Poetry Books

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a masterpiece. The rhythmic cadence of it, the tentative narrative style, the imagery ('I wish I were a pair of ragged claws/ scuttling across silent seas.'), even the title are brilliant and wonderful.

Perhaps the most noted and respected poem of T.S. Eliot's industrious career, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock exemplifies modernism in English Literature. Eliot composed Prufrock while attending Harvard, and it later it became his first published work of poetry, almost instantly capturing the attention of literary critics everywhere. For this reason, Prufrock has been a subject of study since its publication in 1915, prodding readers to ask fundamental questions: Is it all worth it? And who are we?

Common to modernism is the adoption of disruption: Disruption of continuity, disruption of social mores, and disruption of Victorian convention. In this way, Prufrock epitomizes modernism through its use of complex imagery and multifaceted insinuation; it is the story of a man conflicted in the same ways early 20th-century western culture was conflicted.

The introspective slant present in this modernist piece of literature and the historical backdrop before which it was written make Prufrock a pivotal social statement, as well as a snap-shot of the changes taking place in western culture at the turn of the 20th century. Stanly Sultan (1985) called Prufrock a "cultural artifact" because it reflects the concerns of a people caught in the turmoil of cultural revolution. Genteel society had come into question, and the opulence associated with privilege had experienced great defeats. Europe commenced toward socialism, and the United States had begun its journey as world power.

The world was asking itself the same questions that Prufrock asked: Is it all worth it? Who are we? Eliot offered the world an answer to these difficult questions through Prufrock. No! It is not worth it. We are conflicted, contradictory people. We have no heroes. We have no greatness. And those of us who are good and pious are silenced by exclusion. "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas"-this is ultimately what Prufrock wishes; maybe that he was never born.

A fantastic poem. A fantastic writer.

"Do I dare disturb the universe?" the narrator questions in Eliot's most special poem. Indeed we do! J. Alfred Prufrock is a masterpiece in both form and function; a glittering slide-show of insurmountable obstacles and emotions, a critical read for anyone lierate or informed.

Perhaps not the seminal work which is "The Waste Land", nevertheless Prufrock is one of the key poems of the early 20th Century. I remember fondly first encountering this poem as a high-schooler -- what an enchanting mixture of ideas, emotions, allusions, sympathies, images. And all of this from Eliot's early 20's! Simply a smashing poem -- it will move you, it will cut you to the core, really, even if you do away with the many erudite allusions and references that are so typical of many of Eliot's poems. Whether you read it in a separate volume such as this, or in a larger collection of Eliot's works, you should rad "Prufrock" -- you will learn more about yourself if you do.

When I first encountered "Prufrock" in an American literature class, I was slightly put off by his erudite work. In a way, I was just completely intimidated by it and did not give it much thought. Later on, I was once again faced with Prufrock and this time I decided to "tackle" the challenge...I could not believe that I had blown of such an amazing work earlier on. Prufrock holds feelings and ideas that we can all identify with. The imagery of a man, alienated from the world, too scared and shy to go after what he thinks he wants for fear of never really being satisfied, rings true with many of our feelings today. I found it especially interesting how Eliot manages to use such a mature voice in this poem even though he wrote it when he was in his early 20's. Eliot was an amazing poet whose work will never leave us.

Eros on the Nile
I have just ordered Love Songs of the New Kingdom and have three comments. One of the poems quoted in Eros on the Nile,(which I have and recommend) is from Love Songs of the New Kingdom. It is a beautiful and charming translation of this poem. Second, I have clicked above to read an exerpt from the book and notice that the hieroglyphs are well and economically drawn. I have been studing Middle Egyptian for about two years, and have been struggling with the problem of writing some of the glyphs quickly and yet with a bit of style. So I look forward to adopting Foster's renditions of them. Third, for those bothered by the comment of another reviewer that the hieratic has been transcribed by Foster into hieroglyphs, I have read that this is a near universal practice of Egyptologists in rendering hieratic text for publication.

Let's go way back to the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, specifically the reign of the Ramesside pharaohs (roughly 1305-1080 BC). To put the era in its proper historical perspective, this was half a millennium before the blind Greek poet Homer composed The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Literature, mainly for moral instruction or in praise of deities, already thrived in the days of the pharaohs. We have some poems and stories inscribed on papyri and ostraca (bits of pottery or limestone). There are temple inscriptions. In terms of size, the most impressive achievement is The Book of the Dead, a bewildering mish-mash of myth and ritual incantation which remains essential reading for morbid-minded folks till today.

Ancient writing can seem intimidating and arcane to our impatient modern sensibilities. There are all these references to gods and demi-gods, whose hierarchic structure and tangled web of familial relations would put any soap opera to shame. You feel that you should just chuck it all aside and down a few cappuccinos instead.

But wait! We have with us today about 60 secular love poems,translated from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics by the American John L. Foster. They are delightfully accessible, and more entertaining than a month of TV dramas. Some of these poems were discovered in archeological digs conducted just a few decades ago. What's even more amazing is that they read as if they were written not in the 12th century BC but yesterday.

Yes, the poems are all about love. But this isn't the hackneyed,soppy mush that you can get today. This is love not just as sweetness 'n' light but as game-playing and subterfuge, as sexual warfare, as delicious torment. In terms of psychological complexity, they match the blues and torch songs recorded early in our own ravaged century. There's no moralising here. Foster's book is called Love Songs of the New Kingdom (1974) but it could have been tagged "Papyri Don't Preach".

Instead of being goody-goody, love poetry should acknowledge the violence, kinkiness and deception which exist in any reasonably interesting relationship. The Ancient Egyptians knew this, for they were wise.

An example? Listen to this young man's melancholic cry:

"I think I'll go home and lie very still / Feigning terminal illness / Then the neighbours will all troop to stare / My love, perhaps among them / How she'll smile when the specialists / Snarl in their teeth! - / She perfectly well knows what ails me."

Appreciate the startling, passive-aggressive psychodrama being played out here. Although the authors in all cases are unknown, their works range freely through the human sensorium. The agony and the ecstasy brought about by lust, affection, jealousy and longing get full play.

The poetic personae are men and women but, unlike in some ancient Greek and Persian poetry, entirely heterosexual. Despite this handicap, there's a whole lot of kinkiness going on. Check out this guy's sado-masochistic relationship with his dominatrix girlfriend:

"How clever my love with a lasso / She'll never need a kept bull! / She lets fly the rope at me / (from her dark hair) / Draws me in with her come-hither eyes / wrestles me down between her bent thighs / Branding me hers with her burning seal / (cowgirl, the fire from those thighs!)"

Something even more delightfully perverse can be found in this straight man's transvestite fantasy, which reminds me of the great Prince song If I Was Your Girlfriend:

"I wish I were her Nubian girl, / one to attend her (bosom companion), / Confidante, and a child of discretion: / Close hidden at nightfall we whisper / As (modest by day) she offers / breasts like ripe berries to evening - / Her long gown settles, then, bodiless, / hangs from my helping hand."

This touching fantasy reminds me of the way I spent Valentine's Day ... but I digress.

Poetry from the Ramesside period is significant as the oldest extant literature spoken by non-deitic females. Some of the personae are worldly and sexually explicit ("Would your fingers follow the line of my thighs/ Learn the curves of my breast, and the rest?") but others are artfully naive and ingenuous, like this voyeuristic girl who is "accidentally" at the right place:

"I just chanced to be happening by / in the neighbourhood where he lives / His door, as I hoped, was open - / and I spied on my secret love."

Some of the poems may seem sweet and simple, but they already use striking similes ("Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals/ Like water stirred into flour for bread"). Nature, represented by flowers,gardens, orchards and, of course, the Nile, also provides poetic settings and metaphors in a way which anticipates the Western pastoral literature that emerged centuries later.

The fact that the poets are so good is surprising without being surprising, if you catch my drift. I mean, their ancestors built the Pyramids (in the era known as, ahem, The Old Kingdom), which are structures of such weirdness, ingenuity and complexity that we still haven't found out everything about them.

The poems, too, are creatures of remarkable engineering. They teach us about the twisty, turbulent, uncanny mysteries of love and lust, which still survive in today's blessedly pagan pop culture. Read them instead of writing to newspaper agony-aunts about your tacky little problems. The poets show us that love is a battlefield, sex is a weapon, and we all sleep alone. Confused? But that's the story of, that's the glory of, love.

If you want to warm your lady's heart through her mind, the potency of this book has no equal. I bought this for my girlfriend two years ago and she still reads it over regularly. You know guys, the gift you are looking for to prove that your mind functions outside of the physical? If she is even remotely open to ancient civilization this is the ticket, this is "The Gift." I am not usually into poetry but I like this a lot. This is the Total Recall of poetry: just enough plot, just enough action. Seriously, she will love this and you will not mind it yourself ;).

Finally a book of Egyptian love poetry for people with enough of Budge to recognize a hieroglyph or two :-) More seriously the hieroglyphs are primarily "atmosphere" in this text. Curiously, the hieroglyphs are not the original but rather transcriptions of the original cursive hieratic ... a bit of posturing that mildly concerned me when I first saw the book. Fortunately, the quality of the translated poetry more than compensated for my qualms.

Having been introduced to Egyptian love poetry by the use of Michael Fox's work in a class on the Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon), I was delighted to find this gem. The poetry is translated without footnotes - a feature I appreciate.

An example of the joys of the poems: "He had made a hushed sell in the thicket, for worship / to dedicate this day / To holy elevation of flesh"

Because of the relationship of Egyptian love poetry to the Song of Songs, this scarely known poetry has had an effect on our culture - one as worth exploring as the Greek or Latin.

I LOVED it! I bought it on an impulse, having found it on the backshelf at a bargain store. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but, like I said, I loved it! It is SO romantic! "when I hold you close, and your arms steal around me, I am like a man transplanted to Punt, or like someone out in the reedflats, when the whole world bursts into flower. In this land of south-sea fragrances, my love, you are the essence of roses!" HOW ROMANTIC! I would love to have been that woman to whom the poet was saying such things! I highly reccomend this book to anybody, especially those wo are just getting into poetry, like me. It is truly a beautiful book.

This book is worthwhile having and probably one of the best books I have.
It is in Urdu, Roman script, English translation and there is an interpretation.
Ghalib himself writes: "For how long shall I write about the anguish of the heart? Instead, I should go and show her my wounded fingers and the blood-dripping pen."

I think this poem says it all :o)

I just receieved this Book today and it looks like a life-long thing to have. All the Ghazals have been provided in Urdu for Urdu readers, in Hindi Transliterated in english with the complete english meaning. Though One I found "Hazaron khwahishen aisi" that's missing atleast 2 of the original Shers so I'm not sure if other ghazals have been abridged too?

A real gem of gift by Mr. Niyazi to the literary lovers who can know what a master-piece of work Ghalib left behind. Commendable job by the author translating the deewan..I recommend not to rush and read like a novel but a verse a day will be a pleasure..just experience.. it

shahab

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of urduu poetry. It is particularly useful to serious students of the Ghazal form for whom interpreting Ghalib has always been an "issue". Not only does Dr. Niazi dwell at length on the imageries used by Ghalib, but in many cases also gives contextual references to incidents in Ghalib's life to help interpret a couplet better. Again, some couplets/terms (eg. kAGhazI paErahan) are understood only within a historical/social context - and Dr. Niazi provides the same in such cases. Note that each couplet is followed by a LITERAL (not idiomatic) translation and then by an elaborate explication. The explication also addresses multiple inherent interpretations if they exist. Dr. Niazi also points out, in many cases, erroneous interpretations that are in vogue.

Budding/Fledgeling poets may use this work to enhance their own understanding of symbols and idioms as used in urduu poetry (in addition to making sense out of the obscurity that is Ghalib). For established scholars this book can serve as a ready reference (or sanity check!).

Note: While the couplets are presented first in the original persian script, they are also transliterated using the roman script for the benefit of those who do not read the original.

If you are like me-passionate about urdu poetry and shairy, but cant read urdu-this book is for you.
Ghalib, undoubtedely, is one of world's best writers ever. But everybody knows that, so lets just talk about this book.
This is indeed a labour of love. Just flipping through the pages, one can see how much hard word has gone into it. But more than that, you will realize how passionate the writer is about Ghalib and about urdu poetry. To translate and explain thousands of couplets is no mean feat. And I salute the auther for this wonderful work.
Each and every shair-couplet- of Ghalib has been given in urdu, also in roman script so that if you can speak hindi/urdu/hindustani, but cant read urdu, you can recite the couplets in original. Then he has translated it literally, in two sentences. Which is really wonderful work, and those who dont understand urdu can appreciate the beauty of ghalib's work.
But it doesn't end here, then the author goes on to explain what Ghalib meant by that couplet. Ghalib's poetry is not always forthcoming and easy to understand. It has many facets to it. A deep hidden meaning, philosophical overtures, social and political satires, historical and religious references-and most times-Ghalib's irreverence to them. And one can interpret it in many ways. The author explains in detail, going on to pages sometimes to explain one couplet. This is where the depth of author's hard work shows. I didn't always agree with him on the real or hidden meaning of some couplets-but then, that's Ghalib for you. You can take it the way you want, and the way one would interpret it would depend on that person himself.
The artwork was a bit disappointing but having said that, this book is worth its weight in gold.
I hope author is going to continue his work and give us Mir, Iqbal, Faiz-------. I for one would keep my ears close to ground and wait eagerly.

But it really is high fidelity eroticism. Not the sexuality of a four color monthly read only for the articles but the sensuality of a mahogany table top with four generations of hand rubbed polish. Dick's blend of prose and music creates a level of anticipation that becomes it's own reward, a wistful recollection of romantic synergy that, if you're incredibly lucky, repeats itself for the rest of your life.

Dick Summer is a legendary broadcaster who elevated his craft to new creative levels during his on-air career. Today, with projects like "Lovin Touch" he is able to touch so many lives with his words of emotion and passion, so finely crafted and delivered. Dick has done so much for the spoken word and "Lovin Touch" represents some of his best work. Most of all, it's his smooth, silky voice that will draw in the listener. He's a frequent guest on my late night radio show and the lines always light up with people wanting to get in touch with the "poet of the airwaves."

Dick's timeless velvet voice has once again spoken the words that take us back to our early days of new love. Both sensuous and childlike, he reminds us of when our love was new and full of joy and intrigue. He guides us through a small crowded world in an escape of love and intimacy.

Have we taken for granted how important our lovers are to us? Dick asks us to cozy up together for Just a Minute with wine and candle wax. Making love in the rain is far better than going to formal balls; sharing pizza and wine with our lover is more fun than the material things many of us desire.

I first heard Dick Summer on WBZ in my youth of the 60's, and was delighted to find him again on CD. Put a fire in the hearth, pour your lover a glass of wine and cozy up with the romantic words of Lovin Touch, and think about why you are lovers. It will be magic.

I have heard of Dick Summer before. I believe he was a New York DJ on 66 WNBC Radio.
I think this book is just wonderful! I have listened to it many times. Over and Over again. I gan't get enough of it. Or his voice. He knows how to tell a story,poem and just makes you feel so good.
I wish more people could get a little taste of his work. Then they will be hooked as am I.
Looking forward to more of Dick Summer's work.

Dick Summer has caught the essence of love in these short verses. The metaphors used allows us to use all of the senses as we listen. Although written many years ago the touch of love does not change. Relax and be drawn into the emotion that being in love evokes.

This is the best poetry! Every poem is designed to make you reach outside yourself to lift self and others, it is not only spiritual, but it is very encouraging and beautifully written.

Lyrics of the Soul touches on everything and raises hope and strength...
Especially during a troubling time in our nation(WTC, etc) Reading this books allows me to re-think what is going on and stay reminded that God loves me and has everything in control!
Each page is a gift...

A wonderful collaboration of words! I enjoyed every page and would gladly give it to all whom I care about and love! Not only is this beautiful poetry, but it's an example of what positive words can do to encourage your spirit!

Got the book as a gift and I am enjoying it, this author is real and a bunch of the poems really hit home with me, especially the spiritual poems! I am a divorced mom and the poem Single Mom was a stregthening source for me-the right words at the right time! Absolutely amazing!

This is a great every day source to putting your spirit, mood and mind on high! You get a sense of understanding, because the poems sound as if they are coming from someone who truly cares!

My children (ages 1 and 4) simply adore this book. With its vintage illustrations and linen-like cover it is as beautiful as nursery decor as it is fun to read. I am so disappointed to see that it is out of print! I have given it as a gift at several baby showers, and it always receives such rave reviews. Scour your local bookstores for copies before it's too late! Every family with children should own this wonderful collection.

Since I grew up in a large household, my mother and father had to find ways to keep 6 curious and inquisitive children busy. To this day, I still remember spending hours reading books such as Currier and Ives, Mother Goose and other coffee-table books that were always lying around in our house. MA MA Goose is a book that would have received a lot of attention in my house. The wonderful illustrations, large print - easy to follow by young and old - and the impressive number of rhymes makes it a book that will be remembered by a new generation of readers. The red ribbon place keeper is a nice touch! Especially when children are dying to hear the story from the night before.

Growing up as a child my mother and father always had wonderful books lying around for their inquisitive and curious children to peruse. I remember Currier and Ives, Mother Goose, and other wonderful coffee-table books that sparked the imaginations of my five siblings and me. To this day, I remember spending hours looking through and reading these books. Ma Ma Goose will provide a new generation of readers with memories that they will cherish when they have grown. The illustrations are wonderful, the print is large enough for young readers and old timers to follow and the book has an impressive collection of old favorites and one's I had never seen before. It's a wonderful book that children will love to carry around. Oh yeah, I love the red-ribbon place keeper too.

The print is large and every page is in full color- my first grader loves it and reads it to her little sister.

Mama Goose by Edelen Wille is a wonderfully whimsical adaptation of the classic poems that I grew up with. Since first discovering it, I have given it as a gift to several friends, and it has been such a hit at baby showers: the illustrations are full of vitrant colors, and the book itself is so well-crafted that it looks great displayed on a bedside desk or coffee table. I also love the story behind the making of the book: that two creative sisters-in-law, with several kids of their own, decided to put their own artistic twist on these perennial favorites.

It truly is the perfect baby gift!

Shaw has packed many high-level topics into this play, while at the same time keeping long portions of the dialogue fairly low-level. Two topics jump out most frequently: hell and enjoyment. His take on each respective topic is fresh, seemingly from an entirely new perspective.

In the third act, the characters' conversation stands out in a couple ways. The explanation of hell from Don Juan, the Statue, and The Devil's point of view is unique. From a Judeo-Christian standpoint, it reeks of blasphemy, twisting around the traditional views to show things as they really are: The devil finally gets to tell his side of the story; heaven is boring; anyone can go between the two afterlives whenever they please. What is interesting is that Shaw's hell can fit with the Judeo-Christian/Biblical facts, something that the blasphemy police certainly will not give any credence to or spend any time investigating. His idea that heaven and hell are created for those who are going there matches perfectly with Biblical theology. A person not living in the grace of Jesus would hate heaven just as much as a person living in his grace would hate hell. Biblical theologians would not agree (if one could get them to listen) that people can choose their own eternity, nor would they agree with the concept of non-believers enjoying themselves in hell, even if one could get them to voice their belief that they will be given over to all the desires of their flesh.

What is fascinating about Shaw's hell is just that idea - that if life is about your passions and enjoyment (namely, the flesh) then your afterlife will be personal to those same passions and enjoyment. At this point, the conservative Judeo-Christians would be sharpening their inquisition equipment in a fervent rage because much of the play speaks to that idea of personal enjoyment during life, specifically the English. Don Juan says that humans live to try to understand life more but later adds to that idea by saying that understanding only helps us to know that we are enjoying ourselves. Life then becomes the pursuit of enjoyment, and hell mimics that pursuit as a sort of eternal amusement park. In a statement that seems like a pre-response to his opponent's case, Don Juan then says that although he spent his whole life looking for pleasure, he never found it. If it could ever happen, it is that response which could appease the frantic theologians. The devil, being the father of lies has pulled the eternal wool over everyone's eyes, both the living and the dead, and has gotten them to abandon their real purpose.

Shaw's flirtation with both sides of the controversy is what allows this play such success. He angers both the proponents and opponents of Christian "myths" and then offers possible solutions to appease both sides.

Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

In this title, G.B. Shaw outdoes himself. Not only does he manage to turn up with a Don Juan play in our modern day and age, which is full of cynicism, and doesn't give in to 'medieval' codes of behaviour, but he even manages to turn around the table. Here, the hunter becomes the hunted, forced to flee from his pursued/pursuer. Shaw includes in this play an ingenious conversation between the original 15th century characters, which not only explains about Don Juan's philosophy, but shines a new light upon our own lives, here and today.

In this title, G.B. Shaw outdoes himself. Not only does he manage to turn up with a Don Juan play in our modern day and age, which is full of cynicism, and doesn't give in to 'medieval' codes of behaviour, but he even manages to turn around the table. Here, the hunter becomes the hunted, forced to flee from his pursued/pursuer. Shaw includes in this play an ingenious conversation between the original 15th century characters, which not only explains about Don Juan's philosophy, but shines a new light upon our own lives, here and today.

The writings of Bernard Shaw in this particulat play, invites to you use your mind to understand life and philosphy. It has such great insight into many aspects of human nature and at the same time is exteremely funny and really takes you into it's pages. The writing has impecable style and this is truly a classic play.

George Bernard Shaw was called, with good reason, the "English Nietzsche". Though Nietzsche was an aristocrat and Shaw a socialist, both cherished the dream of the superman and looked forward to the day when he would be realised. Both, however, were characterised by their mordant wit and intellectual cynicism, in which "Man and Superman" abounds. Shaw manages to compress a number of disparate themes into a relatively taut dramatic format, even throwing in a scene in which Don Juan, the Devil and a gang of anarchist brigands make an appearance. The central event of the plot involves the wealthy Tanner, a member of the "Idle Rich Class" making himself subservient to the Life Force and seeking the perfect woman to marry, who would guarantee him a very special offspring, his ideal, the superman himself. Though Shaw was not known to have read the works of Bergson at that time, nor to have been conversant with his vitalist doctrine of the Life Force, his use of the Life Force motif and the philosophical underpinnings of the play attest to a pure Bergsonism. The most delightful part, however, is the "Revolutionist's Handbook" at the end, which contains Shaw's most scandalous anti-Establishment jibes. For instance, "Do not do unto others as you would them do unto you. They might not have the same taste."

My kid bought this book for me as a father's day present, and I only just got arround to reading it. I have to say, it's kind of tough. There were a lot of words I had to look up. But I feel like there's something in Jesse Ball's writing that isn't about it being complicated even though it is. He just has to write what he has to write, and now we get to read it. The best one of all is the last one in the long block. I don't know where he thought of it, but I read it twice, and I don't usually read poetry.

You will happen across Jesse Ball's poems in a trunk in an attic, folded carefully in a silk scarf, watched over by implacable maidenforms. It will happen. You will unwrap it, this perfect curio, this well-made old thing that suggests the time and the land that made it with such a force that you cannot help but know yourself as irreparably damaged. That is, you will want to die and go to the place where Jesse Ball's poems come from, even as the poems themselves acknowledge over and over the impossibility of such an arrival ("As if it were possible, this life with bees.") It is a terrible thing to have to say, and a terrible thing to have to read--this revelation of life as unresolvable longing, as one long encounter with the ache of a perfect line like "Please let prayer be true" or "I swore... we would live without a doubt, in grace," lines that destroy hope even as they express it, leaving you with "fragments that couldn't possibly add up to anything."

But you cannot turn away from it, because the process he describes--that of coming continually into the proximity of one's own imagination, finding freedom, losing it, falling awkwardly back into life, and coming back again--this "pulse and gather" of memory as he calls it--is life, more than any adventure or struggle or drudgery or moral code or years passed dandling a child on a knee. Any artist who does not begin from that point is not making art but mere "badges of their difference." Jesse Ball sets himself apart from these, calling himself not a contriver but a "machinist," and with March Book he has indeed created a machine, a device of torture as fearsome and beautiful as Kafka at his best--but he has also, as Kafka before him, earned the right to your attention by first lying down in it himself.

One can see the world through many lenses. I would choose the eyes of jesse ball to show me the world every day of the week.

This book is the real thing, a manifesto written by a master poet. Don't be deceived by Ball's youth. He is a veteran with a careful eye and a quick trigger finger. The most remarkable section is the Numbered Column.

One of the best new poets is the only way to describe Jesse Ball. I have met him in real life and the way he talks about his poetry is amazing!

THIS BOOK AND THE WOMAN WHO WROTE IT ARE AMAZING!!! SYLVIA HAS PUT FORTH SOOOO MUCH OF HERSELF IN THIS BOOK. IT IS FUN, EDUCATIONAL AND CARING. IT IS VERY EASY FOR A LAY PERSON TO GLEAN THE INFORMATION FROM IT. IT IS PERFECT FOR EVERYONE NO MATTER IF YOU HAVE HAD ANY MEDICAL/ HOMEOPATHY BACKGROUND OR NOT. SYLVIA HAS ALSO WRITTEN ANOTHER TITLE ; MATERIA POETICA: MALADY IN VERSE AND HAS ANOTHER COMMING VERY SHORTLY! I DO NOT OWN THE 2ND BOOK AS OF YET, BUT HAVE READ IT COVER TO COVER IN HER OFFICE! I WOULD RECCOMEND THIS TO ANY ONE WHO LOVES ANYTHING!!!
P.S. SHE IS ALSO A GREAT DOCTOR!! MY 4 KIDS LOVE HER!!!

THIS BOOK AND THE WOMAN WHO WROTE IT ARE AMAZING!!! SYLVIA HAS PUT FORTH SOOOO MUCH OF HERSELF IN THIS BOOK. IT IS FUN, EDUCATIONAL AND CARING. IT IS VERY EASY FOR A LAY PERSON TO GLEAN THE INFORMATION FROM IT. IT IS PERFECT FOR EVERYONE NO MATTER IF YOU HAVE HAD ANY MEDICAL/ HOMEOPATHY BACKGROUND OR NOT. SYLVIA HAS ALSO WRITTEN ANOTHER TITLE (OF COURSE I CAN'T THINK OF IT RIGHT NOW!) AND HAS ANOTHER COMMING VERY SHORTLY! I DO NOT OWN THE 2ND BOOK AS OF YET, BUT HAVE READ IT COVER TO COVER IN HER OFFICE! I WOULD RECCOMEND THIS TO ANY ONE WHO LOVES ANYTHING!!!
P.S. SHE IS ALSO A GREAT DOCTOR!! MY 4 KIDS LOVE HER!!!

In Materia Poetica, Sylvia expresses the feeling and the essence of homeopathic remedies in delightful poetry. It is a wonderful learning tool for students, and knowledgable homeoapths will appreciate it too.

Not only is Materia Poetica : Homeopathy In Verse by Sylvia Seroussi,MD a wonderful collection of poetry, but it serves as a great reference for choosing that "right" remedy. By portraying the essence of the remedies in verse, Dr. Chatroux has captured the symptoms, quirks, and personality types for which the various remedies are meant to treat. A great addition to ones homeopathic library, as well as great fun to read.

I wish I would have had this book when my children were younger and I was frantically searching for a friendly guide to homeopathy. Most of the books were awfully complicated and required answering so many questions about symptoms that, by the time I'd figured out the right remedy, the fever was gone, the earache finished or the headache had disappeared. This book demystifies homeopathy, and brushes it with beauty, whimsy and deep wisdom at the same time. First, it's a beautiful book, with lovely black and white botanical drawings. And the concept is original; the author simplifies and clarifies homeopathy by describing properties of the 101 remedies in poetry. And she makes it fun, too. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for alternatives to conventional medicine, especially parents of young children. Actually, it's a great book for anyone who loves poetry, plants, beautiful books, the healing arts...the list goes on and on. Part of the uniqueness of the book is because Sylvia Chatroux is a unique doctor, an MD as well as a homeopathic doctor. She's also the kind of doctor everyone wants to have; she believes in the body's ability to heal and she is deeply committed to helping people heal themselves. That spirit comes through in this wonderful book.

Wittingly charming. Ms.Dunkley plays upon the emotion, and lets you wonder longingly about her words. She eases you gently into her world and smothers you with old time passion and womanly strength.
The poems are funny, yet serious and hauntingly delightful. Read them at bedtime and you are guaranteed a peacefully generous night's rest.

Sonia Adams

Ms. Dunkley's poems explore the human experience with emotion that touches the reader's soul. Her well-crafted words allow us to truly be transported into the poems. Memories may not have editing ability, but as Ms. Dunkley shows here, their power over us is undeniable.

Ms. Dunkley has a way of making music out of words. I highly recommend checking out this book.

First time author, Grace Dunkley, shares the many facets of being a woman and human. From anger to joy, Ms. Dunkley uses her poetry to scream and laugh and offers the reader no apology. Fantastic!

Ms. Dunkley's verse is written in a style that is musical, sharp and witty. You should definitely check out this collection.