Poetry Books

This is a fabulous dual-language collection of some of the most sensual, passionate poems written in modern times. Whether he imagines himself as an insect making a journey "from your hips to your feet", traveling to distant places with his beloved by his side, or as a soldier who must leave but whose love will "go on singing until the end of life", Neruda writes with exquisite simplicity, and great beauty.

I find this to be the most accessible of Neruda's books that I have read, perhaps because its subject was a central part of his life. As explained in the introduction of the book, these poems are autobiographical, and written about his wife, Matilde Urrutia. First published anonymously in 1952, they were released in 1963 under his own name, but only after much thought, because of their "intimate birth".
The translations by Donald D. Walsh are superb. He has captured the fluid rhythm, the emotion, and the fire.

He was fortunate to have had this remarkable relationship, as well as the ability to express his feelings with such uncommon depth, but for those men who lack Neruda's poetic genius, and who would like to melt the heart of the woman they love, this might be the perfect gift to go along with that bunch of flowers.

This is quite possibly the most beautiful book of poetry that I have ever read.

An excellent gift to one that you love passionately.

The most amazing and sesitive book that I ever had read about Pablo Neruda.
Pablo es capaz de modelar como nadie las imagenes y meterte en un libro tan hermoso y poderoso. "La muerta" es un claro ejemplo de la belleza y la fuerza de su poesía.

I bought this book because for the long time I wanted to read something by Neruda, and this bilingual edition offered an opportunity to read the original Spanish alongside with the English translation. Since I know a bit of Spanish, this was an opportunity to practice it and improve it, as well as get exposed to some of the most sensual and inspiring poems in any language. Neruda's idiom is rich with metaphors, and he takes everyday objects and situations and imbues them with poetic and emotional undertones. This fascination with common objects is particularly useful for someone who is learning Spanish - it provides a great and enjoyable vocabulary-building opportunity. However, be warned - some phrases and words are a bit risque, and you shouldn't be too liberal at trying to impress your Spanish speaking friends at parties. It may lead to some interesting situations.

I had heard about Pablo Neruda a few years before and I wasn't too fond of his poetry. When I opened "The Captain's Verses" in a bookstore a few months ago, I knew that I had to have it. Since then this has become my most treasured book of poetry. I don't even know how to describe Pablo Neruda. When you read his poetry you just become entranced by the way he is so accurately able to convey such passion in his simple words and beautiful imagery. Even now after I have read each poem in this book at least a hundred times I am still amazed by the way he does it. I have not yet found another book of poetry that can evoke such feeling as "The Captain's Verses." I believe that this is essential to any poetry lover's collection of poetry and that those who are not big fans of poetry would enjoy the love poems of Pablo Neruda.

My copy of this book was totally worn out from countless rereadings with my children. Catchy and pithy, my favorite toddler's book.

This book must go into reprint. It's the new Mother Goose, with sweet, catchy rhymes and delightful illustrations for the children of today. These apt little poems will stick in your and your children's minds until they are grown up and want a copy of the book for their own children. Please, publisher, get "Catch Me and Kiss Me and Say It Again" back in print!

I was given a copy of this book when my first daughter was born in 1984, and my wife and I read it to her and her little sister so many times that all 4 of us still recall the verses - with enormous fondness! The charming watercolor illustrations are as timeless as the poems - the first time you read it, you'll have a nostalgic feeling that you've seen the pictures and heard the poems when you were a child. Spoken aloud, the sing-song rhythm and alliterations captivate adults and children. Even now, when I have not seen the book in months, I can feel my baby clapping in my lap as I recall "clapcake clapcake, butter and milk, honey and ginger, whipped to silk. cornmeal, oatmeal, a penny pinch of flour, Clap me out a clapcake, and bake it for an hour."

When our youngest daughter moved away from home, this was one of only 3 baby books we kept. I just came to amazon hoping to buy a new copy for a friend and her new baby (I won't give my copy away!), and I'm astounded that it is out of print. This is a timeless gem. It needs to be published again.

My husband and I bought this book over 20 years ago. We have read it hundreds of times to our children and now would like to be able to purchase hardcovers for our grandchildren. We would really like to see this book reprinted!

When I was about two or three, a friend gave us our original copy of "Catch Me and Kiss Me," We read it so many times that it fell apart and it was thrown away. Luckilly I was able to get a used copy not so long ago. This book has so many favorite poems that we still quote such as,

Phoebe in a Rosebush, Phoebe in a Tree.
There's Many a Phoebe in the World,
But You're the one For me.

and

Cockyolly Bumkin Merry Go Bet
Fell in the Duckpond and Got all Wet
A Nickle For a Nappy and a Penny For a Pen
To Dress My Little Cockyolly Bumkin in

and

Do the Baby Cake Walk
A One Step a Two Step
A Wobble and A Bobble in the Knee
With a Toe Heel Toe and A Giddy Go Round You Go
Won't You Do the Baby Cake Walk for Me.

Anyway I could go on and on, but this book is a treasure, and it is a sin that it is out of print. Any Publishers out there. PLEASE REPRINT "CATCH ME AND KISS ME AND SAY IT AGAIN."

"A late rose ravages the casual eye," writes Roethke in A Walk in Late Summer, "a blaze of being on a central stem." In such images we see the symbols of nature fully tapped in modern poetry -- and tapped in American English, in fresh, vivid language that overpowers the reader with its grace and presence. The poetry of Theodore Roethke is written by a man profoundly alive -- skirting the edge of suicide, losing his voice in the awe of love, reeling wildly in the throes of "the pure fury," and looking at last with calm eyes into infinity and his own undoing in the Far Field. Roethke was a true descendent of Whitman where the latter wrote "This is no book / Who touches this touches a man." But Roethke's poetry moves us as much by its lyrical language as by the power and wisdom of its experience. Roethke himself was, as represented by his art alone, a "blaze of being."

Among Roethke's contributions to literature are his poems that treat depression. Far from letting his manic episodes paralyze him, he used them to write some his most intense poetry. "In a Dark Time" is one of the immortal poems of the 20th century, worthy to be set aside a Van Gogh painting. Roethke was not alone in treating these subjects: two other Pulitzer Prize-winning poets of his time, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, learned from him and wrote about similar themes. But Roethke's writing stands out in two ways from these poets and other poets the 50's and 60's.

One is the unity of his work and vision -- this Collected Poems traces a single spiritual journey beginning with his childhood memories of the greenhouse, and ending somewhere among "the windy cliffs of forever", last visions tragically cut short by his early death. Between those points are rendered all of the experiences of his life -- as he wrote in his first poem, "my heart keeps open-house." But he never fails to interpret these experiences and understand their significance in the larger picture of his life and poetry. Unlike so much of the poetry of Sylvia Plath and other Confessional poets, Roethke never demands that you read his biography to understand his symbolism. Rather, his symbols develop among his poems to form a kind of mythology: his recurring symbols include stones, fire, light, "the small," and the spirit.

The other difference between Roethke and other poets of his time is his technique. Roethke is never obscure; he always writes in fresh language, avoiding cliches, although his symbols are indeed personal and take time to understand. Roethke's craft is "strict and pure," such that even the staunchest defenders of Sylvia Plath have confessed that Roethke's writing is more disciplined. The Deep Image movement of poets like Robert Bly and James Wright is influenced by the kind of symbolism found throughout Roethke's poetry, and those writers have acknowledged their debt to him. Roethke retained rhyme and meter in a time when all the conventions of poetry were being ripped apart; and he did so with a consummate technical skill not to be found in the Beatniks or in the Black Mountain poets. Roethke's ear for poetry is much more sensitive than that of other poets of his time. We are gagged by the lyricism in lines like

"She came toward me in the flowing air,
A shape of change, encircled by its fire."
("The Dream")

"When all
My waterfall
Fancies sway away
From me, in the sea's silence..."
("Her Time")

"O love, you who hear
The slow tick of time
In your sea-buried ear..."
("Song")


The most exhilarating of all these are Roethke's love poems in "Words for the Wind", which justly won the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award. These poems are unmatched for eloquence and spiritual intensity -- and it's a damn shame that modern anthologies do not reprint them, aside from the famous "I Knew a Woman." For it is in these love poems that Roethke's soul soars, and his poetic power is fully realized.

"She knew the grammar of least motion."
("The Dream")

"Light listened when she sang."
("Light Listened")

"I measure time by how a body sways."
("I Knew a Woman").


Theodore Roethke achieved greatness in art by having the courage to confront the most intense human experiences and the skill to craft them into some of the most eloquent poems of his time. If there is ONE modern poet you will read, let it be Roethke. His "Collected Poems" is a must for every poet and every lover of poetry.

I relished Roethke when I first read him in high school, along with Hart Crane, e.e. cummings, and the Beats. I still admired him in college, when I wrote poetry myself, and regarded most other "living" poets with suspicious disdain. Many poets I loved then have lost some of their charm for me (my loss, not theirs) but, forty five years later, I still read Roethke. Does that speak to you?

To My Sister; The Heron; No Bird; Elegy for Jane; She; Her Reticence; The Meadow Mouse; and of course, My Papa's Waltz--these are all some of the great poems that Theodore Roethke wrote. Roethke is one of our American masters. I found that when he was on his game (as he was in the poems above, among others) his poetry was phenomenal, but when he wasn't, his poetry could be awful. His earlier work is better than his later work, though he seems to have gotten most of his recognition for his later work. Still, for the poetry lover this is pretty much a required volume for your shelves.

At first, I was heitant to delve into this author's work simply because I'd never heard of him in all my wide readings of poetry, both modern and old.

Don't make the same mistake I did. Roethke WILL NOT disappoint you. "The Lost Son" has become my new favourite poem, and this book goes with me perpetually, and will until I finish every line in it.

Exquisite.

I love Roethke and I can't stop loving him. His words, phrases, rhythms, thoughts, feelings and meditations stick with me. I will go a year or two without reading his work, but he is still there shaping the way I see the world. His poetry occupies the same space in my mind as Brian Eno's transcendent work On Land. It's meditative, quiet, and joyful and yet, sweaty, ominous, and alarming, all at the same time.

The Far Field (North American Sequence) incarnates this feeling for me. Roethke meditates on his own mortality (don't all poets?) and finds a vast encompassing love for life. A love not only for the "growing rose," but also, seemingly for the summer heat and the stench of dead buffalo, "their damp fur drying in the sun." He sees beauty in nature but also "redolent disorder" and he calls life "This ambush, this silence."

I agree with him.

Roethke proclaims a love for life which is similar to Nietzsche's concept of the Eternal Recurring. That is, he has learned to love life, the good and the evil, to such an extent that he would have it recur again and again, eternally. This kind of love is not a love for evil, rather it is a willingness to sit behind the window of one's pain and still look out and see the beauty. This takes great courage.

Roethke's influences are obvious. What American poet could escape Whitman and his lineage, Thoreau, Henry Miller, etc.? I'm sure he read his fair share of Nietzsche. I also note, Roethke's style seems to have changed drastically towards the end of his life. I believe this was probably partly in reaction to the Beats. However, in my opinion he swallows the Beats whole and makes something new of them. Roethke's verse also periodically has the ring of Wallace Stevens, and sometimes Robert Frost. Some of his verses sound like bad seventies self-help schtick; "I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart of form," etc.

I only go into these criticisms so I can make a larger point. Roethke's metaphors are sometimes, seemingly, larger than their implication, sometimes they are derivative, sometimes clunky. But, his work, for me, has an almost Biblical air to it. By this I mean his work resonates on a mythological level. His ideas are broad and go to the heart without ignoring the blood and stench of life. At the same time, yes, his ideas are broad, however, his details, while often being merely enumerative, are true. By this I mean, they come from a real eye roving across a real landscape. He is, at once, strange and familiar.

I would hope that Academia would catch up with Roethke. It seems that he is being unfairly ignored.

forces you to look in the mirror. I was introduced to Dahl by my 8th grade English teacher who saw something very dark inside of me (yes, another plug for better teacher pay!). "Pig" gave me nightmares, "Skin" made me wonder about the greed of human beings. What's missing are the "My Uncle Oswald" stories, but this collection is absolutely priceless!

Excellent book from all points of view. Sewn edition, bound and quality of printing. I have another edition of Roald Dahl but unfortunately it's a paperback edition and the pages disappear one after another. I decided never to buy again paperback books. When I saw that Roald Dahl was published in Everyman's Library I immediately decided to order it and I am more than happy with what I received. It's very good for work with my students and I will leave it to my children as well. Many thanks to the publishers.

Once again! the Everyman's Library has outdone any other publisher's job of creating a thorough and precise piece of book history. This is the third book I have purchased and read through Everyman's Library and I sincerely feel their books are the only ones I will buy when creating my own hardcover collection. The quality of paper, the texture of the outer red cover, the beauty of the chronological timeline of events in the author's life, they not only think of it all, but go so far beyond what is called for in a $20 book. If I were a tree that died in the name of paper, I would only hope my flesh would go towards another Everyman's success.
On to Roald Dahl. Best writer Ever. Best collection Ever. Best stories I have Ever read. Best organization of stories contained within a single volume. This book is Paper Gold. My favorite writer and my favorite book publish company smooshed into a magnificent creation that is the perfect size for the average human; hand and lap!!! Touch the hard cover. Feel it upon your cheek. Smell the pages... In the name of all that is holy!

I actually have a compendium of Roald Dahl's stories in a different edition but when I came across this edition with the inimitable Mr Dahl on the cover I had to buy it. It is a lovely edition that collects all of Dahl's short stories in one book, and I love the fact that it comes with a lovely red satin page marker! A great addition to any library.

This collection of stories by Roald Dahl is great. He was one of the best and entertaining writers that composed such original work. I have read some of his stories more than once. I read them and when I am in the mood I pick them up again and read them again. I highly recommend these to anyone who especially has never read anything by Mr. Dahl.

A great classic that each child should have in her library.

I've been searching for this book since the birth of my first child. It was my all time favorite book. My mother read it to me night and day. Upon my learning to read, I remember taking this book to bed with me during nap time and reading it over and over again. I never grew tired of seeing how children in other countries lived. This book went every where I went. I'm estatic this book has been reprinted and I can share it with my children.

In typical Dr. Suess fashion (LeSieg is backwards for Geisel...Dr.Suess' real last name) this book carries the poetic rhyme that kids love. It tells the story of how homes are different everywhere, but how "they're all alike when a friend asks you in." The pictures are bright and interesting. Young children will be filled with curiosity with the amusing pictures of homes in far away lands.

I read this book to a group of first graders and they hung on every word. None had ever heard the book before. It truly is delightful! It is a shame that this fabulous book is no longer in print. I got my copy nearly 30 years ago. It is still my favorite!

This book is amazing. I found it at a thrift store for .25 and put it away for the birth of my first child. I am an American living overseas, so for my son to see all the different cultures familiar and unfamiliar, it great. He is 18 months old and just wants to look at the pictures and hear me read it over and over and over again. I never tire of reading it either.

I have been "hunting" for this book for years! I loved it as a child, going all those different places, and now am anxious to share it with my nieces! Thank you for allowing us to do some "traveling" together!! Ronda

Crumpled Paper Dolls captivated me from the very first page. I was led into a world that is so unlike mine and yet I found myself relating to the emotion, the intensity of his words. Each word is so beautifully chosen, so real and honest. He will take you into the artist's New Orleans and leave you wanting more.

It's moving, beautiful to read. It's all the bad things you've ever felt but never had the courage to say. The imagery puts you right back into the memories of the people you've ignored, hurt, or loved.

Crumpled Paper Dolls is proof of a life uncommon, unabridged, unforgettable. Assuredly, a life less ordinary.

Matthew's words, although uncomfortable at times, are hauntingly familiar. He reels you in with his tortured melodies and keeps you bound to him with his brave honesty and hope. Matthew is revealing to the point that I almost feel like an intruder at times. He shares his journey through life, love, and the pursuit of oneness.

I will always cherish this book. I have my face, heart, soul, and mind in it all the time.

Viva La Stick Man!

Brutally honest and dark. Provacative. Matthew's prose will make you ask tough questions. His poetry reflects the reality of situations. Funny and true... I've read and re-read the book. Different poems hit home each time I read it. A wonderful work!

There is a distinct dichotomy between the subject matter and the words Nolan uses to describe it: The former is sharp enough to cut through your soul, while the latter is angelic and beautiful. Taking on matters most don't want to shine a light on, Nolan takes your hand and shows you that it can be scary, but cathartic at the same time. Not since Anne Sexton have I enjoyed having my emotions stirred so fiercely. A must read for any lover of poetry and any lover of honest life.

The Four Quartets by TS Eliot is a classic and should not be missed. It is of the type of poetry that evokes meanings from their hidden places in us through the use of word trails that are only partially logical. Our own emotions connect things, so when it is read, don't approach it with the usual straining to decipher the meaning. The ring of a gong lingers after it is struck, something of a parallel to how the poem works. Fascinating, too, is its approach to understanding the elusive sense of time, but it is couched more in the sensibilities of the East than the West.

Among all these reviews, not one comes to terms with the very title of this opus: Four Quartets. When was Eliot anything but precise in his choice of word?

The inspiration for these poems -- or reflections -- are the late string quartets of Beethoven, those numbered from 12 through 16. It is the 5-movement No.15 in A Minor,Op.132, that seems to have exerted the strongest influence, with it's famous adagio movement, which Beethoven inscribed as the thanksgiving song of a convalescent.

Actually, No.15 was the 13th in order, but the Quartets were published out of sequence, which was not uncommon in Beethoven's time. The Late Quartets progress from the classic 4-movement No.12 and add a movement to each work up to the 7-movement Op.131 in C-sharp Minor. The 16th and final quartet returns to the classic 4-movement form. There is an expansion of form concluding with a contraction and return over the course of 5 works.

Like Eliot's Four Quartets, Beethoven's Late Quartets reflect upon time and faith -- and the 'speech' is often plain: repeated phrases that appear stuck in a groove, hammered chords, cheap tunes that seem to be lifted from a band in a local inn; from long-breathed melodies that look beyond what Wagner and Mahler will eventually bring to music, to cell-like motivs not heard again till Bartok and Webern.

The 'learned' aspect of Eliot's verse can lead us astray, so that we are forever parsing the meaning of the lines. I am taken with the sounds he makes as I read the poems aloud, and the sounds he chose to convey what the poems mean are, in a sense, the essence of meaning. From the first I was struck by the sheer sound of 'time' in the context of these Quartets, which are Eliot's swan song.

I am a deeply religious Sikh living in America. The Four Quartets is to me a shining example of a man of deep understanding of God and reality. I have read this poem many times since I first read it back in college. It speaks directly to my soul. There is no passage, no phrase, which does not work for me.

I read some sections to my wife when we were first married, and she thought that it was an English translation of the Sikh holy texts.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

There is no better explanation of Eastern religion than this. I am eternally grateful for this work.

There is a line in Section III of "The Dry Salvages" that has bothered people: "I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant--" as perhaps being too overdone, or even unnecessary to the poem...but, the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna does give some insight into Eliot's comments on time and reality...when Arjuna is faced with the possibility of killing his own relatives in the opposing army, he can't handle it...Krishna then tells him that it doesn't matter....because of the immortal aspect of The Atman (man's inner spirit) which is not touched by our reality....no one really dies and so, only the doing is important:"Realize that pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same." And so, in relation to the poem, Time is looked at in much the same way...We have the illusion of leaving and arriving: "You are not the same people who left that station Or who will arrive at any Terminus"...it doesn't matter what you think or your regard for the fruits of your actions...the only important duty is to make the trip: "Not fare well,/but fare forward, voyagers." Being in the flow of time, living moment to moment, doing what is necessary is all....perhaps, at the quantum level, as another reviewer has suggested: normal perceptions are topsy-turvey, we're in the rabbit hole and if we can see that, then:"...the way up is the way down, the way forward is the/way back./You cannot face it steadlly, but this thing is sure,/That time is no healer:the patient is no longer here." When the insight is achieved, time disappears, all duality vanished and you are left with that still point of consciousness only seeming to act...so, what the hell?: "Fare forward." or as Krishna would put it: "That which is non-existent can never come into being and that which is can never cease to be."----Don Hildenbrand/Eugene, OR., USA

This is a tiny book, more like a pamphlet, only 58 pages long with large print and some blank pages as part of the design. But it is mighty in its impact. These "four quartets" are four of T. S. Eliot's poems meditating (among other things) on the nature of time - time past, time present, time future...If you are of my generation and have read the poems before, you might love carrying this little book around just to dip into it for a line or two, and maybe understand something you never understood before. (T. S. Eliot is not always an easy read.) If you have never read them before, I envy you!

I have a tendency to be too wordy in my writing, so to learn more focus and control, I have been studying (and writing) haiku. The Haiku Handbook has been an engaging resource for me in those efforts. Each of the book's five sections contains a wealth of ideas and information that both challenges and inspires:

Part One: Haiku Old and New [A great introduction to the experience of haiku and to Japanese Masters. The "Why Haiku" is helpful in clarifying one's purpose for writing such brief poetry.]

Part Two: The Art of Haiku [Natural themes, the form and craft of haiku; this is the section that I like best, and I repeatedly refer back to these pages. I especially enjoy how the author discusses the difference in Japanese and English languages.]

Part Three: Teaching Haiku [How to teach haiku writing to children, lesson plan included]

Part Four: Before and Beyond Haiku [Haiku and its uses]

Reference Section [With Season-Word List & Glossary]

Overall, this is a worthy product for anyone who wishes to delve into haiku more deeply than the introduction that most Westerners receive.

I love this book, as a matter of fact I love it so much I purchased two. One for my desk and one for my purse. Great info for Haiku writers.

The perfect volume for fans and writers of haiku. Indispensable.

Blyth's Haiku Seasons books and Higginson's guide to reading and writing "haiku" in English are two of the necessary books to begin to understand what haiku is all about. I have a difficult time with the idea that a tiny poem written in any of the Romance languages--esp. English-- could be called a "haiku," even though the author might include season words and even the 5/7/5 syllable count. I would much rather call them epigrams, because they simply cannot give you the effect of a Japanese haiku. Anyone who argues otherwise is simply fooling themselves, and you. Given all of that, however, Blyth and Higginson are good books to have on the shelf. Blyth, I believe, is the better writer/translator and his sense of chronology and history is stronger. In addition he gives hundreds of translated gems to admire from Basho, Issa, Buson, and others. He also doesn't try to convince you that haiku can be written in English. Higginson is the warmer writer and his generosity to the reader is apparent from the beginning, so practioners will find him perhaps more useful than Blyth in a practical sense. I disagree with Higginson's history of English language "haiku"--there are some important people he simply leaves out, but he more than makes up for the omissions in other chapters. Both writers impart an enthusiasm for the subject to their readers. If you're building a haiku library and would like a great start, Blyth's four volume set and Higginson's Haiku Handbook are the way to go.

There are very few books on how to write in any idiom. This book explains the hows and whys of haiku. What it takes to get started and to continue to write. I have found this useful in my writing that is not associated with haiku or poetry. This book is a lot of fun to read, and is not stuffy and boring as text books are. It will serve all writers well.

I, too, like Ms. Ryan, am a believer in "true love." I found it only
once in my life for a brief time; consequently, once it became only a
memory, I felt I might never find that special someone or share those
wonderful feelings again. I am still in search, but after having read
Ms. Ryan's tender thoughts, I now feel this is still there for me and
possibly anyone who will just keep their mind and heart open for that
someone to "come in." I have dated recently with the hope that this will
happen. If it does not, I am not discouraged, however; I feel it
is "just around the corner," and some day I will discover it all over
again. I do not want to settle - I want the "bells and whistles" all
over again, along with the heart "flutters" waiting to see and be with
that person who will make my life complete again. This will happpen -
Please read "If You Believe in True Love," and you will understand and be
uplifted to a new level of hope and encouragement. I plan to give this
book to a couple of my friends this year as a Valentine's Day present. I
know they will appreciate it and cherish its contents forever.

I have finally allowed myself to meet someone after reading Marlene Ryan's Book, it helped me to understand that I must listen to my own
feelings and to recognize these feelings for what they are. She helps you look at things in a different light. I have so longed to please other people
my whole life and it left me feeling empty inside. Now I am doing what makes me feel happy inside and I am now my own person. Her book is full
of so much information on so many situations that take place in life. I have taken to heart all that she pours out from her heart and it is working for
me. I encourage others to read through her whole book first; after open to a page and read.

The Author's true love cd is so expressive as it touches on various topics sharing so much love, misunderstandings, faith. I highly recommend it to anyone. I want to thank the Author for a true work of art, combinding her book with a music cd.

Author's Book is very open and honest. She stresses you to listen to your heart, for it is as she has stated, 'a Protection.' I really found myself very involved and the further you get into her book the greater or should I say more intense it gets. I do recommend her Book to anyone that would like to look a little more into themselves, certainly has opened my heart to true love by understanding and recognizing what it really is and to follow your heart for it does exist as the Author brings out.I found the Introduction to her Book very informative. I am more then empressed with her talent and writings so different then anything I have come accross as far as poetry, this is far more then poetry. These are stories, meditations, more along those lines, wisdom. Very professionally put together! Her Music CD; which I have listened to many times. You need to, there is so much. Alot to absorb in one sitting. I love the songs: So Sorry, Time for A Change, Believe, Is This How We Parted, Cared, Should Find, High On a Mountain, 'True Love' (great story). Other songs; Ever Since You Left, Remember Me (very moving) Music CD. The Music is somewhat not only exciting but coupled with the lyrics amazing as I again, recommend you to listen to it a few times to get the drift, deep. There are alot of songs; with such meaning. This Unusual Book with Music CD certainly deserves a 5, if not more for the simply fact it takes courage to put something so different out into the Market Place. The Author has done a great job, I give her lot's of credit! Very Well Done! I hope to see her on a talk show soon! Worthwhile and should be shared with the public on a larger scale. Someone who has the knowledge of the industry should take a hold of it and run with it, she deserves to be heard!

Her Book with Music CD is a whole new concept; the Author has done something very unique and I was greatly amazed at her futuristic style of mixing a book with a music CD in a very interesting way.

Never saw a book put to music before. The whole concept of having her meditations turned to lyrics put to music on a CD is so amazing. Picked right out of her book and I like that I could just take them in the car with me and listen to them on the way to work. Songs like So Sorry, Time For A Change, Should Find, High On A Mountain the whole CD is so meaningful. This should be the new wave of the future, not having much time to read, I can appreciate this. Upon opening my package, I was surprised how appealing and how I knew I made the right choice to purchase it. Hope others will have the opportunity to read such deep and thoughtful works. Definitely would give it to a friend for a gift, because it would be something out of the ordinary. Her pictures throughout the book are beautiful. Thank you for giving me the chance to say what I feel about the Author's incredible Book and Music CD. Thanks to the Author on her out of the Ordinary Works get's my 5 stars, worth it.

As i turned the pages of the authors life I became intrigued with her writing style. She is open and pure and takes you on an emotional roller coaster of the heart. I felt her pain, joy and her honesty. Her poem "Sweet Dreams and The Little Things "is one i like very much. It reminds us in life IT IS the simple things that brings the greatest joy!!!!. Finding your True Love and holding on to it is what the book is about. She writes about freedom, love, friendship, loss and longing. It makes you ponder personally on your own life teaching you to cherish and protect those you care about. As her poem "TIME" states "if its true love, time is of no concern "True Love" has a life of its own. Time teaches lessons and enables us to see what we feel and lost, this book is a wake up call to our hearts. I urge all to go out and buy this lovely book. It will give you the courage to Make that call, Swallow that pride, or Follow that Dream to find or reunite again with your True Love. I hope Ryan as the Author has found her true Love. For it made me realize who mine is.

A dear friend of mine had this book and I was intrigued. Although he had an edition that was dated back in the 50's, it was very worn out with its brown loose pages. Depsite that, I read some of the greatest poems that you can imagine and some familiar ones that I knew but not in its entirety. They were some of the most beautiful words written on paper. I decided to get my own copy and got a new edition for my friend and was thrilled with emotion. I knew I gave my friend a renewed treasure that he can now read without worrying about the pages falling out of its binding. I truly recommend this book of poems to anyone who really wants to feel well written words in verses that are truly beautiful and memorable. Get this book!

As with all anthologies, there will be a number of reviewers sniffing in an offended manner at the dearth (or glut) of Cummings, Yeats, Aiken, or Pope, but any 600 page anthology, by it's very nature, must be incomplete. I purchased this compilation three years ago for long flights and such and it has yet to disappoint. For the size and price of this work, one would be hard-pressed to do better.

As for content, all the major poets are more or less liberally represented. Cummings gets short shrift, and several of Yeats' most memorable pieces "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death", for one) are excluded. Yet I am certain novice and old hand alike will find this work passes the time admirably.

Having been with me through several housheold moves, military action, and cramped backpacks no self-respecting piece of literature should have to endure, my copy is now fairly falling apart. Yet when it expires, I will buy another copy. No other anthology, especially in terms of price, convenience, and memories, could ever compare.

As other readers have said this anthology contains selections from the great poets of the English language from Beowulf to the middle of the twentieth century. It is the kind of book which can be read and reread for years upon years. I would however take exception to the claim that it is the best anthology of its kind. It does not have explanatory material provides no introduction to the poets, no interpretation of their work. There are other anthologies ( Among them ' The Concise Treasury of Great Poems' by Louis Untermeyer) which do so. Nonetheless the bottom line is that this Anthology contains very much of the greatest poetry in the English language.

I too love this anthology. A passionate love of poetry has been part of my upbringing. Let me say that both my mother, Gene Derwood, and Oscar Williams, my biological father, contributed to the selection of the greatest of the great poetry of the English language. Thus we have the contribution of a husband and wife team. Reviewers have mentioned updating this volume, but what has happened is that modern poetry writing no longer follows a firm tradition. Modern poetry is a shotgun blast. There are no recognizable standards for universal selection. Plath is recognized because you cannot divorce her from her suicide. Ginsberg you cannot divorce from his beard and little clanging bells, a media invention. Bob Dylan you cannot divorce from his being a song writer and media invention. If you are not a media invention and only a poet, what chance do you have? So Immortal Poems represents classic taste before media took over the American mind. The media is immortal these days, not poetry. Selecting from contemporary poets not using traditional standards would be difficult to do. I would still love to do it. For those interested in Oscar Williams there is information now available on the web. Just search it with oscarwilliams and see what their world was like in the twentieth century.

I have several books of poetry at home, but this one is my favorite. It is a good collection of poetry from the time of Middle English to almost to the present. There are a few modern poets I would like to see included that haven't been yet. Maybe someday someone will update this wonderful volume.

It starts with Middle English poet extraordinaire Geoffrey Chaucer, with excerpts from the Canterbury Tales and other writing. I would like to have seen Beowulf and some Old English poetry included. There are excerpts from anonymous poets of Middle English leading into the "Shakespearean" times where English is becoming more modern.

Shakespeare of course is well represented, with passages from plays as well as poems and sonnets. This is true for some others like Marlowe, too.

By the time after the Elizabethean period, English poets were not confined to England. There are Celtic poets like Robert Burns of Scotland, Dylan Thomas of Wales, and several Irish poets and American poets well represented in the later part of the book.

The poets are arranged chronologically in the book, but there is are indexs of titles and poets alphabetically at the end of the book for cross referencing. This book has over 600 pages, but it is still a small paperback and will fit in a coat pocket, which is where my copy often lives, dog eared and highlighted all over the place!

I had heard of most of the poets in this collection before I got the volume, but there are some I hadn't heard of and am glad to know. This is an excellent beginning collection, easy to carry and easy to read. Being a mass market paperback, the printing is not the best, but the poetry certainly is.