Lasting Lines: 100 Poems and Poets That You Should Know

by Jamie Grant

The English language is rich in poetry; yet how many people are aware that many of our stock phrases and familiar sayings have their origins as lines of poetry? Ink-stained poet Jamie Grant set out to uncover a selection of these enduring lines in the works of English-language poets all the way from Chaucer and Shakespeare up to the present day. Some of the lines are well known; others should be; and others again might be enjoyable surprises. These lines, and the quirky biographical and critical comments that accompany them, are an invitation to readers, from the well versed to the merely curious, to rediscover the pleasure of reading poetry, and to look at 100 of the world's best poets from a unique perspective.

Genres: Poetry

208 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2019

Reviews

[Courtney Stroup · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was good to learn about + be reminded of different poets… but pretty boring + having just a few lines from poems didn’t give clear context - which, in turn, did not help the poems make meaning.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Thus, anyone who reads this collection from beginning to end will find narrative threads that extend from one life to another, while certain themes echo from one line to the next."

I picked up Lasting Lines: 100 Poems and Poets That You Should Know by Jamie Grant as a more series break in my usual string of light young adult fantasy novels. Lasting Lines is a collection of lines of poetry selected by Grant that have personal or cultural meaning. Each line of poetry is accompanied by a biography of the respective poet, with the poems starting with Chaucer and following time chronologically till present day. As mentioned, the poems themselves are not presented in full, and instead Grant chooses to focus on the lasting impact and voice of lines, showing just how important even part of a poem can be.

The selection of poetry ranges from well known names such as Plath, Tennyson, Frost, Shelley, Byron, Auden, and Bishop, to names that I had never even heard of from Australia, Jamaica, and New Zealand. I enjoyed this book far more than I anticipated even though some of the poems did not appeal to me. I loved seeing the impact each of the poets' lives had on their writings and learning about interesting events in their biographies. Surprisingly many of these poets knew each other or learned from each other. On a technical note, it was also edifying to see the changes in style and characteristics of acceptable poetry--from iambic lines, to free verse, from structured rhyme to wild metaphors and similes the voice of poetry changes several times in the 500 year time span Grant covers.

Oddly enough, one of my favorite lines of poetry from this collection was actually not the "official line" chosen, but a line placed into the author's biography about each of the poets. For his section on Thomas Hardy, Grant included the following lines that just jumped out to me:

"The cruel girls we loved/ Are over forty, / Their subtle daughters, / Have stolen their beauty; / And with a blue stare, / of cool surprise, / they mock their anxious mothers/ with their mothers' eyes."

I would give the collection, Lasting Lines: 100 Poems and Poets That You Should Know by Jamie Grant 4 stars out of 5 stars. It introduced me to some new poems and poets that I want to investigate more and gave me a deeper appreciation of how poetry has changed over the years.

[Lisa Thomson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grant has put together an interesting poetry study for enthusiasts. Combining famous lines from poets born in 1300's up to 1971. Many mentioned are famous (i.e. Shakespeare, Dickinson) and many are more obscure which I appreciate because I have found 'new to me' poets that I will read more on.

Grant offers little known facts about the lives of each poet and their influencers. The book is organized in an easy to read structure where the 'lasting lines' of the poem are on the right page and to the left is the brief bio of the poet, making a two-page spread for every poem featured.
It's a book you can pick up and put down at random--forever.

My complaint is that there were few female poets featured. I found this incredibly disappointing! Out of 100 poets, only 16 are female. There is truly no excuse for it. It is not readily apparent at first glance since the table of contents do not list full names of the poets featured but rather, list them by last name only. If I had seen (in the TOC) the gender discrepancy, I may not have bought this book.
That said, I'm glad I did purchase it and I will be treasuring it.

I could always add my own "Lasting Lines" from my personal choice of female poets missing here and make an addendum to the book for my own reading pleasure. :) I do love to modify.

[Victoria Foote-Blackman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though there are a number of practical and poetical shortcomings to this book, Lasting Lines has the advantage of being a highly readable little tome giving context to famed and less well-known lines of poetry from celebrated poets. It does not contain any full poems. The left-hand side of the page features a long paragraph that shows a writer knowledgeable about poetry but also some of the poignant or just piquant details of their lives. The extract from the featured poem appears on the facing page. Lasting Lines proceeds chronologically, starting in the 14th century with Geoffrey Chaucer and concluding with an Australian poet Melinda Smith born in 1971. Because the author, Jamie Grant, is an Australian poet of standing, he takes a refreshingly global look at English language poems, so not only do the poets featured hail from England, the U.S and Canada, but from Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies. There is table of contents but regrettably no index of authors. This book is ideal for people just discovering poetry, or those who would like to know a bit more about the poets they may have become acquainted with in school or elsewhere.

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase Lasting Lines here for just $10!

For the poetry lover but also those with limited knowledge, this book looks at everyone from Chaucer to Plath, with many poets you will never have heard of in between. Full of interesting discussion points and introductions to many writer's works.

Elisa - The Book Grocer

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am drawn to books like this, books you can read a page or two here and there and then flip ahead and flip back. I call them browsable books, and this one is perfect for that. Lasting Lines is a collection of the most famous lines of poetry from one hundred poets, along with a short paragraph about the poets' lives.

There are poets here from (mostly) England, Australia, and the US, but there are a nice selection of women as well as men, and older poets as well as more recent ones.

[Wil · Rating 4 out of 5]

helpful to me since it provides brief introductions and their representative lines of a range of post second world war poets

[Kelly (Kamirose) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected. I thought it would have full poems instead of just a single line and a paragraph about the poet.

[Jeanett. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esssselører

[Colm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish they showed more of the poems. I did like the context behind each of the poets, that was cool.