A review by cameronbradley
Complete Poems by Ernest Hemingway

4.0

Hemingway wasn't known for his poetry, but he published a few in his youth and continued to write them from time to time until his death. Many of the poems contained here are, well, "ribald" I suppose is the best word, but there are a few gems floating around as well, in particular "Paris 1922, Auteiul Auteiul", which is my personal favorite and an early example of the sparse language Hemingway would later employ in his novels. Here is a portion of it:

I have seen the favourite crash into the Bulfinch and come down in a heap kicking; while the rest of the field swooped over the jump; the white rings jointing up their stretcher and the crowd raced across the pelouze to see the horses come into the stretch.

I have see Peggy Joyce at 2 a.m. in a Dancing in the Rue Caumartin quarrelling with the shellac haired young Chilean (who had manicured fingernails blew a puff of cigarette smoke into her face, wrote something in a note book) and shot himself at 3.30 the same morning.

If you're a Hemingway junkie like me, by all means pick up Complete Poems. It's worth reading, if not for the quality of the poems, then at least to witness the early evolution of Hemingway's craft.