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trippalli's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
The Old English language used in these poems makes it feel gothic and dramatic. It's not quite my style and I'd hoped metaphysical might mean it would be more out of the box, but it's pretty straightforward. Classical dramatic poetry enjoyable but not that memorable for me, personally
bellalovesmoss's review against another edition
4.0
pretty good collection of poetry —- not enough diversity (all white men) but some of my favorite poems are in this book.
stefhyena's review against another edition
2.0
I realise this will make me sound like a Philistine (and me with an English major in Arts) but I don't understand why time has dignified these poets who are usually blessedly unclear but when you decode them they are downright offensive!
The most massivley over-rated John Dunne is there for far too many pages, not only with his rape fantasies (of God raping him, because God is above man as man is above woman of course) but just as much misogyny in his love life as his religious like.
I didn't feel either the language us NOR what too many of them were saying was worth preserving in history except as a curiosity. The most common theme apart from cowering before God is lording it over women (often plural) in various ways. And all this written in a tedious, self-important way that probably was normal, even clever for the time but this is not their time.
One or two of the poems didn't completely suck (one or two out of over a hundred). You can read this if you like but I can't honestly think why you would unless like me you feel you ought to read everything on your shelf before you give it away. Lol poor Gardner if this was what she worked with all the time (there were probably few choices for women who wanted to do academic work in her time). I would have liked more historical and critical notes in case that helped.
Two stars because the poems helped contextualise [b:A Sundial in a Grave: 1610|741880|A Sundial in a Grave 1610|Mary Gentle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334372232s/741880.jpg|2135743] which I am not enjoying I have to say but makes more sense in the light of these (largely written later) poems.
The most massivley over-rated John Dunne is there for far too many pages, not only with his rape fantasies (of God raping him, because God is above man as man is above woman of course) but just as much misogyny in his love life as his religious like.
I didn't feel either the language us NOR what too many of them were saying was worth preserving in history except as a curiosity. The most common theme apart from cowering before God is lording it over women (often plural) in various ways. And all this written in a tedious, self-important way that probably was normal, even clever for the time but this is not their time.
One or two of the poems didn't completely suck (one or two out of over a hundred). You can read this if you like but I can't honestly think why you would unless like me you feel you ought to read everything on your shelf before you give it away. Lol poor Gardner if this was what she worked with all the time (there were probably few choices for women who wanted to do academic work in her time). I would have liked more historical and critical notes in case that helped.
Two stars because the poems helped contextualise [b:A Sundial in a Grave: 1610|741880|A Sundial in a Grave 1610|Mary Gentle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334372232s/741880.jpg|2135743] which I am not enjoying I have to say but makes more sense in the light of these (largely written later) poems.
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