celeste57's review
3.5
There are a lot of poems to love here, but there are a few that I think should not have been included and should have been subbed out for some that are more commonly accepted as universally beloved. Also, while this collection covers a wide swath of poets over the course of nearly 5 centuries, it is remarkably white and Anglocentric. Because of this, I believe the title is a bit of a misnomer. It would have been more appropriate to say that these were 100 of the best-loved poems of the Western canon. But all of that is personal opinion. There were many of my lifelong favorites in this collection, so the nostalgia factor alone, along with the very affordable price, made this a worthwhile acquirement.
srogan88's review
3.0
I read this because "poetry" was a category I needed to mark off on a reading challenge for the year.
As poetry goes, it was OK. It's a nice collection of standards, many I've read before, some new. I appreciated the chronological arrangement and short explanations of why the author was included.
Overall, I'm not a huge fan of poetry and this didn't change that.
As poetry goes, it was OK. It's a nice collection of standards, many I've read before, some new. I appreciated the chronological arrangement and short explanations of why the author was included.
Overall, I'm not a huge fan of poetry and this didn't change that.
hestia30's review
Marlowe - The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Shakespeare - Sonnet LXXIII
Marvell - To His Coy Mistress
Coleridge - Kubla Khan
Byron - She Walks in Beauty
Poe - The Raven
Browning - My Last Duchess
Dickinson - "I'm Nobody, Who are You?"
Carroll - Jabberwocky
Yeats - The Second Coming
Cummings - "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
Shakespeare - Sonnet LXXIII
Marvell - To His Coy Mistress
Coleridge - Kubla Khan
Byron - She Walks in Beauty
Poe - The Raven
Browning - My Last Duchess
Dickinson - "I'm Nobody, Who are You?"
Carroll - Jabberwocky
Yeats - The Second Coming
Cummings - "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
crispymerola's review
challenging
slow-paced
3.0
Alternative Title - "O White Boi's, My White Boi's"
Reading poetry often brings me back to my confused upbringing, where I pored over psalms and prayers, hoping to feel or understand what it was everyone insisted was so important about Jesus and God. If I only squinted hard enough, or approached the altar of the good book with a pure enough spirit - then, THEN I'd be graced with the understanding that eluded me. I'd get the hype.
Many many days later, I grew up and realized religion wasn't for me. I found that these texts held their power not between their words, but between the people who believed the words.
This is pretty much how I feel about most poetry.
I'm giving up on trying to glean the value in everything I read. Half of these beloved poems are useless to me - empty, horny, dramatic scribblings which conjure no meaningful imagery or make any salient points beyond "gosh, milady, you're beautiful," and, "let's fuck bc we finna die," and, "golly gee, I love God and the trees he made".
Another quarter of the poems have a line or two that made an impression or gave me a thought. The last quarter were truly meaningful, and felt more like fully formed stories or arguments writ in verse. So, let's give this thing three stars and I can continue ignoring poetry until I die.
Reading poetry often brings me back to my confused upbringing, where I pored over psalms and prayers, hoping to feel or understand what it was everyone insisted was so important about Jesus and God. If I only squinted hard enough, or approached the altar of the good book with a pure enough spirit - then, THEN I'd be graced with the understanding that eluded me. I'd get the hype.
Many many days later, I grew up and realized religion wasn't for me. I found that these texts held their power not between their words, but between the people who believed the words.
This is pretty much how I feel about most poetry.
I'm giving up on trying to glean the value in everything I read. Half of these beloved poems are useless to me - empty, horny, dramatic scribblings which conjure no meaningful imagery or make any salient points beyond "gosh, milady, you're beautiful," and, "let's fuck bc we finna die," and, "golly gee, I love God and the trees he made".
Another quarter of the poems have a line or two that made an impression or gave me a thought. The last quarter were truly meaningful, and felt more like fully formed stories or arguments writ in verse. So, let's give this thing three stars and I can continue ignoring poetry until I die.
kkaste's review
5.0
What’s not to love about these best-loved poems. About half of the poems I was familiar with, so it was nice to visit others I was not familiar with. I am glad I finally read these poems. It was a gift from someone years again and I am so happy to read these lovely poems.
diaryofabookahloic's review
3.0
Poems are hard for me to review as each one can be pulled apart and pick to pieces and I tend to read for enjoyment and entertainment and my brain isn't critical I never can find the underlining meaning so with this collection there was a few poems that I have read before some more than once and some I never have heard of before. Now the poems with the older English tripped me up a bit. then there was some that I plain didn't care for at all, there were a few hidden gems that I just loved.