Love Poems

by Sheila Kohler and Peter Washington

Book Overview

A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of passionate love poems from around the world and through the ages.

It has often been said that love, both sacred and profane, is the only true subject of the lyric poem. Nothing better justifies this claim than the splendid poems in this volume, which range from the writings of ancient China to those of modern-day America and represent, at its most piercing, a universal experience of the human...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679429069
• ISBN13: 9780679429067
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.4" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

An Understanding of Love

But true Love is a durable fire In the mind ever burning; Never sick, never old, never dead, From itself never turning. ~Walter Ralegh I am naturally drawn to tiny books and this book was no exception. I saw it and instantly fell in love with the red library binding and gold embossing on the fabric cover. This is one of those books you want to carry around with you in your pocket to read on a sunny day while sitting on a park bench. While most of the poems were new to me, I did find lines to make any poet drown in the pure beauty of words. "In My Sky at Twilight" is a paraphrase of the 30th poem in Raindranath Tagore's The Gardener. The images are lush and mingle emotion with nature. "In Former Days" by Bhartrhari (5th Century) is witty and beautiful in its simplicity. Two lovers are so in love they forget their separateness and then drift back to being "you" and "me." The poem is a mere four lines and yet it provides a intimate look at how lovers feel when in love and when they drift apart. I loved a few lines in "The Palanquin" where a butterfly lands on delicate skin and transfers colors onto the lover's skin. The poems are divided into 7 sections: Definitions and Persuasions Love and Poetry Praising the Loved One Pleasures and Pains Fidelity and Inconstancy Absence, Estrangement and Parting Love Past You may recognize poems by Lord Byron, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and Dorothy Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by poems by Leconte De Lisle, Pablo Neruda and Dioskorides. You will find a wide range of love poems. This book contains selections from ancient China to modern America. These poems present the universal experience of the human heart. ~The Rebecca Review

Lovely, In Every Respect

I love this little book. It's chock full of poetic gems, yet each one is so different. The differences in variety are surprising...there are different moods, cadences, emphases.The poems are arranged in broad categories and follow a rather natural progression from the joys of meeting to the pleasures and pains of being "in love," to an absence of one's beloved and past loves.Some poets are represented more extensively than are others. These include John Donne, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova and Christina Rossetti, among others. I don't think anyone who loves good poetry will complain about his disproportionate representation, however. The poets named above are so good, and their ideas so universal, that not repeating them would have been the mistake.Although all of these poems concentrate on a universally recognized aspect of love, the perspectives vary sharply. There are poems from ancient India, classical Greece, medieval Japan, renaissance England, 19th century France and modern-day America.The one quality all of these poems share is first-rate writing. You will no doubt find some poems you prefer over others, but you won't find poems that are "better" than others. They are all of the highest quality.Another thing I like about this series of books is their size. They're small enough to carry in a purse or even a laptop case. I read mine on the train, on the bus, while waiting for the bus, anywhere, really. I couldn't think of a way to improve them.

Beautiful

This is probably the finest collection of love poems that I have ever seen. Peter Washington, the editor, picked some of the most beautiful poems that I have heard. I was happy to see that many of my favorites like "To His Mistress Going to Bed" by Donne,"Tonight I Can Write" by Neruda, and "She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep" by Graves made it into this book. This collection had all of those poems that just have to be any any love collection. The great thing about this collection, though, is the many poems included that are not so well known. There are quite a few poems translated into English for this anthology which are gorgeous. Some of my favorites that I did not know before this collection are "Love is Not" by Marcus Argentarius, "The Lord is Not Merciful" by Anna Akhmatova, and Pushkin's "I Loved You." No poems outside of this collection capture love any better. Any lover of good poetry should buy this wonderful collection. It is the definative anthology of love poetry.

A wonderful collection of Love Poems that'd please anyone

This book is a wonderful collection of love poems. I couldn't imagine anyone being displeased with it. It has been one of my most favorite collections of poems ever.

A diverse and beautiful selection of words of the heart

This is one of my favorite collections of poetry. Along with the companion volume on the physical side of love, "Erotic Poems," this covers a broad enough range of topics to resonate with nearly anyone's experience of love at any stage of love. The editor has apparently and courageously selected these pearls of love poetry not based solely on the reputation of the poet or how well known the piece, but on how well the words stand on their own merit. Many of these poems are quite obscure, but very powerful. If I were to only have a single book of poems about love, this would be my choice