Lyrical Ballads: With a Few Other Poems (Penguin Classics) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Advantages: Poetry of Coleridge, Essay by Hughes
Disadvantages: Only 160 pages

...in the midnight wood will pray For the weal of her lover that's far away. She stole along, she nothing spoke, The sighs she heaved were soft and low, And naught was green upon the oak But moss and rarest misletoe : She kneels beneath the huge oak tree, And in silence prayeth she. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on October 21st 1772 in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire. He was the youngest of ten children. He was educated at Cambridge where he became interested in philosophy and religion. Although Coleridge's poetic productivity was small in quantity, his visionary poems gained him a lasting reputation. Shelley referred to him as a "hooded eagle among blinking owls." I knew, or thought I knew, Coleridges’s poetry prior to reading the book. Who does not know the famous lines ‘Water, water everywhere/ Not any drop to drink?’. ‘a sadder... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: lovely collection
Disadvantages: How can there be any disadvantages to poetry

...poll that you may recall was featured on BBC2 for a while to find our favourite poems and is a wonderful collection. There is something about poetry, we have some wonderful writers of it here on ciao but in the hands of a truly skilful writer (and I’m not saying that any one of you isn’t) words can move us, intrigue us and keep us hooked in to the very end, for example the words of number 41 in the poll Samuel Taylor Coleridge In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. If that isn’t an opening to make you wanting to know what happened next I don’t know what is. The forward in the book is written by Griff Rhys Jones, who from memory was one of the public faces of the poll at the time. It includes a poem that was a very... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: good diverse selection
Disadvantages: a few really terrible poems!

..., Beckett and Frost among others, and then some poets I have never heard of but probably should have done (call myself a lit student?), and then more that I may never have come across if I hadn't got this book. However, some of the more modern poems are really, comically bad! I suppose it's a matter of taste, maybe I'm being over critical but I'm left thinking, surely noone appreciates this rubbish? I guess that just shows, though, what a diverse range of poems are in this book (good thing? hmm I don't know) and everyone should be able to find a few that they like. I'd recommend this to anyone who feels in need of a little poem therapy: no miracle cures, but they might make you smile! I'll leave you with a couple of short poems from the book (not sure if I'm allowed to do this but I'm going to anyway) I Saw a Man (by Stephen Crane) I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful