Reviews for Three Centuries of American Poetry

The average rating for Three Centuries of American Poetry based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-18 00:00:00 Robert Gray 242 pages of required reading. I like poetry. We'll see if I like poetry that much... *EDIT* Colonial-era spelling is funny...verry funnye inndeede. Mye spleene is manifested... No matter how much poetry I read, nothing will ever get me like "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "The Raven". Edgar Allan Poe = Awesome Crazy Win. I like reading the lyrics to familiar folk tunes. They're so strange and morbid...Oh my darling Clementine, heh heh heh... It makes me soooo happy that in "Casey at the Bat", Casey strikes out. That's sort of mean of me, huh? But it just seems so fitting...and Casey sounded a bit like he deserved it. I think someone needs to write a responding parody of the visiting team..."Joey on the Mound" or something. *EDIT* Apparently, someone did..."Riley on the Mound"...it's clever. *EDIT* So I read Poe's stuff, with the "Nevermore" and "It writhes - It writhes!" (Loooove Poe's vocabulary..."scintillant" "tintinabulation" "sepulchre"...wish people still talked like that...) I really liked how in "The Bells", it starts off sort of happy and hopeful, like a song, and then that song sharpens into a scream...and then ends with a demented macabre note, a "laugh - but smile no more" sort of idea. Like if you started in a major key, and then sharped it into an atonal key, and then ended in a diminished chord. (Music Theory 101...) Then right after Poe's "we're all going to die, and life is utterly miserable" motif, I read Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life". Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul ... Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints, that perhaps another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother Seeing, shall take heart again Contrast is fun. *EDIT* Goodness, Whitman is a nut...but he's an American nut, so I guess it's okay. "Free verse for a free people"...indeed... Replacing "free" with "crazy" would also work. I understood almost nothing of what I read, but apparently poetry has excuses for this. (It all seems like one big inside joke that I'm just not fortunate enough to be a part of...) I don't usually recommend books in these reviews; I just say whether I liked them or not. But in this case, especially for all the darling homeschoolers out there, I'd say that this is a really great collection of poems with excellent contrast, since it spans three centuries of American poetry. I think it's totally worth owning. Not only can you discuss the art of poetry and the evolution of writing styles, but you can also get some interesting historical contexts and a little bit of philosophy thrown in on the side. What's not to love?! Admittedly, it's more for high school than elementary school, but it depends on the kid... Just don't read Whitman first... Your face will be like this -> o.O Your mind will be like this -> ????????????? I warn you now so it won't be my fault...

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-04 00:00:00 Timothy Jennett This is a thorough collection containing not only poetry, but song lyrics as well. It is divided up into different eras, instantly putting the poems in context for the reader. Brief biographies on back that are full of meaningful trivia on the poets. This is one I would like to own.