English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)

On the plus side, there is not a bad poem in the whole book: every rift is loaded with ore. And it's an attractive paperback, nicely typeset, comfortable in the hands: it doesn't feel like a cheapo-cheapo book, which you'd rather expect from the price.


A Great Poetry Collection for the Price   June 23, 2004
David Bennett (Ohio, United States)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Dover Thrift Edition books are known for providing classical literature for a great price, without abridging the material (unless they say so of course). This anthology is no exception. The best poets of the English Romantic period are included, including two of my favorites, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Keats are also represented quite liberally.

Don't expect too much of this anthology outside of the actual poems themselves though. It is a Thrift Edition after all. The paper is strong, but not of the highest quality. There are brief introductions to each of the poets, but no real commentary or notes on the poems themselves. The editor does translate some of the ancient languages that the poets occasionally employ, like Latin and Greek. At the end there is an index of first-lines and titles. Also, I have to say, that these are not "romantic" as modern readers often use the term. "Romantic" refers to an era of art, music, philosophy, and literature where artists and writers allowed their emotions to overflow using a whole host of symbols, creating great works that owed more to the depths of the Imagination than the rational intellect. Coleridge was himself a theologian and philosopher and expressed many of his ideas of Imagination and eternal Symbol in his poems. Overall, this is a good sampling of some of the finest poetry available. Factoring in price and quantity, it is definitely 4 stars.


GREAT   June 9, 2000
John Cummings (Massachusetts)
5 out of 12 found this review helpful

It has some of the best poems i have ever read in them! there is a need to buy this book if u are hopelessly devoted to love poems!


The poetry itself   October 10, 2006
Shalom Freedman (Jerusalem,Israel)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I think most readers know what they are going to get with a 'Dover edition or reprint'. An attractive, spartan looking volume( It has changed in recent years and their volumes are more colorful) without extensive commentary or note. The works themselves.
In this case it is a collection of the poetry of the great Romantics, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Byron.
There are of course many anthologies of this poet, most with more elaborate notes and explication.
But I love many of these poems so much that I am happy to see them again in any new edition.
The poetry of the English Romantic period is among the greatest Mankind has.
On that basis primarily I would recommend this volume.


Good for the price   January 3, 2007
William M. Kurry (New Jersey)
I was teaching the "English Romantics" to a small class of students. I needed something cheap. This did the job although it has no footnotes or annotations to the text. Introduction to each poet is helpful but limited in scope.

Bill Kurry