A review by jenniferfrye
100 Best-Loved Poems by Philip Smith

4.0

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
- “If—” by Rudyard Kipling

I still don’t really know how to evaluate poetry. 4 stars since I felt like this gave me an excellent, manageable introduction to a variety of poets, styles, and movements, which was exactly what I was looking for, but I didn’t absolutely love all the poetry itself. (Maybe my standards are too high.)

Superficially, I love love LOVE the design and feel of this edition. There’s plenty of room to write in the margins, the paper is soft and with a bit of texture and so is perfect for a pencil, and the binding is flexible while still feeling sturdy. I’ll definitely be buying more of these old Dover Thrift poetry collections.

In terms of the collection itself, the overview of each poet was helpful, though I wish it were a bit more in-depth. Some of the descriptions were a bit odd, like describing Kipling as “the essential voice of late-Victorian colonialism”? I also wish the poems themselves were dated, rather than only giving the birth/death of the author. And it would have been nice if they’d had annotations like the Penguin edition of Emily Brontë’s poems, but I get that that’s too much to ask for from a budget reprint house like Dover.

Generally speaking, the earlier poetry is a bit too archaic in terms of language and (often) a bit too simplistic in terms of subject and theme for me to enjoy that much, and the more modern poetry is a bit too experimental for me to understand as poetry. It seems like the eighteenth and nineteenth century poems were generally the ones that most resonated with me.

The poets I’d like to explore further are:

- Shakespeare’s sonnets: They are very difficult to decipher (I didn’t even fully work out the three sonnets included in this volume), but the complexity is part of the appeal.
- John Donne: I think religious poetry may be one of my favorite “genres,” and in this case I think the slightly archaic language gives an added reverence that is very fitting.
- Thomas Gray: I like how his poems are very grounded in place and setting and story. I would have never believed that “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes” was an actual poem from the eighteenth century.
- William Wordsworth: I really liked all the poems included, especially “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” I think I like the hint of romanticism and the interiority/contemplation of his poetry.
- Percy Bysse Shelley: It’s a bit over-the-top, but I like it.
- Elizabeth Barret Browning: I think I just like sonnets. Her “Sonnet XLIII” is probably the most romantic (small “r”) poem in the entire collection.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Fantastic storytelling, completely engaging. His work definitely feels closest to a novel, and it’s very readable and fun.
- Edgar Allen Poe: I love the melancholy, gothic atmosphere.
- Walt Whitman: Beautiful nature poetry
- Gerard Manley Hopkins: Another religious poet. The included poets focused on nature, which I really enjoyed.
- William Butler Yeats: I really liked some of his turns of phrase, like “bee-loud glade.”
- Robert Frost: He feels like a “basic” poet to enjoy, but there you have it.

Favorite poems from this collection:
- “Holy Sonnet X” by John Donne
- “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes” by Thomas Gray
- “The Tyger” by William Blake
- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth
- “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats
- “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Lord Tennyson
- “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman
- “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold
- “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
- “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
- “If—” by Rudyard Kipling
- “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas