Doggerel: Poems About Dogs (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)
This charming book will expand the audience for poetry because its primary audience is neither poets nor poetry fans but dog lovers, who have included, this collection makes clear, poets of note from Geoffrey Chaucer to Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Editor Ciuraru includes classics, such as Alexander Pope's sardonic epigraph "I am his Highness' dog at Kew; / Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you," beside new works, such as Jill Ciment's witty parody of Sylvia Plath ("I begin to talk like a dog / I think I may well be a dog") and Jane Kenyon's tender "After an Illness, Walking the Dog" ("Wet things smell stronger, / and I suppose his main regret is that / he can sniff just one at a time"). Shakespeare and Kipling, Stevie Smith and Robin Becker--dozens of poets reflect on the joys and sorrows of living with dogs. The section on "The Virtues of Particular Breeds," in which homage is paid St. Bernards, Pomeranians, Irish setters, greyhounds, and other breeds, is especially satisfying.Patricia MonaghanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved