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A review by hellhoundharry
English Romantic Verse by Various
3.0
Me and poetry have an interesting history. When I was a teenager I was taught in school that poems have to rhyme and that was it. I wasn't taught about "free verse" poetry, I could only find those in song lyrics, if they can be called so. Walt Whitman who?
So my teenage self who wrote angsty teen-poems wrote them mostly in rhyme. I tried to write freeverse poems, because when I had discovered that, I also discovered that rhyme and metered poems are "old" and "dusty", something old dudes or college professors like.
But writing freeverse wasn't challenging enough for me. It felt more like I was just gushing out my feelings on paper, while whenever I was writing rhymed and metered poetry, not only could I still talk about my feelings, I could also give it a rhytm. Like a song...
Anyway, I have fallen in and out of love of poetry more than I can remember. I have tried to read some contemporary poets but usually I don't feel like they have anything to say to me. Like I might understand their angst if I went to bed with them and got my answers? Maybe?
So the last year or so I have gone back to reading older poets: Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Poes poetry have been fascinating to me. So naturally I picked up this book of English Romantic Verse.
What did I think about it? It's a mixed bag, as with most anthologies. Some of these poems went right through the heart, while others just left me confused.
So my teenage self who wrote angsty teen-poems wrote them mostly in rhyme. I tried to write freeverse poems, because when I had discovered that, I also discovered that rhyme and metered poems are "old" and "dusty", something old dudes or college professors like.
But writing freeverse wasn't challenging enough for me. It felt more like I was just gushing out my feelings on paper, while whenever I was writing rhymed and metered poetry, not only could I still talk about my feelings, I could also give it a rhytm. Like a song...
Anyway, I have fallen in and out of love of poetry more than I can remember. I have tried to read some contemporary poets but usually I don't feel like they have anything to say to me. Like I might understand their angst if I went to bed with them and got my answers? Maybe?
So the last year or so I have gone back to reading older poets: Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Poes poetry have been fascinating to me. So naturally I picked up this book of English Romantic Verse.
What did I think about it? It's a mixed bag, as with most anthologies. Some of these poems went right through the heart, while others just left me confused.