The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time

ISBN-10: 0446690228

ISBN-13: 9780446690225

Words of Love ...and seduction, heartbreak, adoration, and passion. Here in this portable treasury are the 100 most moving and memorable love poems of all time, each accompanied by an illuminating introduction. Revisit the Classics: "He Is More Than a Hero" by Sappho Sonnet 18 ("Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds") by William Shakespeare "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron Enjoy Old Favorites: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear "When I Was One and Twenty" by A. E. Housman Make Surprising Discoveries: "Your Catfish Friend" by Richard Brautigan "To Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein "Valentine" by Donald Hall "True Love" by Judith Viorst Carry this book wherever you go. It's a perfect companion to read alone or to share with that special person in your life. The 100 Best Love Poems of all Time.Publishers WeeklyEntering the tradition begun with The 100 Best Poems of All Time and The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is Leslie Pockell's anthology The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time, offering measured doses of cupidity. Working with Adrienne Avila and Katharine Rapkin, Pockell takes readers from Dante's Vita Nuova to love works by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Milton and by Rabindranath Tagore, Wislawa Szymborska and Frank O'Hara through to Gregory Orr, Judith Viorst and Sandra Cisneros.

IntroductionxiiiLa Vita Nuova1Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?2Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?3Who Ever Loved4from Paradise Lost (Book IV)5To Helen6A Red, Red Ross7She Tells Her Love while Half Asleep8Last Night You Left Me and Slept9I Prithee Send Me Back My Heart10I Carry Your Heart with Me11The Avenue12The Bargain13The Mirabeau Bridge14To the Bridge of Love15She Walks in Beauty16The Ragged Wood17Night Thoughts18The Gardener19To the Harbormaster20To a Stranger21True Love22Love 20 Cents the First Quarter Mile24Jenny Kiss'd Me26Juliet27Song to Celia28Your Catfish Friend29The Owl and the Pussy-Cat30Love Song to Alex, 197932When Sue Wears Red33Those Who Love34Reprise35One Word Is Too Often Profaned36I Do Not Love You37Gifts38At Last39To Alice B. Toklas40Valentine41Love's Secret42I Knew a Woman43Love for a Hand44It Is the Third Watch45The Enchantment46The Silken Tent47Love Song48Wild Nights!49She Comes Not When Noon Is on the Roses50Between Your Sheets51The Jewels52Song 5 to Lesbia54The Vine55from The Song of Songs56Confession58I Loved You59from Merciless Beauty60He Is More than a Hero61To His Mistress62To Little or No Purpose63Touch64Lady Love65Love Poem66I Want to Breathe67A Statue of Eros68Come Quickly69Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds70Habitation71September72Love Letter73Marriage Morning75To My Dear and Loving Husband76Fulfillment77How Do I Love Thee?78Meeting at Night79Sonnet XXX80Camomile Tea81Decade82Wear Me83The Marriage84Married Love85The River Merchant's Wife86To His Coy Mistress88Nothing Twice90Strawberries92True Love94When I Was One-and-Twenty96Thunderstorm in Town97On the Balcony98Love Song99Moonlit Night100Sonnet of Sweet Complaint101Since There's No Help102Love Arm'd103The Lost Love104Echo105Reminiscence106For Jane107Funeral Blues108Vino Tinto109One Art110To Fanny Brawne111A Valediction Forbidding Mourning112Index to Titles and Authors115Index to First Lines121Acknowledgments125

\ Publishers WeeklyEntering the tradition begun with The 100 Best Poems of All Time and The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is Leslie Pockell's anthology The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time, offering measured doses of cupidity. Working with Adrienne Avila and Katharine Rapkin, Pockell takes readers from Dante's Vita Nuova to love works by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Milton and by Rabindranath Tagore, Wislawa Szymborska and Frank O'Hara through to Gregory Orr, Judith Viorst and Sandra Cisneros.\ \ \ \ \ KLIATTAs Pockell states in her introduction, these poems range from "idealistic romanticism to passionate sensuality." They include the ancient poets and the modern and most major language groups. The editor seems to favor the classic love poems over the more modern, perhaps because it's easier to discern what a love poem is with the older ones. There is only one poem per poet. Each poem is introduced with a one-paragraph background commentary. This collection is heavy on the classics, such as Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" (parodied on the facing page by Howard Moss's poem of the same name). Robert Burns' "A Red, Red Rose" is still fresh and melodic. For modern verse, e.e. cummings displays his unique parenthetical lines in "I Carry Your Heart With Me," a tender tribute to his love. The collection would not be complete without the Romantic poets. Byron's "She Walks In Beauty" is still as dramatic as on the first reading. Love includes all the real, often petty resentments that must be swept aside in its name, as Kenneth Fearing so aptly illustrates in "Love 20 Cents the First Quarter Mile." In some poems, the pure beauty of the line adds profundity to expressions of love, as in Neruda's "I Do Not Love You": "I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,/ in secret, between the shadow and the soul." The illicit nature of some love relationships is revealed in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's "Between Your Sheets," a yearning by an 18th-century woman ahead of her time. Tragedy, of course, is inherent in many love matches, so evident here in the facing poems of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, both describing the transformational quality of love. This concise volume can be agreat resource for study because of the variety of styles and forms from the colloquial to the arcane. At least one collection of love poetry should be in every library. Who, at some time in her life, doesn't need a love poem? KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Warner, 128p. index., Budin\ \