Great Love Poems

by Shane Weller (Editor)

One 65-minute cassette of the finest love poems in the English language — from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay. Works by Ben Jonson, John Donne, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Andrew Marvell and many others, all beautifully and sensitively read by Brian Murray and Suzanne Toren and accompanied by paperback edition of Great Love Poems.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Romance, Literature

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 1996

Reviews

[Meg C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read 1-2 poems a day and it was a great collection. Some of the selections for the poets I know well surprised me, notably, John Donne's section did not include 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.' Emily Dickinson's poems surprised me as well because it only included two of hers and one was about sadness from heartbreak. If I made this collection I probably would've included ‘My River runs to thee’ instead of 'My life closed twice before its close.'

Before I read this, my favorite love poem was 'Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds' and that did not change after reading the entire work.

[Natasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, I remain untouched by English poetry.

With a single exception - the following verse by Emily Dickenson (from My Life Closed Twice before Its Close):
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

Now that is a poignant verse that speaks to me much like the following verse by Balasevic (from Nevena (Sale Nadj)):
Neko ružno sanja, nekom su košmar svitanja

Which means that I need to check out more Emily Dickenson 🤔
Fingers crossed 🤞 that I can finally find an English (speaking) poet that I actually like.

[ajš(a) ⋆౨ৎ˚ ࣪ · Rating 3 out of 5]

some were great, some were mediocre, some were just not for me - i think it's hard to rate a collection with multiple poets

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've love having poetry read to me. The main reason is that, not having had poetry read to me as a child or teen, when I read poetry I can't find the rhythm of the verse. Since starting listening to audiobooks I find that I'm slowly fixing that and I can enjoy poetry more. This collection of classics is a great start for novices, but also for seasoned readers since each poem is read by a different narrator and brings something different to the table.

[J. Alfred · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sort of picky when it comes to my love poems, so this wasn't my favorite collection: it seemed like half the poems in here are scorned-love poems, lost-love poems, or innuendo-laden poems, but are very few so to speak celebrations of love. Also, not a thing in here by Cummings, which is a tragedy. However, this volume did acquaint me with Henry King's "Exequy on his wife," which is sublime.

[TimetoFangirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not the biggest poetry reader, but this caught my eye at my local library. Some of the poems impacted me more than other, but it was a quick, touching read of love poems. My fave of the collection was from Lord Byron - the greatest poet playboy of all time.

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope this is the correct book; I neglected to write down the editor, but it is the same title. And I am writing this more than thirteen years later! I don’t read a lot of poetry. This volume included many familiar and some new works—poignant poems of love and grief.

Addendum: This is the right book, I had journaled it for BookCrossing. “The Wife A-Lost”, “Stone walls do not a prison make....”, “Annabel Lee”. Nice!

[Cate]

I decided not to rate this because this is a collection of multiple poets worked. I really loved quite a few poems in here, my favourites were by Sir Philip Sidney, Byron, Christina Rossetti, Percy Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, Emily Brontë, Walt Whitman, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Keats, and Thomas Hardy.

[Ethan Montano]

Don’t usually rate books but thought I’d share my favorite poems from here:

Ben Jonson’s “The Hour Glass”

Considering this small dust, here in the glass,
By atoms mov’d:
Could you believe that this body was
Of one that lov’d;
And in his mistress’ flame playing like a fly,
Was turned to cinders by her eye:
Yes; and in death, as life unblest,
To have’t exprest,
Even ashes of lovers find no rest.

[mjolk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous collection and a celebration of love in every agonising, nostalgic and blissful form it's carried upon.
Very happy I managed to find my copy hidden away from when I first read this as a teenager.

[Caitriona Riding · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple poems I enjoyed. But overall I just don’t think poetry is my thing. I didn’t prefer it, If you enjoy poetry you very well might.

[Klaudia Maciejowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars* I didn’t really enjoy this particular poetry collection.

[Olivia king · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[nokomis · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice old poetry, i love love so i enjoyed it.

i also found a bookmark of a married couple, their names david and rachel. with the date april 28th, 2007.

very cute :)

[Giulietta Passarelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovely love poems - enjoyed it much.

[Jake Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

[backlog] this was my main read of 2024

[Tamsin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some winners and some not so much about love poems. Worth it for the winners.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent anthology of poems; some great, some decent, some of other interest; all worth the read. The parts are considerably greater than the sum.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection of love poetry. It includes the standards, as well as a few I've never read before.

A couple criticisms about this collection, though. First, it was very heavy on 18th and 19th century British writers; sure, they are the "standards" but some additional variety (since the books explicitly states that it's a collection of British and American poets) would have been nice. Second, there were far too few women poets included. Again, considering the overwhelming concentration of 18th and 19th century British writers, that can be understood, but if more leeway were given to the poems that could have been included then there certainly would have been more women included. Third, unlike the last Dover Publications book of poetry I just read, this one gave absolutely no information about the poets included or why the poems were written in the first place. There was a plethora of poets included, I understand, and much information about some of these poets has long been lost, but sometimes motivation for the poem is just as important as what the poem says itself.

This collection does include some of my favorite poems ever written, which keeps me from downgrading my rating much more, but a wider variety of love poetry (i.e., including those I've never read before or those that are much more recently written) would have made it that much better.

[Laura Verret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently I seem to have amassed quite a few collections of poetic love offerings and I’m not sure how it happened, because I’m not really a romantic. I guess it just must be my insatiable love of poetry… maybe I'm a romantic for poetry??

I enjoyed this collection much more than A Little Treasury of Love Poems, possibly because I just enjoy the layout of Dover Thrift’s poetry books. I also think it was because there was a greater variety of poetry – few authors had more than one poem included. Also, the font was easier to concentrate on.

Am I the only one who is affected by the size and style of the font used in a book? Because seriously, some fonts depress me. And others make me ridiculously happy. Yes I probably need therapy or something.

Conclusion. Not a book I would use to introduce readers to classic poetry, but enjoyable if you’re already in love with it.

[Elnara Browers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: collection of classic poems from as early as 1500s. Some written in rhyme, some in prose.
Book level: Upper grades, Lexile and ATOS not available.
Mentor writer trait: organization in each poem is unique to either ending line rhymes or a letter-prose format. Conventions: stanzas are separated by spaces, punctuation marks, intentional pauses. Voice: author adds passion to the language. Word choice: emotion expressed in words such as "...I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn'd love."
Recommendation: Valentine's day poems to share with families, Social Studies: Europe, England; writing lesson with emphasis on using words to express emotion.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great,simple little volume of fantastic love poems. It encapsulate love,desire,longing and grief so beautifully and effectively and compile some of the most resounding works by some of the greatest poets and its a very light and memorable little book good for the occasional skim for little reminders of the beauty of poetry and also great quotes for how you feel or have felt.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dear friend gave me this book in high school because she said it reminded her of me. It has some of my favorite poems and poets including Milton, Donne, Wordsworth, Scott, Whitman and Browning, to name a few.

[GW · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a lot of poetry and this collection of poems was nice, but, I would have enjoyed them more if they were published in a better than economy book. Easy to read and short, I read this book in a park under a big maple tree. It was a nice book to take in on a beautiful summer day.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this collection of poetry for a reading challenge, category: a book out of my comfort zone. Boy, is this out of my comfort zone. I just don't get poetry. But I'm glad I tried and I did find a few poems that I did like.

[Meredith]

Very sweet and made me reminisce about all the old love poems

[Leslie]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10448000

[Ellyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection, poor endnotes but it's also very cheap! Great for the money you spend!

[Genoveva Uzunova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of love poems from different centuries. One of my favorite book of poems.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some are better than others. Some are great. The majority, however, is just okay.