Reviews

Selected Poetry (Poetry Library) by John Hayward, John Donne

veelaughtland's review against another edition

2.0

I hadn't read any of Donne's poetry since my last year at school, but decided to pick up this little copy of some of his selected works from my classroom bookshelf (schools are good in that way). Although there were certain poems that I remembered and liked, such as The Flea and The Sunne Rising, I didn't warm to a lot of the poetry within this book. Don't get me wrong - there were some lovely lines and some quite humorous poems, and I am still shocked and amused by the candid way in which Donne talks about sex (particularly for the time period in which they were written). Unfortunately however, the language did not really pull me in the majority of the time, and some poems in the book were far too verbose and long-winded for my liking.

lbjensen's review against another edition

4.0

solely for the flea, my beloved

franfernandezarce's review against another edition

2.0

*2.5*

at uni, i studied donne because of his metaphysical poems (with the conceits and everything) but here i thought his elegies were the best part of the selection.