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madsmikks's review against another edition
5.0
it was very cool to see how her work evolved over her life. this collection has so many poems related to grief and sadness and dying that it’s hard to feel anything but bittersweet and longing, but it was incredibly moving anyways.
sloatsj's review
5.0
I love Kenyon. She's fabulous at what she does, although she sometimes seems unable to break out of "what she does" and occassionally succumbs to lesser instincts (as in "The Shirt"). Still, her poetry is poignant and full of wonderful imagery. Five stars for the good stuff.
forgereads17's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
4.25
inthecommonhours's review
3.0
A library check-out for N'l Poetry Month. I've had this title on my Amazon wishlist for a while, forgetting now where I picked up the title (perhaps Kenison's blog?). I enjoyed these poems, especially the ones depicting depression in a way I had never heard before---as well as the later ones on loving someone whose health is on the line. Hall's afterword is compelling.
nightwater32's review
2.0
I read this after reading Donald Hall's book "Without" about his life with Jane Kenyon and her illness, having only read her earliest book of poems beforehand. As such, I felt a bit like I had an insight to her when reading her poems that one doesn't always have. In the end, though, few poems resonated with me. Perhaps because I didn't tend to like her style, her line breaks, and some of the depression that bled out onto the page of too many poems. I like wistfulness, poignancy, not depression, which perhaps I felt more keenly having read this after Hall's book. Others may love her poems, which I can completely understand; she does capture moments well. Some images of small-town life, or just life in general, are wonderful. For me, though, in general, it just wasn't my type of poetry.
phoebe_114's review
4.0
i loved the deep meaning behind these poems, they were all so beautifully written
adamcarrico91's review
5.0
This is truly an A+ selection of poems! I was blown away. I only knew a couple of her poems before starting this book and was shocked to find so much brilliance.
“What she felt then would, like heavy wind and rain, bring any open flower to the ground.”
“Now tell me that the Holy Ghost does not reside in the play of light on cutlery!”
“How much better it is to carry wood to the fire than to moan about your life. How much better to throw the garbage onto the compost, or to pin the clean sheet on the line with a gray-brown wooden clothes pin!”
“What she felt then would, like heavy wind and rain, bring any open flower to the ground.”
“Now tell me that the Holy Ghost does not reside in the play of light on cutlery!”
“How much better it is to carry wood to the fire than to moan about your life. How much better to throw the garbage onto the compost, or to pin the clean sheet on the line with a gray-brown wooden clothes pin!”