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Best Loved Poems
Volume 18 of the series World's Greatest Literature
- GenresPoetry
399 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1936
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July 28, 2021
The title of the book is open to question. And you might think that anyway because "best loved" is kind of a subjective call to begin with. But this book left me asking a few questions. One is "whose best loved poems are these and why?" Also, "why were they not a little more forthcoming about the selections they edited of longer poems?" Imagine how jarring it is to read The Raven only to discover that they didn't include the whole poem? Now, I get it, it's kind of long, but they included much longer selections of other poems. I took note that they were forthcoming about the number of Shakespeare's sonnets they included, but not Elizabeth Barrett Browning's. I have no idea if I've read the whole of the Pied Piper of Hamelin or not. Also, the selection of the Rhubayat did not match my bound version of the poem. Oddly the Best Loved Poems had a longer selection.
But the bigger problem was the poems that were not so famous. The book has an awful lot of sentimental dreck. I'm sure the people selected were fine poets, but given the poor selection of Tennyson and Wordsworth (one or two good ones from each, but more that could have been better), I have no idea if the works by these lesser known poets are representative of their work.
Then there's the arrangement. The editors in their wisdom decided to put the poets in alphabetical order. I could see that happening in this age that does not want to admit that some folks just do better work, but in the 30s when this book was published they should have known better. At least, I say, put some dates next to the poets' names. Let me see the relationship of these poets to their respective times.
Anyway, not impressed. Doesn't matter because the book's been long out of print and so few people will read it now that their high school and freshman college books will be much better representations of the development of great poetry. I did get a couple of ideas about Shelly for my own collection, so that's something.
But the bigger problem was the poems that were not so famous. The book has an awful lot of sentimental dreck. I'm sure the people selected were fine poets, but given the poor selection of Tennyson and Wordsworth (one or two good ones from each, but more that could have been better), I have no idea if the works by these lesser known poets are representative of their work.
Then there's the arrangement. The editors in their wisdom decided to put the poets in alphabetical order. I could see that happening in this age that does not want to admit that some folks just do better work, but in the 30s when this book was published they should have known better. At least, I say, put some dates next to the poets' names. Let me see the relationship of these poets to their respective times.
Anyway, not impressed. Doesn't matter because the book's been long out of print and so few people will read it now that their high school and freshman college books will be much better representations of the development of great poetry. I did get a couple of ideas about Shelly for my own collection, so that's something.
Displaying 1 of 1 review