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Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems by Camille Paglia
addikal's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible — the great Camille Paglia selects and explicates 43 of the best English-language poems ever written. For as long as you read this book, you are Paglia’s student, and she is a tremendous, erudite teacher. I borrowed this one from the library but am going to buy a copy ASAP!
batbones's review against another edition
4.0
Camille Paglia makes a convincing case that anyone can (learn to) read poetry and appreciate their beauty, and even song lyrics from pop culture can attain that laurel. This lucid and entertaining anthology of poetry and criticism is a showcase of that. It is loosely chronological, progressing from Shakespeare to Blake to the Romantics, after which her sampler of Modernism takes an American turn, selecting Wallace Stevens and Theodore Roethke over T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound (William Carlos Williams is her Imagist, and a far finer one, too). One drawback is that her prejudices for Jungian and Freudian thought show, and not always convincingly. Though I am sure that because of her intellectual influences she would argue otherwise, sex isn't everywhere and implicit in every poem, and how one make take it depends both on the tropes of literary canon as well as the context in which they present itself, which renders in this reader's view some of her interpretations illegitimate. ... Although Paglia remains always interesting: decisive, expressive, wry, very observant. Her prose a mix of heavy-handedness and graceful turns of phrase. It mirrors an essay one would encounter in an English Literature class written by an intellectually mature and very knowledgeable adult, and consequently entices this reader with the image of ordinary working adults everywhere reading, learning and loving and talking about art. Many of these poems would not ordinarily be counted among 'the world's greatest', but she convincingly makes the case for their appreciation and, in this reader, a curiosity for the poet's other works. In the last essay on Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock', one senses Paglia's generous sensitivity with which she encounters a piece of creative work when she moves from the lyrical content to the observation that song lyrics rarely present themselves well on the page (-cough- publishers are you listening?), and observes the poetic nature of 'Woodstock' on the contrary. She is willing to walk where the poems lead, and if only she does it more often, but for our times, this is more than enough.
Readings/poems of note - 'Woodstock' (Joni Mitchell), 'Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers' (Emily Dickinson), 'Jazzonia' (Langston Hughes), 'Cuttings', 'Root Cellar' (Theodore Roethke), 'This is Just to Say' (William Carlos Williams), 'Anecdote of the Jar' (Wallace Stevens), 'The Second Coming', 'Leda and the Swan' (W.B. Yeats)
Readings/poems of note - 'Woodstock' (Joni Mitchell), 'Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers' (Emily Dickinson), 'Jazzonia' (Langston Hughes), 'Cuttings', 'Root Cellar' (Theodore Roethke), 'This is Just to Say' (William Carlos Williams), 'Anecdote of the Jar' (Wallace Stevens), 'The Second Coming', 'Leda and the Swan' (W.B. Yeats)
conceptsoftime's review against another edition
5.0
A great way to understand some of the best (and most famous) poems in english.
linorosa's review against another edition
3.0
I think it's too broad of a collection to have any effect on me.
Most poetry since around the 18th century goes right over my head, and the author's commentary for those read much like a wine taster's notes which, for a palete such as mine, are of no help whatsoever making alcohol taste of anything other than booze.
Earlier poetry was of more help. Some of those resonated and I'll definitely pick another collection that's more focused on what I'm most likely to enjoy.
Most poetry since around the 18th century goes right over my head, and the author's commentary for those read much like a wine taster's notes which, for a palete such as mine, are of no help whatsoever making alcohol taste of anything other than booze.
Earlier poetry was of more help. Some of those resonated and I'll definitely pick another collection that's more focused on what I'm most likely to enjoy.
brennatest's review against another edition
5.0
One sentence synopsis... An insightful, energetic, and thorough dissection of 43 of the greatest (sometimes shocking) poems in Western history. .
Read it if you liked... Anyone from Shakespeare to Joni Mitchell. Paglia has a knack for making high art relatable to modern readers. .
Further reading... This book is the gateway drug to all kinds of other poetry. Highly recommend.
Read it if you liked... Anyone from Shakespeare to Joni Mitchell. Paglia has a knack for making high art relatable to modern readers. .
Further reading... This book is the gateway drug to all kinds of other poetry. Highly recommend.
mlindner's review against another edition
2.0
This book was as hard to slog through as Raber’s The Problem of Information. At least with that book I knew that there was a point. Oh. That sounds wrong. I don’t mean a point in a rational sense. Not sure how to say it.
I read a great review of this book a couple years back and knowing I needed to broaden my extremely limited exposure to poetry I added it to my wishlist. My daughter gave it to me as a present and I finally got to reading it earlier this year.
I think I would have enjoyed it much better if I had just read the poems and ignored all of Paglia’s commentary. Sometimes she had something enlightening to say but often as not she was also condescending to the reader. My main issue with her commentary is that she has serious issues with sex and God. I was amazed yesterday when a poem finally cropped up in which she had nothing to say about God, sex, or even God and sex. I could be wrong but I believe it to be the only one out of 43 to have the honor of not being defiled by often forced references to either. That poem is May Swenson’s ‘At East River.”
Am I now more attuned to poetry than I was before reading this book? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I am willing to try again, though. As long as Paglia isn’t involved!
from here: http://marklindner.info/blog/2007/12/30/books-read-in-2007/
I read a great review of this book a couple years back and knowing I needed to broaden my extremely limited exposure to poetry I added it to my wishlist. My daughter gave it to me as a present and I finally got to reading it earlier this year.
I think I would have enjoyed it much better if I had just read the poems and ignored all of Paglia’s commentary. Sometimes she had something enlightening to say but often as not she was also condescending to the reader. My main issue with her commentary is that she has serious issues with sex and God. I was amazed yesterday when a poem finally cropped up in which she had nothing to say about God, sex, or even God and sex. I could be wrong but I believe it to be the only one out of 43 to have the honor of not being defiled by often forced references to either. That poem is May Swenson’s ‘At East River.”
Am I now more attuned to poetry than I was before reading this book? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I am willing to try again, though. As long as Paglia isn’t involved!
from here: http://marklindner.info/blog/2007/12/30/books-read-in-2007/
sevenletters's review
Well, I didn't come out of this experience with a radical new love of poetry but I am glad I had this experience.
avoidingdestiny's review against another edition
3.0
The author has forty-three of the world’s best poems (best English language poems would have been more accurate, IMO, because I hear Rumi had some great stuff) and does close readings.
Not bad. I generally like Donne, esp. Holy Sonnet XIV, so I was glad to see three of his poems included. Took me a while to get through the older poems besides his, and I went through the second half in just a day. I really disagreed with a lot of the author’s interpretations, (and I don’t understand why there was nothing by Frost), but some of them seemed pretty good. (I’d never read Plath’s “Daddy” before, for example, and I liked what she had to say about it.)
Pretty good book if you’re looking for an accessible rundown on some of the more well-known poems in English.
Not bad. I generally like Donne, esp. Holy Sonnet XIV, so I was glad to see three of his poems included. Took me a while to get through the older poems besides his, and I went through the second half in just a day. I really disagreed with a lot of the author’s interpretations, (and I don’t understand why there was nothing by Frost), but some of them seemed pretty good. (I’d never read Plath’s “Daddy” before, for example, and I liked what she had to say about it.)
Pretty good book if you’re looking for an accessible rundown on some of the more well-known poems in English.
arachne_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Paglia, in her introduction, states that she is crafting these interpretations, these readings, for the everyman. That she seeks to avoid pretense. I think she fails there, and I would with her, even scrap about some of her interpretations of Dickinson. But many of her interpretations ring true, and gripe though I may about her overly academic style, I really enjoyed some of the alternate views she's given me on classic works as well as modern ones.
pattydsf's review
4.0
It has taken me almost four months to work my way through this book. This is both a good and bad thing. The bad part is I can hardly remember what Paglia said about this first poems we "read" together. I could and should start over and I would learn lots more on a second reading. I am not ready to do that right now.
The good part about being slow with this book, is if I had rushed through it, I would not have learned anything. I would not have let the poems linger in my mind and on my tongue. Reading this book straight through would be a major mistake.
I know Paglia is infamous for a variety of reasons. I am not interested in that part of her career. I realize that these 43 poems could be considered arbitrary or even wrong choices. However, I am grateful to read some poetry with a teacher. I don't always agree with what Paglia says about each poem. However, she made me think and she introduced me to some new poets. That was more than I expected from the book.
The good part about being slow with this book, is if I had rushed through it, I would not have learned anything. I would not have let the poems linger in my mind and on my tongue. Reading this book straight through would be a major mistake.
I know Paglia is infamous for a variety of reasons. I am not interested in that part of her career. I realize that these 43 poems could be considered arbitrary or even wrong choices. However, I am grateful to read some poetry with a teacher. I don't always agree with what Paglia says about each poem. However, she made me think and she introduced me to some new poets. That was more than I expected from the book.
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