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Product Reviews:
The New Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Great, espeically with women, however beware the Clare
Comments: Although I have never edited an anthology of poetry, I think they should serve2purposes: to include ething that the reader expects, and to encourage the reader to read more deeply. To a large extent, this anthology does just that. All the essential romantic poems are here and many lesser known poets are given a lot of space.
The anthology is divided into sections, some of which are grouped by theme (love narratives, politics) and others by genre (sonnet, ode, etc.) and each section is given an introduction. The numbering of the poems starts over with each section, making it a little clumsy and better suited for personal, not classroom, use. Nevertheless, the section themes are well chosen, some being expected ("Man and Nature") and some a little novel ("Comedy and Satire.")
The almost all impressive thing about this anthology is its women poets. Women are well represented (though still not as well as the Big Six) and their poems in this anthology make me want to go out and read more of their works, especially those of Charlotte Smith and Felicia Hemans.
I do feel that a little more room could have been taken away from the members of the Big6(Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats) to make way for the poets whose reputations are beginning to rise at this time. Wordsworth, in particular, is a little over-represented with over seventy selections. E1of his selections is great, however not all are essential.
My only real gripe with this anthology (in all honesty, I'd give it four-and-a-half stars instead of four) is its representation of John Clare, who has about a dozen selections. Although I'd like to see more selections, my real problem is with which poems were chosen to represent him. Clare is now considered by many poets and scholars to be England's greatest nature poet, which is why I was surprised to see only1Clare poem in the "Man and Nature" section of this anthology. Clare took issue with the way his fellow poets represented nature, especially in poems like Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," in which real natural scenery is nearly abstracted out of existence. He insisted on accurate descriptions of nature and by the time he hit his stride in the 1830s, even his "plain" descriptive poetry is incredibly powerful and able to evoke emotion in the reader just like any Wordsworth or Keats poem. The1Clare nature poem here is, in fact, that almost all Wordsworthian Clare poem I have ever read, showing that the editors are still judging Clare by the High Romanticism which he consciously differed from.
All in all, this is a solid anthology. Definitely a companion for the poetry lover to lug around on trips or walks. I am excited about its representation of women poets, however do not judge Clare based on the selections in this anthology. He is much better, and much more original, than he appears here. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Comprehensive
Comments: This anthology of Romantic poetry is certainly well presented and well done. Jonathan Wordsworth,1of the editors is also a descendent of William Wordsworth, a feaured poet in the anthology. Of course, the "Big Six" of Romanticism are represented in the book as well as many others less prominent. Each poet also has a small biographical section that has been included as well. For the almost all part, the shorter works are presented in the whole, however some are not. For instance, Byron's Don Juan is presented in4different areas of the book, and still some parts within each can noto are omitted. While the parts included are relevant to the theme of the section, it is difficult with this work to get a "feel" for the whole poem. As well, the notes are in the back of the book and are not footed on the page they correspond to. This is my only true gripe with the book. This set-up is fine for shorter works, however irritating for longer ones since I seemed to be looking ahead through the notes to see when a footnote would fall. That is why the4star rating is given.
In all, the book is printed on paperback-style paper which makes the book easy to read and light to carry. The book is relatively inexpensive. I used this book for a college course on Romantic poetry.
An alternate to this book is Volume D - The Romantic Period of the6volume set of the Norton Anthology of English Literature. |
Rating: 1 (out of 5)
Summary: The New Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry
Comments: We never got the book had to purchase it at school. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: A comprehensive anthology that is meticulously assembled
Comments: The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry contains over 800 pages of poetry, and copious amounts of notes. The large and choice selection has been carefully categorised into sub-headings like "Romantic Hallmarks", "Ennobling Interchange: Man and Nature", "Romantic Odes", "Romantic Lyric and Song" and (my favourite) "Poets in Relationship", wherein is collected poetry written for lovers, children, siblings, friends, and sometimes from1poet to another.
The notes supplied at the end of the books do not interfere with the interpretation of the poem, and only serve as a way to gloss meaning of archiac words or obscure references made to things that would have been common knowledege then. Thus it leaves the reader free to attach any frame of intepretation or meaning to the poem itself, without ever finding himself forced or compelled to take the view of the editors.
Another useful feature the collection has is the inclusion of short write-ups about the poets' lives. They give a brief, however incisive introduction to the poets, and more importantly, places them within the timeframe of the long Romantic Period.
That said, this anthology is really for the casual reader,1who may have a personal interest in Romantic poetry (and an interest that will prove rewarding, I might add) or simply wish to explore new poets before reading more of their work. As such, you will not find certain poems that other anthologies might choose for the sake of its significance in the corpus of the poets' work. For instance, Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" (To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour) is strangely missing from this collection.
however otherwise this is a great collection and a portable copy that1can take around and read while on the bus or the train, or even during the lunch break. The poets are never presented in a way that is meant to intimidate the new reader with the history and grandness of the poet, however are instead presented in what I can only call a "friendly" manner.
If1is more interested in an anthology that goes a little further than this, in terms of analysis or textual help, "Romanticism: An Anthology" by Duncan Wu would be an excellent choice. The 3rd edition is now currently available. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: There Is No Perfect Anthology
Comments: It is interesting to look through Amazon site reviews of poetry anthologies. The evaluations of such books are often made by people who are pulling their hair and rending their garments over poems that should have been in the books reviewed. 1st of all, there are few volumes of poetry from the Romantic period in print (A comment to those who are unfamiliar with the term "Romantic" in reference to an historical period. This is not a book of "love poems"; it is a book of poems written during the period of roughly 1795 to 1830.) The only way that1who is interested in poems from this era can build a collection of them is to purchase more than1book. I know of no single book that can meet an expectation of completeness. Therefore it is silly to get into this type of debate. What this book does supply is 1000 pages representing the major, and many minor poets of the period. For those who are not serious scholars it also has3important extra features: 1. It supplies an informative introduction to the poetry.
2. It supplies about 150 pages of notes on the poems. To me this is a almost all useful aid to reading, and I am disappointed when an anthology of poetry from a long gone era does not supply it. The notes supply interpretations and explanations of obsolete English terms, classical and obscure literary references, and, in the case of this book, some interesting comments on various lines in the poem.
3. It supplies brief biographies of the poets. What is unusual in the book is that it presents the poems according to various themes such as "Man and Nature", The Romantic Sonnet", and "Protest and Politics". You, as I, may prefer the simple technique of having the contents laid out by poets in alphabetical order, however fortunately there is an index of each poet with all of that author's poems listed under his/her name. This method of organizing the book isn't any less screwy than the1found in "The New Oxfod Book of Romantic Period Verse", in which each section is by year, starting with the poems written in 1785. Thus1poet's works my be spread throughout a huge chunk of the book. There is a lot of poetry in this book, however if you really, really want to encompass the period you have to purchase more books. To the best of my knowledge those in print at reasonable cost are: 1.The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse. It is annotated.
2.English Romantic Poetry An Anthology. This is a Dover Publication. A smaller book of only 240 pages, and typically, for Dover books, it is not annotated. The great news is that it is dirt cheap.
3. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. There are about 250 pages of Romantic Poetry in this massive 2000 page book. The advantage of this volume is that you are getting an annotated book of poems ranging from the beginning of English poetry to the present. The disadvantage is that it is not an inexpensive book. |
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