A Book of Love Poetry [Hardcover]

As a teacher, I loved this book. It puts in one place most of the world's greatest love poems, from the ancient Greeks and Romans up until the present day. There are substantial selections from Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Donne, Marvell, and on and on. It contains both extremes of e.e. cummings' love poetry, from the raunchy "may I feel said he" to the sublimely romantic "somewhere i have never travelled." For longtime collectors of anthologies, at one point in time this was the Penguin Book of Love Poetry. I've never particularly cared for Stallworthy's organization, as he splits the poems up into emotional moods, like "Declarations" and "Celebrations," since my own bent is to the chronological and cultural organizational methods, but they may please people looking for a set of moods. Unless situations have changed since the year 2000, this is the only really good collection of love poetry in print. There are others, but none have the breadth and depth of this one. A must-have for lovers of poetry, for poets in love, and for lovers looking for inspiration.

This book was great! It contains classic poems from well-known authors, poets from all over the world, and contemporary poets as well. This book is highly recommended to anyone whether you have studied history for a long time or if you simply read it for leisure.

A Book of Love Poetry is filled with poems you may have met before in your studies at school or while reading books of poetry. Who could forget "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" or "How Do I Love thee? Let me count the ways."

There is comfort in the familiarity of Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd To His Love where he shows an intuitive understanding of love's fantasy. However, I was not prepared for Sir Walter Ralegh's "Her Reply," an almost sarcastic retort, and yet a beautiful poem. I prefer the fantasy Christopher Marlowe paints with his poetic description of love and the two poems do explore the contrast between fantasy and reality. Cecil Day Lewis copies the first two lines from Christopher Marlowe's poem, as if we wouldn't notice.

Wit and humor make their appearance in Sally In Our Alley and the last few lines are cute. Many of the poems may make you question the entire idea of love being blind. Is love blind or does love open our eyes to the beauty of existence? Are we not truly blind before we fully love?

If you read a book of poetry and find one poem you love, then I think it is worth purchasing the book. The rare discovery is worth the effort and Edwin Morgan's "Strawberries" was such a discovery. I especially loved the ending of the poem filled with summer lightning and rain.

the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar

Jacques Prévert's Alicante is a sweet portrait of love in six lines and leaves a lasting impression. Octavio Paz also explores touch in a memorable six lines. Both poems prove their point. A short poem can be more profound than unending lines of complicated phrases. A quick, stunning recollection of love seems to leave a more lasting impression. Bhartrhari also presents a poem of four lines to describe love's initial binding power and time's power to separate lovers.

Pablo Neruda's poetry presents a vivid contrast to many of the poems in this book. His poems are an enthralling blend of sensuality and rhythm.

Over the sky's hot rim,
The day's last breath in our sails.
Pinned by the sun between solstice
and equinox, drowsy and tangled together

The Introduction presents ideas about the relationship between creative and sexual energy. Do poets have more intense emotional moments throughout their lives or are they just better at assembling words into evocative phrases as they gaze with an inward eye and are compelled to create? The poems are organized in eight main sections:

Intimations - Intimate portraits of women by the men who adore their beauty.

Declarations - "She walks in beauty, like the night..."

Persuasions - Convincing women to love while they are young and other romantic notions...

Celebrations - Temptations, songs and kisses.

Aberrations - Deviations from the expected course of love, rejections and indifference.

Separations - Poems of loss, farewell, future considerations and longing when lovers are apart.

Desolations - Heartbreaking poems of loss and remembrance with splashes of beauty and moments of unending hope. Yehuda Amichai's Quick and Bitter has a beautiful conclusion.

Reverberations - Memories of eating strawberries before a storm and kisses remembered.

While reading A Book of Love Poems, I found many new poems to enjoy and the copy I purchased was already dog-eared and well loved. While my copy is a paperback version, I would much prefer a hardcover edition. The Index of Poets and the Index of Titles and First Lines is especially helpful if you are studying a particular poet or you are looking for a favorite poem.

If you are looking for a book of poems to inspire romance and you enjoy selections with a more traditional appeal, Jon Stallworthy's book has much to offer. If you are looking for erotic poems, there are a few selections, although I'd recommend The Erotic Spirit. One of my favorite books of love poems is still Everyman's Love Poems Love Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets).

~The Rebecca Review