Poetry > H Poetry

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

...died in July 1834. A Choice of Coleridge’s Verse edited and Introduced by Ted Hughes was published by Faber and Faber on March 18th 1996 and is available from most good book shops for £7.99. There are two reasons why this book is so special, the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the introductory essay written by Ted Hughes. Hughes entitled his essay, 'The Snake in the Oak'. Ted Hughes held a belief in the presence of an inner force behind ...
...suggests that Coleridge was fighting a losing battle between a 'Christian Self' and the 'unleavened Self '. Hughes states that it was whilst Coleridge was in this 'unleavened Self' that his three visionary poems, 'Kubla Khan', 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', and 'Christabel' were written. Hughes dramatically presents Coleridge's career as a self-torturing flight from the possibility of a psychic wholeness, a state which he could only achieve by ... Read review

Advantages: lots
Disadvantages: none

this is a strange and highly original collection. it appears at first to be rather innocent but quickly progresses under the guise of his hauntingly playful verse into a disturbing but tender recount of youth. a young man passes thru differetn phases of his life becoming differetn things and watching his friends depart for war and never returning and thus he becomes accutely aware of how precious life is. it is a truly wonderful collection and i ... Read review

Advantages: Funny and original, and the CD is a huge plus
Disadvantages: None that I can think of

...the title of the book, All the Hits So Far, makes you think of a CD rather than a book. That is not all that strange though, because inside the cover of the book you'll find a CD attached. The CD is 33 minutes and 57 seconds long and on it you get to hear instrumental music as well as Hathaway reading the poems in the book. Sometimes the music is just played inbetween the poems, but every now and then he actually reads to the music. It's not quite ...
...and he does so in all of his poetry, still the overall stucture is free. Hathaway does not hesitate to write about controversial topics, such as religion/the existence of God (Short and Untitled, The Hug Poem, and others), masculinity (Manly Man), social issues (The Annoying Hardcore Dude That Goes Too Far) or the standards of beauty (Big Things in Big Packages), but he does so without disrespecting anyone. He has strong opinions, but he communicates ... Read review

Advantages: short and interesting
Disadvantages: short

...to terrorize the population and Beowulf goes off to fight it. He only just manages to slay the dragon but he dies of his wounds and enters the myths and legends of his people. We know about the book completely by chance as it is only on one piece of manuscript, which only just survived a fire in the 18th century. It has then been translated, transliterated, taught and adapted so that it is know a well known Anglo - Saxon classic. Even though an ... Read review

Advantages: It will make you believe in love.
Disadvantages: You may feel you are prying.

Ted Hughes was always reticent about his marraige to Sylvia Plath and it seems beautifully appropriate that he should finally choose to talk about it in poetry. The poetry itself is polished, moving and thought-provoking but I suspect the real interest lies in its subject matter and you may find yourself trying to match poems to known biographical details. At times, indeed, you may feel that you are prying, and it is,of course, a very one sided account ... Read review