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jamrock's review against another edition
4.0
This is a set book for AA100, a core module of B.A. English Literature (and most Humanities undergraduate courses). I haven't ready every poem in this book as many take significant effort to analyse but I've read all the ones required for the module and skimmed the whole book to create my own mini-anthology. Poetry was a branch of literature that had previously eluded me and I've subsequently learned that poems are much like those 2D linear drawings; once someone has shown you how to look at them they fold-open to reveal magical 3D landscapes that never quite look the same each time you revisit them. At least now, with poetry, I know enough to know what I don't know (pretty much everything!).
It probably deserves five stars, the missing star signifies my lack of ability to fully appreciate the complete anthology.
It probably deserves five stars, the missing star signifies my lack of ability to fully appreciate the complete anthology.
opheliapo's review against another edition
3.0
Although the poems within this book were of generally excellent quality and choice (with some minor exceptions, but that is due to personal taste), and I was delighted, and shocked, and saddened again and again, I found the book lacked structure. I was not being led through a maze or menagerie, nor was I taken on any categorical adventure. In fact the poems seemed to be placed entirely at random throughout the collection, with no pattern to speak of at all. I am not saying, by any means, that I would have liked the book to be structured by poet, date, or animal, as this would have stripped it of charisma, but when one is collecting a series of poetry for publication, one has only three jobs: to find the poems, attain the rights to the poems, and then organise them, the final task of which seems to have had no thought put into it at all.
Otherwise, this book was a delight, and I would very much recommend it, especially 'Toad' by Norman Maccaig on page 264 (though I am a little biased, as frogs and toads are my favourite animals).
Otherwise, this book was a delight, and I would very much recommend it, especially 'Toad' by Norman Maccaig on page 264 (though I am a little biased, as frogs and toads are my favourite animals).