Reviews for The Top 500 Poems

The average rating for The Top 500 Poems based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-11 00:00:00 Joe Powell Poems written in English before the 15th century tend to be very depressing! All about death. And then we get to Shakespeare and that theme becomes far more interesting: Sonnet 73 That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the deathbed whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourished by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. I think it's saying - we are young -- we know someday we'll be old, but for now we are both young and let's love each other - It is the potential that well grow older in the future that you probably see in me that makes this moment special, makes us more attracted to each other right now. A poem about youth and how it stands out in light of its opposite.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-02-14 00:00:00 Stewart Johnston it's a good reference book, but as poetry goes, it's very uneven because 1)it's an anthology and anthologies usually are pretty inconsistent, and 2)it's an anthology of the most-anthologized poems, originally written in english, of all time, so it's more-or-less the book of the all-time favorite in-english poems of the non-poet masses, and that includes mostly a lot of people who don't read a lot of poetry. so, you know, it's the usual suspects. so it's that whole 'when it's good, it's superb, and when it's bad, it's just nauseatingly awful' kind of thing. in summary, good as a reference book, but it'd make most poets or serious readers of literary poetry sick, and i definitely would NOT recommend it as an introduction to poetry. this is the kind of book that turns people off from poetry, gives people a distorted concept of poetry and what many different kinds of poetry are actually out there.