A review by msand3
Christmas Poems by

2.0

It’s hard to imagine how such a fine collection of poets could produce such lackluster verse. There are major names here -- Tennyson, Yeates, Eliot, Dickinson, Hardy, Kipling, Longfellow, Milton, Donne, Hardy, etc. -- yet the entire collection is disjointed, which is a strange way to describe a book of topical poems. I can only conclude that Christmas (especially the Adoration tale) isn’t the most inspiring topic for great poetry. All the big names take a crack at it and miss -- sometimes wildly. The traditional carols, some of which are anonymous, are familiar from childhood (and endless holiday airplay), but read on the page like kitschy doggerel. Not even the inclusion of one of my favorite poets, Philip Larkin, can save this collection. I think next year I'll stick to prose narratives for my Christmas reading.