Favorite Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Genre: Works by individual poets: 19th century; Poetry; Anthologies (multiple authors); English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Poetry / General;

Average Review: 4.5 stars

Review: There are many faces to poerty : I am always interested in reading poetry, I have loved it since childhood. However I do not find the wonder many attribute to Wordsworth and some of the other past poetic icons professors and/or instructors at many colleges and universities attempt to push down their students throats. Yes, I grew up with English teachers rambling off a list of names they felt were the great poets of the past (lists I am sure they were given, fed, or forced to accept, by their professors and instructors who themselves were force to accept too. I have always wondered who it was that originally decided that these few poets and their poetry were any better than anyone elses. I find the common man or women in society can spill forth just as majestic and just as meaningful lines of poetry as any of these so called greats. To date I still wonder who those mysterious deciders of what is or is not good poetry are, and why they missed the mark so badly. Don't get me wrong I enjoy reading anyones poems and I try my best to find something in every poem that inspires my soul or makes me think. I have done so in the poems of this book as well. But I do not find the greatness that some seem to find or are told they should find, in all of these works. A few of them are just tedious nonthinness. As a matter of fact I can pick up a copy of the American Poetry Anthology published by Robert Nelson every year or so, that has page after page, after page of average everyday citizen's poems in them and find works that far surpass the works (as far as touching my very soul with meaning and insight) found in this book of Wordsworth. And I hardly think anyone trying to make the case that only a sophisticate (here place the word elitist if it suits you) can find the greatness of the works here presented. That is an valid argument and would be quite egotistical and condensending now wouldn't it? I in fact liked this book, but it did not move me like Frost and many others have. I have found in my life hundreds of poems and dozens of poets who relay their artistic prowess far better than Wrodsworth ever did. now I know why the book is priced as it is. Interesting but not awe inspiring.