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The collection I always wanted
Welcome to Whitman's World
!!!EMERALD!!!
A beautiful intoduction to Whitman
Beautiful

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
Walt Whitman
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Poetry of Robert Frost
The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)
Leaves of Grass
The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition

ASIN: 0140424512
Release Date: 2005-03-29

Book Description

In 1855 Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, the work that defined him as one of America's most influential voices and that he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric” to the elegiac “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” Whitman's art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman's known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or “deathbed,” edition of Leaves of Grass (1891-92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 “Song of Myself.”

Customer Reviews:

The collection I always wanted.......2007-04-05

I was turned on to "Uncle Walt," as my high school teacher described him, while taking American Literature, and am thankful for it. While Whitman has a unique style of writing, I am drawn to it and enjoy this book emensely. I definetely recommend this book to any Walt Whitman fan, and to those that appreciate American poetry.

Welcome to Whitman's World.......2006-05-15

Whitman is a special poet. As you read through his poems you get the feeling that you are not reading poetry but rather going through Whitman's mind. His compulsive style both simple and meticulous, his whirling rhythym, and his proud usage of the first person, all give you a vivid glimpse of the world through his eyes and heart; the eyes of his time and the poetic heart of his thoughts. Yet even though Whitman talks to you in social vocab. you know that you are listening to a poet because ast is ineveitable to sense his power to overwhelm. Lorca described Whitman as "viejo" and "hermoso", and these descriptions are true of Whitman the poet as Whitman the man. After reading this book you'll be short of words to describe it as I appear to be. It has too much inside it. But it is beautiful because the words inside it come from a man who knew how to appreciate and merge with the antiquity and great elderiness of the world.

!!!EMERALD!!!.......2005-06-07

not only the greatest selling poet who has been dead for more than fifty years, not only the poet whose translations are regularly read abroad, not only the poet whose name has in-spired countless others, not only the poet who freed us from the manacles of rhyme and decapitated the tyranny of meter but also a man of enthusiasm, a titan, a man whose soul floods with belch, fume and quake, a man who confronts the ravenous centaurs of humdrum and blugeons them swiftly in a spasmo of frenzy-fire, a wanderer, a searcher, one whose mind travels vig-orously throughout the cosmimosa and embellishes it with jac-inths of thought and blooms of popy! not only a man of gargan-tuan passions, one who rages in the face of metallic storm but also a man whose depressions, fogs, glooms and sensitivity to flowers, softness and the defenseless bloom in stark heart-throb. no doubt he is a poet well worth a place beside such other titano-giants such as goethe, milton and homer, for he too sings the song of war, his book is a chanson of bellum for he sings of the battle of the passions, the climaximum of the emo-ceans, he challenges the raw specters of gash, their eyes oozing of slime-drab and rather than succumb to the oxen of indiffer-ence he instead triumphs over the gray and his book thus re-sounds in shinning claria! his is an adventure of thought sur-real in its gusto, jumping in its excitica and wild in its leap of ideas! thank celestium that he liberated us poets from the ab-surd manacles of rhyme and meter and we can now surge through horiza with countless new devices, metaphors and similies awaiting in our platoons! he is the cougar of innova-tion, the lion of spasmo and the giant of vision.

kyle foley, author of Lorelei Pursued and Wrestles with God

A beautiful intoduction to Whitman.......2001-12-19

This collection of Whitman's poetry has the ulitimate selection for any reader, whether one is experienced in the composition and analyzation of Whitman or simply reading for pleasure. The book contains every known work by the author, as well as numerous editions of poems such as "Song of Myself" which was revised and reprinted by the author several times. If one is a fan of Walt Whitman, this is an excellent source of all his poetry compact into one book. If a person is just begining to experience the poet, everyting someone would want to read is at his or her fingertips.

Beautiful.......2000-07-12

The poems in this book are un-explainable by words. It dosn't matter if you don't understand it all, The poems touch you just the same. I definatley Recommend this book to poetry lovers!

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Was what I wanted
An excellent volume
Fairy tales, feminism, and faith

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
Christina Rossetti , R. W. Crump , and Betty S. Flowers
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
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Rossetti: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

ASIN: 0140423664
Release Date: 2001-10-30

Book Description

Christina Rossetti is unique among Victorian poets for the sheer range of her subject matter and the variety of her verse form. This first fully annotated collection, based on the definitive texts, brings together fantasy poems such as "Goblin Market," terrifyingly vivid verses for children, love lyrics, sonnets, hymns, and ballads, as well as the vast body of her devotional poetry. Weaving connections between love and death, triumph and loss, heavenly joys and earthly pleasures, Rossetti's poems startle the imagination with their extraordinary truth, beauty, and intensity.

This edition, the only one available in paperback, incorporates contextual notes as well as notes on the text and language, an introduction, and a chronology of Rossetti's life and work.

Edited by R. W. Crump. Introduction and notes by Betty Sue.

Customer Reviews:

Was what I wanted.......2006-03-15

The Complete Poems was exactly what I wanted - a complete collection of Christina Rossetti's poems, with some straightforward notes (of varying levels of detail) about each poem. It has a short, useful general introduction, and a simple/pleasing paperback layout. No fireworks in the night sky, but exactly what I wanted.

An excellent volume.......2003-11-13

This is a comprehensive volume of the work from the greatest woman poet ever to write in the English Language. It contains all of her poems, properly organised into the correct categories (and a decent index!). It doesn't have any of the prose work like Speaking Likenesses or Face of the Deep, but for her skilled, deep, and beautiful poetry this publication is essential.

Fairy tales, feminism, and faith.......2003-01-10

This is the first paperback edition of Rossetti's complete poems. The book is rather daunting at over 1200 pages, and nearly 200 of those pages are textual notes. The textual notes are great for those interested in the historical context of Rossetti's work, biblical influence on her work, and some relevant excerpts from her letters and her brother's notes to her complete poems.

The variety and bulk of her work is what impresses most about this volume. The books published during her lifetime included a nursery rhyme book, a book of devotional verses, two books beginning with long fairy tales, and a book beginning with a children's pageant of the months which was widely performed during her lifetime. All of these books are included here, as well as all her other published and unpublished poems. Some of the unpublished poems include a moving series of love poems written in Italian, with translation in the textual notes.

If you are incredibly interested in Rossetti's life and poetry, absolutely buy this. For the casual fan of her poetry, I would recommend buying a smaller book such as the Everyman Paperback Classics collection of her work.

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What immortal hand or eye ?
Sui Generis
the little lamb has no idea

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
William Blake
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
The Major Works: Including The Prelude (Oxford World's Classics)
Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Selected Poetry (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 0140422153

Customer Reviews:

What immortal hand or eye ?.......2005-11-07

It is the shorter poetry of Blake, that of the 'Songs of Innocence' and 'The Songs of Experience' that lives for me, and I suspect for most others. Though Northrop Frye the master literary critic saw in Blake's longer poems a key to reading the whole universe of Literature, I strongly suspect those long- lined abstraction filled 'visions'are outside the interest and staying power of most readers.
Blake was one of the great aphoristic poets, and along with the mystical visionary lines, there came lines like lightning sudden flashes of the mind which strike us strongly and remain with us.
Here is one of the most well- known Blakean lyrics
:
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Blake was the lunatic lover one of the great madmen of poetry who according to his wife gave her little time as he most of the time was 'in Paradise'.
Each reader will going through the Collected Poems stop and select what they find congenial for themselves.
In the Collected Poems of Blake there is very much to stop for, including many of the most memorable lyrics and lines Poetry in English has given the world.

" Little Lamb who made thee, Dost thou know who made thee?"

"Tiger, Tiger, burning bright in the forest of the night/ What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?/

Sui Generis.......2000-08-06

I don't know upon what planet this poet was born, but it certainly wasn't earth. Blake is the ultimate Gnostic, the ascendent correspondent, the bringer of truth from regions we have no knowledge of. The core of his philosophy can be summed up in his assertion in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:" Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast...Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God."

Blake is the poet of true revolution, true Romanticism and true spirit. This is the definitive volume of his life-work, without, it is true, the illustrations that augmented his genius. Yet there is no real necessity for etchings here, as the genius of his poetry will etch its own image in your mind if you are receptive to his universal symbolism. Blake was the first truly modern poet, prefiguring Mallarme, D.H. Lawrence, Baudelaire, in particular. He was also a great mythologyzer, the precursor of Campbell, Frazier, and even Alan Watts in many respects. The Penguin Edition is not illustrated, it's true, but there is so much to be mined here that one can easily lose oneself in the labyrinth of Blake's excavations.

Recommended without reservations. A truly paradigm shifting poet and artist. Seek out his illustrative, divinely inspired watercolors, as well. A true visionary, if there ever was one!!
BEK

the little lamb has no idea.......2000-04-29

blake's poems are not black ink on these newsprint pages...blake's poems are engraved plates wild and colorful...

but it's fantastic anyway blake is not The Lamb and not The Tyger

tirzah los orc urizen enitharmon vala rahab urthona, all divided and united in the cruelties of holiness...jerusalem the four zoas the book of urizen the song of los...echoing our cries.

Complete English Poems, The (Herbert, George) (Penguin Classics)

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A most intense dialogue with God
You don't need to be religious to love his poems
Among the greatest religious poetry ever penned
Is there in truth no beautie?

Complete English Poems, The (Herbert, George) (Penguin Classics)
George Herbert , John Tobin , and Izaak Walton
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne (Modern Library Classics)
The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
John Donne's Poetry (Norton Critical Edition)
Pensees and Other Writings (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 0140423486

Book Description

George Herbert combined the intellectual and the spiritual, the humble and the divine, to create some of the most moving devotional poetry in the English language. His deceptively simple verse uses the ingenious arguments typical of seventeenth-century metaphysical poets and unusual imagery drawn from musical structures, the natural world, and domestic activity to explore a mosaic of Biblical themes. From the wit and wordplay of “The Puley” and the formal experimentation of “Easter Wings” and “Paradise,” to the intense, highly personal relationship between man and God portrayed in “The Collar” and “Redemption,” the works collected here show the transcendental power of divine love. This vast collection includes all Herbert's English poems, selections from his Latin poetry with translations, his major prose work A Priest to the Temple, and Izaak Walton's Life of Herbert.

Customer Reviews:

A most intense dialogue with God .......2005-11-01

Herbert is ordinarily classified along with Donne, as a Metaphysical poet i.e. one who use extreme metaphor and makes connections between completely diverse matters to forward a rough and energetic argument in verse. Herbert is , as I sense it, gentler than Donne. He is a more quiet devotional poet, one with deep religious faith. There is a certain sense of his humility and great power of concentration in his devotion.His love of music plays a central role in the metaphoric structure of his work.
Among his often anthologized poems are " The Collar" " The Pulley" "To the Jews" "The Altar"

You don't need to be religious to love his poems.......2005-08-27

I'm a solid atheist. I also love Herbert's intimate dialogue and often battle with his God. Stylistically, he dominates better known poets of the Metaphysical era, such as Donne. His backround as a musician comes through in all his work. He inherits the Metaphysicals' use of vivid metaphor. He looks ahead to Gerard Manley Hopkins in his fusion of music,image and conversation. "Love bade me welcome" and "Prayer" are among the jewels of poetry.

If you are religious, Herbert will be of great comfort in his deep and moving spirituality. If you are not, that spirituality is still so compelling and resonant that you will feel with and for him. He in many ways reminds me of Emily Dickinson: the poet of the quirky, gentle, wry and elegaic short poem. Do read Prayer with its lovely last line "something understood" and Love with its last line "And I replied, my Lord."

Herbert os a treasure. In my sixties, I respond to him with the same respect and warmth as in my twenties when I first discovered him.

Among the greatest religious poetry ever penned.......2002-03-07

Over the centuries, there has been a great deal of Christian poetry written by a broad range of poets, but only a tiny handful of that can stand comparison with the very best nonreligious poetry. The later poetry of John Donne, Milton, Dante, some of the early American Puritan poets, and the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins does not quite exhaust the list, but it consumes most of it. And, of course, George Herbert stands at the head of any such list. Of all these poets, Herbert is probably my favorite as a religious poet. By that, I mean someone who is religiously satisfying while at the same time writing exquisite poetry. There is simplicity of expression in Herbert that is missing in Donne, and a personal piety that I do not find in Milton, whose poetry, while unquestionably religious in spirit, is somewhat spiritually dry. One wouldn't read Milton to inspire piety. Hopkins is brilliant, but I find myself focusing on his over alliteration.

George Herbert was one of those either fortunate or unfortunate younger sons of a landed family who was forced to enter the Church because the family title passed onto his older brother. That brother, very nearly as well known as his younger brother for his own writings, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was the author of several books, including what could be regarded as the first history of comparative religion written in England. The religions compared were not, however, Christianity, Judaism, Islam with Buddhism and Hinduism or with so-called primitive religion, but with Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian religions.

This is an excellent edition of Herbert's poetry, but one should note the title carefully. Herbert, in fact, wrote a fair amount of poetry in Latin. That unfortunately, is not included either in original form or in English translation.

Is there in truth no beautie?.......1999-12-07

Other poets can write about the beauty of the woman that they love, but Hebert writes of the true source of beauty, the source that most deserves praise in poetry: God. Hebert's poetry is a tribute to God, for whom he gave up everything to go into ministry. A musician, Herbert writes much of his poetry in a way that is almost musical, and may have at one time been set to music. A collection of his poetry can be an incredible devotional tool for personal reflection and praise. It can also be wonderful to study in the classroom because of his brilliant use of literary devices. My favorite poem of his is The Holy Scriptures. For a taste of Hebert's beautiful tributes... "Oh book! Infinite sweetnesse! Let my heart suck ev'ry letter...."Your heart will suck every letter from Hebert's beautiful poetry.

Complete Poems (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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The vital sap
Great Collection!
D.H.
A must for all Special Forces.
To this reader, poems and essays of DHL are his best works.

Complete Poems (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
D.H. Lawrence
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Selected Poems of D. H. Lawrence (Poetry Library, Penguin)
Erotic Works of D.H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence and Italy: Twilight in Italy; Sea and Sardinia; Etruscan Places (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider
Women in Love (Dover Thrift Editions)

ASIN: 0140186573

Customer Reviews:

The vital sap .......2005-11-04

Lawrence began with imitative Georgian verse filled with archaic turns and cliched tropes. But influenced by Whitman he turned to a kind of free verse, and so began his long life in creating a vital poetry. Lawrence's poetry is the expression of his most initimate feelings. The poems which are most renowed are those which express his relation to nature,"The Snake" perhaps being the most well- known of them. He also has however especially towards the end , poetry which simply argues and derides those who oppose him.
His poetry becomes so ' free ' at time that it would seem closer to 'prose poetry' than Poetry itself.
His poems are short, and have sudden turns which may spring the lines to life.
I find however a shortcoming in what I would call a lack of 'memorable lines'.

Great Collection!.......2005-08-26

The collection of poems is great. The book is very complete and organized in a easy to read format. I'm really glad I bought this book.

D.H........2003-09-15

I became acquainted with Lawrence's novels my sophomore year in college, and was hooked. A couple of years down the line, a professor recommended I take a look at his poetry, which he suggested was equally great, if not greater. He said he was like a British Whitman. Investigating the analogy, I came across this quote of Lawrence's: "Whitman, the great poet, has meant so much to me. Whitman, the one man breaking a way ahead. Whitman, the one pioneer. And only Whitman. No English pioneers, no French. No European pioneer-poets. In Europe the would-be pioneers are mere innovators. The same in America. Ahead of Whitman, nothing. Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wilderness of unopened life, Whitman. Beyond him, none." Hyperbolic? Could be, and I'm admittedly a poor judge of poetry, much of it passing over my head, but there is more than enough in this hefty 1,000+ page paperback edition to convince me of Lawrence's greatness in verse. The book is split into "Rhyming poems," "Unrhyming poems," "Pansies," "Nettles," "Last poems" and "Uncollected poems." A couple of the shorter ones--
SUNSET
"There is a band of dull gold in the west, and say what you like
again and again some god of evening leans out of it
and shares being with me, silkily
all of twilight."
REVOLUTIONS AS SUCH!
"Curiously enough, actual revolutions are made by robots,
living people never make revolutions,
they can't, life means too much to them."
TALK OF FAITH
"And people who talk about faith
usually want to force somebody to agree with them,
as if there was safety in numbers, even for faith."
LUCIFER
"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
But tell me, tell me, how do you know
that he lost any of his brightness in falling?
He only fell out of your ken, you orthodox angels,
you dull angels, tarnished with centuries of conventionality."

A must for all Special Forces........1999-01-10

This is the best book that i have. It is a must read for all who can read and all Special Forces. It put life on hold as you read it.

The most moving is "self pity"

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself. --D. H. Lawrence

To this reader, poems and essays of DHL are his best works........1998-10-03

This book of poems shares the top spot in my bookcase with Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". They are accessible, highly perceptive, pertinent and intensely personal. My favorites are:

"FIDELITY" - "...The wonderful slow flow of the sapphire..."

"GOD IS BORN" - "...And so we see, God is not until he is born. And also we see there is no end to the birth of God."

"SHIP OF DEATH" (Appendix III version) - "...Pulling the long oars of a lifetime's courage, ...and eating the brave bread of a wholesome knowledge..."

"GRIEF" - "...How am I clotted together Out of this soft matrix... The air, the flowing sunshine and bright dust..."

"WEDLOCK" - "...How sure the future is within me. I am like a seed with a perfect flower enclosed..."

Finally, as a scientist I marvel at his intuitive grasp of relativity in "SPACE" and "RELATIVITY" - ..."As if the atom were an impulsive thing always changing its mind."

I would be delighted to share my enthusiasm with other readers.

The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics)

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A great book
Enjoying poetry that sounds good when read out loud
Wonderful Poetry by a Contemporary of Shakespeare.
Yoking together of divergent realities to complex new wholes
John Donne

The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics)
John Donne , and A. J. Smith
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
Edmund Spenser's Poetry (Norton Critical Editions)
Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics)
Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets (Norton Critical Editions)

ASIN: 0140422099

Customer Reviews:

A great book.......2007-01-05

I am greatly enjoying this book. The notes at the end explain some of Donne's more obscure imagery. A potentially controversial choice by the editor was to change the spelling of many words to more modern forms, which makes the poems easier to read at the expense of authenticity. Some people will like that and some people won't. Another odd choice was to list the poems in alphabetical order, instead of grouping them by subject matter or attemp to list them in approxiamte chronolgical order.
Buy this book and enjoy the breathtaking poems. You could do a lot worse with your time.

Enjoying poetry that sounds good when read out loud.......2006-11-30

Finally, I've found a poet I really like reading. Donne's poems suit me more than Shakespeare's sonnets or Poe's verse, and apart from someone like Yvor Winters, I just don't get modern poetry (apologies to Sylvia Plath fans).

What rings well with me is, well, ringing well! Reading a poem out loud with a bit of drama should just sound good. That's why rap and hip hop can really be considered poetry (well, some rap and hiphop anyway).

A great example of this is Shakespeare's sonnet 129 (The expense of spirit in a waste of shame/Is lust in action; and till action, lust...). Most (not all) of Shakespeare's sonnets are harder to understand than this one, which is why they don't resonate with me as well as I'd like. Donne on the other hand is different; most of what he writes in English sounds good and is immediately understandable.

Not that I understand everything in these poems, there are many contemporary allusions that are lost on me, but there's enough in there that sounds very good to allow me to right away enjoy myself. Here are two great lines, which open the sonnet "Community", to illustrate what I mean by good sound.

Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still...

There are problems, themselves interesting, that bring discord to a poem. For instance in Donne's England "love" rhymed with "prove" but because today these words don't, a couplet with this rhyme is marred to our 21st century ears.

A personal note: I was in bed reading "Soul Made Flesh" about the discovery that the brain is the seat of consciousness, made by Oxford scholars in 17th century England. I had reached an account of how large audiences of curious onlookers gathered to see doctors perform autopsies. I put the book down and decided to dip into Donne before going to sleep. I flipped out when I read The Damp's opening lines:

When I am dead, and doctors know not why,
And my friends' curiosity
Will have me cut up to survey each part...

Talk about serendipity! Now if I had just read an explanation of these lines in the notes, they would not have meant much to me. But because reading "Soul Made Flesh" had transported me into Donne's England for a few moments, the dramatic effect of the opening was multiplied immensely.

In a nutshell, I find that I love Donne and I recommend this comprehensive easy-to-carry well-annotated edition. My only negative comment is that the editing is a bit unimaginative: the editor places the sonnets in alphabetical order of title simply because there is no accepted canonical ordering... Oh well.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Wonderful Poetry by a Contemporary of Shakespeare........2005-01-16

This book of poetry is quite wonderful. Donne's imagery and words are truly beautiful. His poetry displays wit, beauty and perception. Donne wrote in the sixteenth century, but his ideas and thoughts were actually quite modern. His work is incomparable when it comes to displaying the feelings and emotions of love and of friendship. Donne's poetry is often referred to a metaphysical, but it is also witty and fun. He was an extremely intelligent man, and this is reflected in his work. At times the poems can be difficult to understand, but it is well worth taking the time to do so since they are so beautiful

Yoking together of divergent realities to complex new wholes.......2005-01-12

Metaphysical poetry is the poetry of yoking together images from diverse realities into complex new wholes. Donne is the great master. His poetry is a powerful amalgam of intellect and emotion. His meditations on death as love and death in love and love as death and love after death are among the most profound and wrenchingly moving in the language. The High Church great man master giver and writer of sermons was a man known and distinguished in his own time. He gave us many great poems and lines. The bell which tolls for all of us tolls in his lines in a sonorous complex way which brings us closer to the holy sublime. This volume contains an abundance of riches in complexity, and it is one of the great classics of English literature to be read and reread until the bell tolls for mankind as a whole - G-d forbid.

John Donne.......2001-10-05

John Donne's synthesis of the spiritual and the sensual makes for wonderful reading and study.

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Perfect edition of Milton from everynan's
The greatness of Milton "They also serve who only stand and wait"
bad edition
A Good Version
Milton's Complete Poems

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
John Milton
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Cambridge Companion to Milton (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
The Old Testament (Everyman's Library)
Selected Works (Everyman's Library)
The Analects (Everyman's Library)
John Milton: Selected Prose

ASIN: 0140433635

Book Description

A comprehensive, fully annotated edition oof Milton's poetry, including his epic, Paradise Lost.

In the course of his forty-year career John Milton evolved from a prodigy to a blind prophet, from a philosophical aesthete to a Puritan rebel, and from a Latinist poet who proclaimed the triumph of reason to an epic poet obsessed with the intractability of sin. A master of almost every verse style--from the pastoral, devotional, and tenderly lyrical to the supreme grandeur of his great epic, Paradise Lost, and his biblical "Greek tragedy," Samson Agonistes---Milton left a body of work unrivaled in literary history. Although he wrote Comus and "Lycidas" shortly after leaving Cambridge University, Milton devoted much of his adult life--and even sacrificed his eyesight--to defending the cause of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. Milton's later poetry, produced after Charles II's restoration led to the defeat of the Commonwealth, contains not only personally achieved theological insights but also a deep firsthand understanding of politics and power.

This edition presents Milton's complete English, Latin, and Greek poems, modernizing spelling, capitalization, and any punctuation likely to cause confusion. Fully annotated with glosses on the poems' biblical, classical, and historical allusions, this is the best place to start for readers wanting to come to grips with this giant in English literature.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect edition of Milton from everynan's.......2006-06-15

This everyman's edition does not seem to the edition rated below by others because this has footnotes and not endnotes./ In addition to a wondeful introduction it also contains Aereopagetica and on education which i did not expect from the title. I was pleasanly surpiused by this organzation of the book. Thise works give a good overview of the works, =. Please excuse typos i have a neurologic disease.

The greatness of Milton "They also serve who only stand and wait".......2005-11-04

Milton's greatness is evident not only in his greatest work 'Paradise Lost' but also in 'Samson Agonistes' and the finest elegy in the language , " Lycidas".It is present in his sonnets and shorter pieces also , and " On His Blindness" is one of the great poems of world - literature.
Milton is a poet of the ear, and there is a powerful music in his verse. His tremendous learning may complicate his poetry for the modern reader, but there are depths in his lines for those who truly probe them.

bad edition.......2002-08-21

I don't like the endnotes vs. footnotes which are very hard to access and deal with, and I don't like the way the apostrophes are taken out and the words are 'modernized' as it breaks up the flows and rhythms of the works.

A Good Version.......2000-12-31

The anonymous review from "reader from the UK" has a slight whiff about it, I can't help but think - does the reviewer work at the publishers? I wouldn't quite go as far as he/she has in my praise. This is a good version, if not exactly the best. The poetry of course is unchallengeable - it's what's been done with the poetry that is important. The text is clear and easy to read; the notes are put at the back of the book, which is always a mixed blessing, but is probably the only practical option with a decently-annotated Milton. This version is cheaper than the definitive Fowler and Carey versions, and probably better for the non-specialist reader. The notes are good enough, but I would like more narrative guidance (in Paradise Lost particularly); occasionally some of his notes feel incomplete or unclear, and sometimes he leaves things out which I myself would have liked him to have mentioned or which I've seen mentioned (or reinterpreted) by someone else. I would also prefer a longer and more detailed introduction. But mostly the version is good, and is probably the first stop for most readers wanting to get to grips with Milton. My advice is only to go on from here, to other sources to give you a more detailed background.

Milton's Complete Poems.......1999-12-12

Excellent, concise notes, thoroughly readable and informative about language (puns etc.) and historical context. Best choice for undergraduates and rivals Fowler as best choice for graduates.

John Keats: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

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greatest poet in English
The greatness of Keats
"...exceptionally keen sensitivity... "
Essential
The definitive edition of the poetry of Keats.

John Keats: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
John Keats
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Shelley's Poetry and Prose (Norton Critical Edition)
Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
The Major Works: Including The Prelude (Oxford World's Classics)
Selected Letters (Oxford World's Classics)
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

ASIN: 0140422102

Customer Reviews:

greatest poet in English.......2005-04-16

Keats not only rivals Shakespeare in the beauty of his verse and the enchanting pictures he conjures but he is a cut above Shakespeare in the value of his art. The two odes 'on a nightingale' and 'on a Grecian urn' surpasses any piece of English literature I have come across so far. In its conception and philosophy ,in its expression of the ephemeral and impermanent nature of human life,its exposition of the permanance of ideal art and in its realization of the principle of the identity of truth and beauty it takes poetic thought to a plane that has never been approached, before or hence in English literature.

The greatness of Keats .......2004-11-04

One of the most musical of the great poets, whose language has a richness next to Shakespeare's, a most romantic soul whose annus mirabilis 1819 brought forth the five great odes, the tremendous long lines still memorable, Beauty is truth/Truth is Beauty' That is all ye know on earth And all ye need to know/ the pain of beauty or the beauty in pain in the nightingale's song, the lyric of the Grecian urn, the dying at twenty-six ' his name writ in water', much had he travelled in realms of gold, the great letters of negative capability, the ostler's son in a surgeon's hospital , Fanny Brawne, the alien corn of Ruth, all the music which would one day be heard again in the lines of Wallace Stevens, the complexity of beauty dying , hearing more than one voice as the page echoes on, one of the poets' poets surely , upon a peak in Darien, like all the great masters he only gains in rereading.

"...exceptionally keen sensitivity... ".......2004-02-02

There are two editions of Keats's Complete Poems which I
admire very much. This one edited by Jack Stillinger
and published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University
(ISBN: 0674154312) and the Penguin Classics, 3rd
edition, edited by John Barnard (ISBN: 0140422102).
I very much like the fuller notes and 6 Appendices
and the blunt, full, but suggestive chronology in
the Penguin, along with the complete writing and
publishing information fully written out rather
than abbreviated into initials one might have to
look up.

The importance of Jack Stillinger to Keats studies is cited
by both John Barnard (Penguin classics edition of -The
Complete Poems-) and Elizabeth Cook (Oxford World's
Classics edition of -The Major Poems-, ISBN:
0192840630). John Barnard says in his "Introduction":
"Jack Stillinger's -The Poems of John Keats- (Cambridge,
Mass., 1978) and his -The Text of John Keats- (Cambridge,
Mass., 1974) now give the fullest available account of
Keats's text, and are based on a comparision of the
printed texts with the wealth of manuscript material,
now mainly in American libraries."
And this edition compiled and edited by Jack
Stillinger has it glories, too. The first of these
is the excellent "Introduction," which has meaningful
insights in it concerning Keats, but which can also
be related to one's own experiences in life, though
Stillinger does not himself so relate them. A few
of these I like very much are: "Obviously Keats had
an exceptionally keen sensitivity to the minute
particulars of objects, sounds (as well as various
shades of silence), and motions in the world around
him." *** "He nursed his brother Tom in a lengthy
illness that ended in death on December 1st of this
year [1818], and as an added complication he met and
fell in love with Fanny Brawne. More than anything
else, I think, it is this combined experience of
suffering, death, and love all at once, against a
background of serious conversation, reading, and
thinking, that accounts for Keats's sudden rise to
excellence in his poetry."
There is no way, of course, to share Keats's
poetry in a review of this sort. To read it,
experience it, think about it, and realize
the Beauty -- and also the Truth -- in it
is the reward.
-- Robert Kilgore.

Essential.......2002-07-24

No personal library can be complete without at least a sampling of Keats, and this is the book that everyone should get. All the poems -- even the fragments -- are here, with line numbers included. The several appendices and letter excerpts make the collection even more valuable. If you are trying to decide which Keats collection to get, you have found the best.

The definitive edition of the poetry of Keats........2001-10-17

Jack Stillinger devoted much of his professional life to establishing the definitive texts of Keats's poems. This painstaking work has resulted in a number of changes to the poems. As to the quality of the poetry itself, at his best Keats approaches Shakespeare, as in the Odes. Stillinger is also an excellent teacher; I had his course on Keats 26 years ago, and it was fascinating. While the other reviewers have done a very good job of describing the beauty of Keats's poetry, one point Stillinger made about Keats as a person is worth repeating: Keats was the one English romantic poet that you would want to ask for advice about a personal problem you had. All the rest, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley (especially!), and Byron would have given you advice that, if followed, would have been wildly impractical. Keats, as shown by his letters, was not pretentious and had a large degree of human decency and common sense. While these characteristics are not one usually associated with romantic poets, I think that they contribute to the strength of his poetry.

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The authoritative work
One of the greatest poets in the English language
The first bright light of English Renaissance poetry

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
Thomas Wyatt , and R. A. Rebholz
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics)
The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works (Penguin Classics)
Collected Poems (Modern Library)

ASIN: 0140422277

Customer Reviews:

The authoritative work.......2002-10-05

This is the authoritative book on the subject of this the first modern English Poet - more neglected than he ought to be - out of print in Europe - Wyat survived life as a courtier/diplomat in the court of Henry 8th - a king as corrupted by power as its possible to be - a 16th C saddam Hussein - and yet produced these deeeply sensitive poems.

One of the greatest poets in the English language.......2001-02-25

His voice still rings beautiful and true after five hundred years. What he has to say concerns our daily lives in this hard, competitive society as much as the intrigues of the Henrician court.

The first bright light of English Renaissance poetry.......2000-06-30

Wyatt is, quite simply, a brilliant poet, taking the Petrarchan love poem and adapting it to represent life in the promiscuous court of Henry VIII. And "They Flee from Me" is one of the greatest poems in the English language. Rebholz's introduction and notes make this THE edition for serious study of Wyatt's achievement.

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Complete Poems (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
James Weldon Johnson , and Sondra Kathryn Wilson
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
The Books of the American Negro Spirituals
Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Dover Thrift Editions)
The Book of American Negro Poetry: Revised Edition

ASIN: 0141185457
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Book Description

This year marks the centenary of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," James Weldon Johnson's most famous lyric, which is now embraced as the Negro National Anthem. In celebration, this Penguin original collects all the poems from Johnson's published works--Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), God's Trombones (1927), and Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day (1935)--along with a number of previously unpublished poems.

Sondra Kathryn Wilson, the foremost authority on Johnson and his work, provides an introduction that sheds light on Johnson's many achievements and his pioneering contributions to recording and celebrating the African American experience.

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