The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales

by Jeanne Marie Beaumont (Editor), Claudia Carlson (Editor), Galway Kinnell (Contributor)

Writers and readers have long been inspired by the haunting wisdom and sheer imaginative power to be found in the fairy tales of the immortal Brothers Grimm. The editors have collected more than a hundred poems inspired by Grimm tales and written by our finest living poets. A brilliant and informative anthology, a teachable text. Jeanne Marie Beaumont first book of poetry, "Placebo Effects," was selected by William Matthews for the National Poetry Series in 1997. She teaches at Rutgers University. Claudia Carlson works at Oxford University Press in New York. Her poems have appeared in "Heliotrope, Coracle, Space and Time, Fantastic Stories" and "NYCBigCityLit.comm"

Genres: Poetry, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Retellings, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fairy Tale Retellings

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Jeanne Marie Beaumont grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs. She is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Burning of the Three Fires, Curious Conduct, and Placebo Effects, a winner in the National Poetry Series. She coedited The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales. She has taught at The Frost Place, Rutgers University, The Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, and is on the poetry faculty of the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. Since 1983 she has made her home in Manhattan.

Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this for teachers and fairy tale aficionados alike. This anthology gives a fresh, intense and contemporary perspective on some of the Grimm Brother's more famous tales. I have enjoyed the wealth of books that revisit and revision the kindermarchen in recent years. This collection is a welcome addition to that wealth. It belongs on the shelf next to your copy of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. Fresh life and interest is breathed back into tales like Hansel and Gretel and Snow White.

I give a brief quote from an included poem by Lisel Mueller "Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny":
Why do I read you tales
in which birds speak the truth
and pity cures the blind,
and beauty reaches deep to prove a royal mind?
...
I have the golden key--
and learn from you once more
the terror and the bliss,
the world as it might be?

Truly these tales are not only worth rereading but also retelling especially in verse as this book proves.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a well-thought-out collection of twentieth-century fairy tale poetry. rather than grouping poems by fairy tale, the editors chose to group poems by themes, objects, and reinterpretations. the resulting groups--Mapping the Ways, Spinning the Tales, Voices and Viewpoints, Spell Binding and Spell Breaking, Magical Objects, Desire and Its Discontents, The Grimm Sisterhood, Variations and Updates, Ever After or a Few Years Later, and Living the Tales--provide for a sensitive reading of the poems and their deeper cultural and psychological readings.

my only quibble with the collection is that nearly all of the poems presented seem to deal only with the dark side of the grimms' tales--the violence, the patriarchal view and treatment of women, the sometimes twisted psychological undertones--without offering any of the boon that was also such an inextricable part of the grimms' tales. perhaps this is an artifact of twentieth-century criticism and interpretations of the grimms' fairy tales, but i think that a truly well-rounded collection of fairy tale poetry would be able include selections dealing not just with the darkness of the journey through the forest, but also with the boon, the rewards, the glittering jewels found after the witch has been confronted and the heroine has come out on the other side. these were, after all, teaching tales, told by housewives--they were not just tales to scare and suppress, but tales to support and bolster up the tough and oftentimes painful psychological journey from childhood to adulthood. it seems to me that many of the twentieth-century poems in this collection lose sight of that fact, instead offering only a narrow reading of fairy tales as a long walk through the dark forests of culture and the self. what a pity to have the wonderfully complex grimms' fairy tales reduced to that!

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here are tales both familiar and unfamiliar, reimagined by various poets that explore the hidden meanings behind such stories as “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Rapunzel”, “Hansel and Gretel”, et al. If the chosen stories are limited in choice, the poems are unlimited in scope, dealing with what truly happens behind closed palace doors and within witches’s gingerbread houses. By turns, saturnine, ethereal, opaque and occasionally mildly humorous, these poems show the reader the Grimm tales as if viewed through a magnifying glass and at a warped angle.

There is much to ponder in the good advice of “Instructions” by Neil Gaiman, a fed-up wife who resorts to an old trick in Ronald Koertge’s “Gretel” and the disbelieving general laborer who reacts much the same way the princess did when importuned by a green-skinned amphibian in Katharyn Howd Machan’s “Hazel Tells LaVerne”. Feel free to pick your way through this tangled forest of words and inner imagery as these poems cart you back to a childhood that may not have been as sunny as you remember.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the poems in this anthology co-edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson are absolutely wonderful. It illustrates that like the Greek Myths, the bible and the works of Shakespeare, the fairy tales are an essential part of a good education. In these poems we see mothers, grandmothers and children from the different perspectives. The flow of the book keeps quick as we jump from poem to poem, from poet to poet, as if we are crossing a stream. Different styles are evident here. This is one to keep handy near my desk to read again and again.

[Ila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I strongly believe this ought to be a must-read for everyone. A unique anthology that offers a window into the minds of fairy-tale characters, their desires, and motivations. Some poems are actual retellings or modern takes. I particularly loved "Straw into gold", "Shadow", "The Witch", "Reading brothers Grimm to Jenny", and my favourite by far, "Gretel".

[Lucius Malfoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I'd eat this up.

I thought over a hundred poems inspired by Grimm tales would be right up my enchanted woods.

And it was, but at times, also it wasn't.

This collection really leans into the darkness and the gendered violence at the heart of Grimms' Fairy Tales. I don't mind this, of course; I expect as much when I picked this collection up. And I can't necessarily say it would have been nice to balance the darkness with some light, because maybe that is not what this collection is, but it got a bit thankless at times.

Somehow, a lot of these poems take the already dark fairy tales and make them even darker. Like Hansel and Gretel killing a perfectly nice witch after bullying her, or the evil queen killing Snow White. I really do love a dark poem. ‘The Robber Bridegroom’ by Margaret Atwood is breathtaking and centres around extreme violence, but not every poet in this collection is close to Atwood's skill level, and a bad poem about women suffering is just no fun to read.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book lands somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me. Like many fairytale collections written for adults, this one has it’s fair share of dark tales. I only liked a few, and none enough to buy the book. I think fans of the “Snow white, Blood red” series might like this book as it is in the same vein.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the philosophy of the organization. Lots of repeats of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, Little Red, Twelve Dancing Princesses, and the Girl with No Hands (interestingly).

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology comes packed with some terrific poems and poets. I've used it for Forensics, and also read for pleasure.

As might be expected, the poems often have a feminist slant, if for no other reason than so many in the fairy tales are women. The subtexts for such characters as Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the like are tied up with women's roles and lives.

Some favorites include Tim Seibles, What Bugs Bunny Said to Red Riding Hood a street-wise voice with some great urban rhythms ("say good lookin' what brings you out thisaway / among the fanged and the fluffy?").

Another terrific poem is Voices from the Forest by Lisel Mueller, a set of meditations on fairy tale themes.

Other favorite poets include Neil Gaiman, Anne Sexton, Margaret Atwood, and Barbara Hamby.

This volume is one of the treasures in my library.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terri Windling - Brother and Sister
Olga Broumas - Cinderella
Mark Defoe - Daughters with Toad
Neil Gaiman - Instructions.
Extensive Acknowledgements and Bibliography added one more star and gave me goosebumps.

[Steven Withrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the poems seemed to hit the same notes again and again, and some stretched my patience by being overlong and understructured. But the best poems in this anthology are extremely good, and they offset those that are merely expressive.

[Joel LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

An expansive and beautiful collection of modern poetry inspired by the many fairy tales, or "hausmärchen", of the Brother's Grimm. I thoroughly enjoyed long afternoons drinking espressos in the sun and reading these poems. Highly recommended.

[Willow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this anthology of fairy tale poetry. My only issue with it is the arrangement--I don't like the categories. Better to have arranged them by tale or chronologically.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the idea of this collection and enjoyed a lot of the individual poems. It felt a little repetitive, though, and I wonder if it didn't need as much included as it had.

[David Moolten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quality, fairly comprehensive compilation of poems devoted to Grimm tales

[Sara]

I love this anthology of poetry! It has something for everyone, be it gruesome, sweet, or humorous. I bought it for a high school poetry class and go back to it all the time!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to read this very slowly and spaced far apart because I get easily bogged down by the cleverness of poets.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much! I'm fascinated by fairy tales and this collection explores many of my favourites. But always with a twist!

[Taffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible! A must-read for any fan of fairy tales in increasing degrees of complexity.

[Lauren Alleyne]

great stuff here.