act I. He loved it so much he wanted to discuss it! Even my husband who hates to read the stuff enjoyed it.
In short, the book is well done. It shortens the plays into a very long story-summary without the dramatic language that can be somewhat of a distraction. We're not talking Cliff's Notes here folks. This is just a handful of pages per play written on a level anyone can understand and enjoy. The book is not long so it's not intimidating. (Have you seen any books containing Shakespeare's complete works, lately? Mine could be used for a doorstop! It's huge!)
We paired this book with the comedy of "The Reduced Shakespeare Company's" version of Romeo and Juliet. My son is actually looking forward to the trip!

Romeo and Juliet

Felipe Gravier and Lorenzo Schiavo review:

We think that Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two star-crossed lovers whose families are in a terrible fight which prevents them from coming together. How far the couple will go to be together becomes the focus of the story. Of his richest poetry. The opening and closing choruses are some of his most outstanding work. Romeo's It is a brilliant love story but not much more. It still possesses however some wooing of Juliet is fabulously written. The Friar gets the best lines. Mercutio is one the best friends of Romeo. It is not as good as Shakespeare has written but it's still a fabulous book and up there with his best work. One part of the play we didn't like was that for the tow families get arrange there two kids had to die.
The English language wasn't finally finished so Shakespeare had the liberty to create words and play with the language, as he liked. That's why It was so difficult to understand what each character wanted to express so the teacher had to explain us each of that words and teach us all the words in that age and told us which were the words in the English of today.

Shakespeare is for kids and adults in E. Nesbit's creative mind. I always liked fairy tales, but I couldn't read Shakespeare very well. In Children's Shakespeare E. Nesbit turned his work into fairy tales without changing the story and morals. This book is not much like Nesbit's other books because it was written by Shakespeare, but I bet there are some simularities.

This book was a overall well writen book and I beleive E. Nesbit put a lot of hard work into her books in her life-time. I'm sure if she were alive now she would still be writing good books to this day.

This book provides lots of Shakespeare's Storys like "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Hamlet" with a children's fairy tale twist. The storys are the same as Shakespeare's, but easier for children to understand. My favorite story was Hamlet because I had just seen the play. A while after we read Children's Shakespeare and it helped me to understand Hamlet better.

I read and reread this book as a youth. The stories read much like classic fairy tales with tragedy, irony, and moral lessons. The writing is very accessible and encouraged me to seek out the full length "stories" in their original (play script) form once I was old enough (6th/7th grade) to really read them.

For a child who has a love of literature, these retellings of the great plays may start a life-long interest in Shakespeare's art (as they did for me).

This was one of my favorite books as a child, and I still remember many of the rhymes to this day. I plan to read it to my little one on they way, and I have recently bought copies for all my pregnant friends. It was a hit at the last baby shower! Wouldn't you rather share with your children that when Humpty Dumpty fell, that God was able to put him back together? This is truly a treasure!

I loved this book as a kid, and have it at my Mom's house. We used to read them together for hours. I remember the characters vividly, even telling my husband some of the stories. Now that I am expecting my first, I want to buy him/her a copy so that I can share it with my children also!

I loved this book for my son when he was little. It teaches positive, Christian principles without being preachy, and it is a good alternative to traditional nursery rhymes, which don't really teach much of anything at all.

I enjoyed reading this book to my children 25 years ago. Now that they have their own children (...)and they have asked for it for their children. I am a bit jealous that they will get such a bigger book with more content, but thrilled that I can share this not only with my children but also with my grandchildren. It is a joy to find Bible-based ideas in our favorite nursery rhymes!!

My husband bought this book for us this past spring. My children, who are almost 2 and almost 4, both love this book. I am glad to have found a book that encourages the values that I am trying to teach them, such as honesty, being helpful to others, and other similar values. I recomend this book to anyone who has children, young or older.

This is one of the best audiobooks I've ever encountered. I purchased it years ago and have listened over and over - probably ten times over five years - and each time I get more out of it. Spiritual truths are rarely presented with such complete clarity, compassion, and fearlessness. As a voracious reader, a poet, and a spiritual growth/self development obsessive, I can think of few programs that are more helpful.

The crazy thing is ... this is not self help. This is just plain old fashioned bold living. David Whyte is an inspiration, and all of his books and audio programs are more than worth the pittance you spend. Whether you are interested primarily in the poetry he reviews so well or in the "living on the frontier of your life" he teaches, you will find tremendous value in giving this a good long listening.

Fair warning: this is not pablum, and not for the faint of heart. Approach this material with a still, receptive mind and an environment free of distractions. Between his melodious voice, the intensely rich material, and the powerful passions he is capable of calling forth in you, this is not something to be listened to as background for your life. I like listening while I clean the house or take long road trips alone. Or, as I first did, listening with my very elderly, wise, witty grandparents in their warm living room in Vermont with snow falling outside in soft blankets. That was, I think, heaven.

I have been converted to the work of David Whyte. I am really impressed with this man's passion, insight and clarity. I have not listened to all these CD's as I purchased his 'Midlife and the Great Unknown' and have been engrossed with this first.

A word of advice. That these CD's do not have tracks and each CD is a single track. This makes finding favourite sections a real chore. I am both disappointed in this, and that at least one of these CD's is an exact replica of the other CD mentioned above, BUT with the addition of this edit issue. The other CD is easier to drive. If you're not familiar with the beautiful work of David Whyte, and if you like more than one track on each CD, then try 'Midlife and the Great Unknown' first.

Don't buy this CD unless you are ready to take a spiritual journey with David that travels straight into your heart through your soul and expands out into the universe. It was very difficult for me, but I was finally able to hand it to a very dear friend of mine to share with him. I did not want to let it go. When you listen to David's Clear Mind, Wild Heart, you can feel your heart opening in a sigh of relief, safe, full of love and ready to risk. If you have come across this CD and reading this you were meant to. Peace and Namaste.
:)

These CDs put me in mind of an American friend who once said that she wasn't interested in anyone not transforming themselves. They've been spinning in my diskman ever since arriving in the post, and I've been listening to them during my long seaside walks, which is when I slough my skins.

In my view, the language of transformation has been devalued by the self-help industry. It's been so bled of meaning or beauty or both that it's of no use to any of us anymore.

Whyte has directed me towards a language that'll always have blood in its veins, and that's sharp still - the language in poetry. There're no easy slogans here, no pastiched wisdom. Nor are there any gags or attention-grabbers or bullet-points of formulaic action. Whyte just rolls on like a sea lapping steadily at the shore; he gives the listener an ocean of language to contemplate, to immerse themselves in - it's up to you to find what you need for whatever transformation you're currently attempting. His words are generous, intelligent, considered, and often deeply moving. Plus there are dozens of "eureka!" moments to be had: one of mine was when I first heard him say, "I think that boredom is a failure of the imagination." Another was when he introduced then read Yeats' poem "Song of wandering Aengus."
He's not saying much that's new - but he speaks with an eloquence that has woken me up. And he has a lovely voice, and speaks with a soothing cadence.

Buy these CDs. It's worth it.

New to David Whyte, but always seeking inspiration and meaning, passion and depth, when a friend lent me a cd of his I couldn't believe my ears. It's like magic: the kind of speaking that is from the soul and the heart, filled with wisdom of his own insight and the insight of writers through the ages.

If you're reading this, you must find a way to hear him read poetry. He reads like no one I've ever heard before. Repeating lines with different inflection, tone, volume. David's as alive in his voice as Yo Yo Ma is in cello playing. He's changed the way I recite poetry for good.

This particular CD set was worth every dollar of the $44 it cost. It catalyzed my own poetry writing it was so inspiring.

SMARTISH PACE remarks on "Egan's brave choice of form in a time when the designation 'new formalist' threatens to pigeonhole her work. But no formulated phrase can pin Egan's poem to the wall." This is true, as is the fact that it is language itself and not theme or narrative that draws us in to these poems and holds us there the way, as Egan herself writes, "he held me--a lover's lie, a dying friend, /the nights too drunk and dark/ for any arms but his to understand."

Not just brilliant, not just sensual, Moira Egan's "Cleave" is the rare art through which words express something seemingly inexpressable. Beyond mere categories, beyond mere emotions, she captures experience itself, by turns glorious, bland, and miserable. And this conclusion I reached before I even reflected on the collection's structure, a helix of the semantic idiosyncrasies that a single word is capable of serving up to us. As Moira Egan puts it in her poem "Love & Death," "How else to express the brazen philosophy, the teleology of flesh beyond love, the ontology of sex that can lead to death?"

In case you couldn't tell, I liked it--a lot.

I was delighted to find Moira Egan's book after enjoying her poems in magazines like Poetry, West Branch, and Literal Latte. She truly writes for the heart, the brain, and the rest of the body all at once. Cleave will not only please fans like myself, but will also introduce her witty, deft, and thoughtfully accomplished poems to a new crop of lucky readers.

"Poets are born, not made" they say and Moira Egan is one. (And the daughter of one.) They also say "true art conceals artifice" and that magic is no where more present than from cover to cover in the master-crafted poems of Cleave. BUT--and this is the part I love--every once and a while she coyly lifts the skirt of her craft to reveal a far more broken and beautiful world than any well-behaved surface could withstand. That is the push, pull doubleness, the seduction of Cleave.

Moira Egan is one of the few neo-formalists whose lush, exquisitely crafted, risk-taking poetry evokes words like "juicy" rather than "fusty." Rooted thematically in all the major meanings of "cleave" (including the seemingly opposite "adhere to" and "divide"), Egan's poetry's rich language explores both meaning and sound with intellectual and artistic profundity, yet manages to speak to a reader's human-ness and (I'll just go ahead and dare to say it--)to GIVE PLEASURE. YES, EVEN ENTERTAIN.

--Clarinda Harriss
Professor of English, Towson University
Editor/director of BrickHouse Books, Inc.

I have both of August's books and I enjoy them both very much. GREAT JOB!!!!!!! When is the nexted one coming? :)

This man observes things. What does he see? Well, I'll have to let you find out for yourself, but it's a truthful, pointed world that poet looks out over. But not so much with the black views one would expect in a fin de siecle world. Coyote laughs at us. And at himself. So take a gander, and se what this coffee house troller has sen and has to say about it.

Let's be honest, I wrote every word too.

My only problem with August's poetry is that I do not much like poetry. So can I call it something else ? How bout a stunning glittery collection of short art words ? Beautiful songs with out music ? A joyous thundering heard of words ? Anyway I LOVE this stuff. On my last little trip to NY I took Augusts book To Grenwitch Village and read it in a coffee house [ Please do not tell August it was a Starbucks.] Just to my special friend. I was wearing my black Beret' and dark glasses. She clicked her fingers in applause and sweetly smiled. I LOVE his stuff. BEAT BABY !

August is a very powerful author, his poems are heartfelt and genuine. This book is wonderful! It is a must read...even if you are not a fan of the arts!

I had never purchased a book of poetry before but this was recommended to me and I am very glad I bought it. The collection is superb.

These 'Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz' were put together when the poet was ninety- five years old. He now is approaching one - hundred and his birthday will be celebrated this year, also with another collection of his poetry.
There are many reasons for wanting to read such a collection. First of all, it is interesting to see what a person has done in the course of a lifetime of work. As I understand it Kunitz evolved in style from a complex Blakean kind of writing to a more mature and simple style in which personal elements and reflections play a stronger part. Secondly, it is interesting to understand the accumulated ' wisdom' not simply in relation to his own literary craft but also about life and love in general. It is also interesting to see the kind of universes and worlds a person explores in their lifetime, in Kunitz's case these are of course many of the giants of English poetry, but his interests are also in activities like gardening,Jewish mystics, Russian poets of this century, and of course the passions of romantic love.
I think that there is something also here which is especially admirable. Faithfulness to the task, the dedication and the ability to work through many years, is a triumph of the human spirit.
This gives an added dimension to the enjoyment of the poetry.

Never can I match Shalom Freedman of 1500+ Reviews and 60 in two weeks of July! Completing most of THE WILD BRAID, I browsed thru other Collections of Sir Stanley...He hooked me early in the midst of his neatly arranged Reflections! Since my getting stung by hearing him read, "The Layers" on NPR's Infinite Mind, I felt urged to get to writing my Oft' Postponed Autobio Reflections!

Whenever I meditate early each Morn on his infinitely inspiring poems I start with THE LAYERS from 6th Group of Reflections by the same Name! Goodies under that title: The KNOT; Words For The Unknown Makers: "To A Slave Named Job; "Girl With Sampler; "A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath; "A Blessing of Women." THese 16pp proceed quite neatly into his Awesome, Consuming, though much Longer: "The Lincoln Relics" and "The Meditations on Death!"

Unless it be too hasty to add: I have named these as Best of his Poems to be found in The LAYERS! This 6th Group of Reflections fall into the dates of 1928-1978

In Summary: Three sections of Longer + Numerous Poems lie within THIS GARLAND, DANGER in SELECTED POEMS of 1928-1958 (4th Group) and THE TESTING-TREE of 1971 (5th Group) When I choose my great Favorites of his shorter Poems: VITA NUOVA; SOTTO VOCE; SUMMER SOLSTICE.. They combine varied length of lines, 2-3 verses, are both rhymed and free-style; SUMMER SOLSTICE is like Prose with a bit of punctuation. SOTTO VOCE has no punctuation, yet simpler and more personally focused!

Regardless from each perspective, anyone looking into Stanley's Poetry, may find he becomes less & less an Enigma! Exactly as stated in THE LAYERS of 1978: "and I am not who I WAS! My caps & my ending conclusion. Mit great Adoration--Retired 75yr old, Chap Fred W Hood

I heartily recommend this book of poems, and I especially recommend it to the reader who never or rarely ever reads poetry. What a treat is in store for you.

This is a great collection of poems. I recommend the book

Horn Book
May/June 2004 -
Roemer invites young guests--both newly independent readers and pre-readers--to celebrate the seasons in this unusual collection of concrete poetry. In the spring, "The Happy Gardener" is busily at work:

"I take my little rake and my hoe, hoe, hoe;
And break up clods of dirt in each row, row, row.
I scatter tiny seeds as I sow, sow, sow;
With water, sun, and patience, seeds will grow, grow, grow."

Set in four vertical rows within a brown plot of soil, this poem, as do most of the others, depends on the background art to complete the concrete picture suggested by the arrangement of words. Far from intrusive, these illustrations provide images that will help youngsters to better understand the poem shapes. A triangle of words creates a tent in the summer poem, "Camper's
Prayer:

("Starlight, shine bright
on my little tent tonight.
If it should rain, and skies turn bleak--
I pray my tent won't spring a leak.");

the shape is reinforced by the illustrated background, showing a forest set against the night sky and allowing the triangle to encase the backlit silhouettes of a parent and child.

For new readers, this is an excellent introduction to concrete poetry, while the physical patterns of the words will help younger children connect the sounds they hear with word shapes they see. And the gift of that pre-reading skill is a party favor to cherish. B.C.

Dancing Leaves

Crimson and coral
And yellow as butter-
We reach up to snatch
Waltzing leaves as they flutter.
Hip hip hooray
For fall's festive confetti!
Let's heap the leaves up and jump!
Are you ready?

Picture those charming words falling like leaves across the page. Come To My Party and Other Shape Poems is a volume of thirty-eight seasonal concrete poems. There are very few collections of children's poetry whose focus is specifically on the concrete form. Ms. Roemer's poetry dances across the pages and in the imaginations of her lucky young audience. Her poetry form is enhanced beautifully by the playful illustrations of Hideko Takahashi. This would make a lovely edition to any children's library. I hope this talented new poet doesn't make her growing audience wait too long for her next collection.

Words come alive in this beautifully written and illustrated picture book. Reading poetry is fun in Come to My Party, where the words become the pictures. This is a kid-friendly book from the types of poetry written as well as the bright and bold illustrations. Words make up a jump rope, a flock of geese and a snowy hill. Children will delight in this book and ask to read it again and again. The good thing is that it is fun for adults to read too! It celebrates not only the seasons, but the essence of being a kid! www.weeonesmag.com

This book is a treat for the eyes, ears, and tongue as the author and illustrator have created an incredible journey through the year in poetry and pictures. April is National Poetry Month, but the young person who receives this book as a gift will enjoy these poems all year long!

What a great way to present poetry -- through shapes! The text of each of these poems is cleverly patterned like its topic, with adorable illustrations enhancing them. For example: a poem about rain has the words drizzle down like rain drops and then form the shape of an umbrella. The poems themselves are fun and representitive of some of childhood's most engaging activities and holidays. Poet, Heidi B. Roemer, has a true poet's ear that taps into the heart of children. Hideko Takahashi's illustrations of children of all colors are irresistable. Her bold and muted coloring seem to find the right balance to add even more delight to each poem. This book would be great in the classroom when studying poetry. It's a great way to introduce new poetry styles to children. But, it's also fun to read and look at. If this book doesn't get young ones hooked on poetry I don't know what will!

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.

Metaphysical poetry is the poetry of yoking together images from diverse realities into complex new wholes. Donne is the great master. His poetry is a powerful amalgam of intellect and emotion. His meditations on death as love and death in love and love as death and love after death are among the most profound and wrenchingly moving in the language. The High Church great man master giver and writer of sermons was a man known and distinguished in his own time. He gave us many great poems and lines. The bell which tolls for all of us tolls in his lines in a sonorous complex way which brings us closer to the holy sublime. This volume contains an abundance of riches in complexity, and it is one of the great classics of English literature to be read and reread until the bell tolls for mankind as a whole - G-d forbid.

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

A wonderful companion book to "The Complete Poems of John Keats " is the photo-essay collection, "Walking North With Keats," which recreates a 44-day walking tour that the poet made with his writer-friend Charles Brown in 1818 through northern England, Ireland, and Scotland---which unfortunately was THE walk where he fell ill with the tuberculosis that would finally kill him at 25!

The author extensively, but joyfully, highlights Keats's early life, reviews the period's travel literature, photographs the locations & introduces Keats' odes & ballads as well as his letters written during the journey (which helps put into context the poems presented in this book)!

Next to Shakespeare I can not think of a Brittish poet who inspired me more than John Keats. His lyrical phrases, his sense of music and metaphor, and his visionary splendor dazzles one and leaves a reader in awe of his gift. My favorites are the Odes, especially the Ode To Psyche, and the Ode To A Nightingale. One can only wonder what great works might have come into existence from this great literary genius had he lived beyond the age of twenty six. Still, he did manage to distill from the heavens some of the finest poems of the English language.

Keats was the Romantic poet who cared most about art and beauty. He didn't allow himself to get mixed up in religion and politics like Shelley or Byron. But in quiet ways, he did comment on political, religious, aesthetic, and sexual beliefs, sometimes in ways that were less traditional than his poetic style. Above all, he was supremely conscious of beauty in the world, as well as the world's suffering.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

¡§She dwells with Beauty¡XBeauty that must die.¡¨

¡§His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might, and be among her cloudy trophies hung.¡¨

These beautiful lines are written by John Keats (1795-1821), one of the most talented Romantic poets on par with Shelley, Wordsworth, and Bryon. Why would a charismatic Romantic, who cherishes beauty and life, write such sad and crestfallen lines?

It all began in the summer of 1819 when Keats went on a tour of Scotland, where his first symptoms of tuberculosis emerged. However, at the same time, Keats became engaged to the love of his life, Fanny Brawne, a girl next door. Tragically, doctors diagnosed that the tuberculosis was eroding his health, and eventually would end the life of the brilliant poet. Due to this unfortunate calamity, his marriage with Fanny became an impracticality. Amidst his depression and misery, he wrote the poem ¡§Ode on Melancholy.¡¨

The theme of the ode is that Happiness is transient and when Joy passes, all that is left is the bitter core of Melancholy. The rendezvous with Melancholy is inevitable because it will always be there when delightful moments depart. Keats felt that one must embrace sorrow in order to fully experience pleasure. John Keats grasped this philosophy of life during his years of malady and encourages the reader to enjoy life when possible and be ready to come across Melancholy in certain stages of one¡¦s life.

Many people may have thought Keats as a successful and accomplished poet. However, Melancholy was his frequent visitor and deprived Keats of Happiness. Tuberculosis took the lives of his mother, his brother and eventually himself, but emotionally, Keats was marred by the criticism toward his works and the departure of his lover. It seemed that the author lost his faith to overcome Melancholy and decided to advise the readers to not fall victim but respectfully accept and not evade it. I believe that people who choose to end their lives become Melancholy¡¦s trophies because they help to spread the powers of sorrow and grief. By killing oneself, one will be leaving loved ones with burdens of Melancholy to bear, and therefore winning more ¡§cloudy trophies¡¨ for the Goddess. In conclusion, one should recognize that Melancholy will eventually appear and by being prepared to embrace the arrival of Melancholy one can truly taste the sweetness of Happiness.

Overall this book is a great value, as would any book be that contains so many of Keats poems and puts them in a durable binding at an attractive price. However, I'm puzzled by the first two lines in the poem, " La Belle Dame Sans Merci" that read, " Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,/ Alone and palely loitering; ". In every book I've ever seen this poem in, or these two lines quoted , including my college Literature Text book, they read, " O what can ail thee, knight at arms,/ Alone and palely loitering ? " There is no information to tell us what the text of the poems for this volume are based on. And, I seem unable to find an e-mail address from The Modern Library's Web Site so I can ask. I would accept a response from The Modern Library if they cared to comment( e-mail at: stephenmccoy@cbnnow.com )