A review by lilacwhisker
The First Four Books of Poems by Louise Glück

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

Although I don't usually read much poetry, I have heard good things about Glück and decided to give this collection a try. In my opinion, if you are trying to get more into a particular poet's work, (or just poetry in general) PLEASE start with a shorter collection. I feel as though I would have appreciated Glück's work way more if I had read other things in-between, because it is easy to get sick of poetry after a couple days. This collection was not too bad, and she definitely improved over the years, but it is very easy to get lost in her poems at times/become confused about the meaning. My favorite poems of hers were ones that told stories from someone else's point of view, because she is very strong at world-building and making you understand how the character's mind works. I would say the main recurring focuses/mentions in her poems were: plants, sex/husbands, and religious stories. The biggest takeaway I got from this book was that too much poetry at once can be tricky to do, especially as someone who is not the best at reading poems.