Wednesday, August 20, 2008
 
Book Report: Love Sonnets selected by Louis Untermeyer (1964)
This is a small collection of sonnet's greatest hits, sort of. About 25 of them, from Browning to Shakespeare and Petrarch.

Unfortunately, the poems appear in a handwritten font (calligraphy, the credits call it) and they have "illustrations" on the left page of each. The font hurt my eyes, and I ignored the illustrations totally.

Still, I enjoyed some of the poems (again, in many cases, as the major ones are anthologized everywhere else). A couple points:
  • Translated poems, especially those in tight forms like sonnets, probably come through very garbled from the original.

  • Based on these sonnets, I might have been one of the best sonneteers of the late 20th century before I retired. If I could get my two year old to illustrate the book, I could probably match this volume.
Overall, the volume probably isn't worth your time unless you really dig eye-crossing simulated handwriting.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:14 AM
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