Light-Gathering Poems (Edge Books)
Grade 7 Up-A companion piece to Earth-Shattering Poems (Holt, 1995), this collection is billed as a "healing answer" to the turbulent nature of the selections in that anthology. Indeed there are some "lighter" themes here, such as lighthouses, summer, beauty, and eternity. Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet #43" ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"), and Allen Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra" are among the inclusions. Some of the other uplifting poems are Amado Nervo's "Ecstacy," Omar Khayy m's "Awake!," and Christina Rossetti's "Hurt No Living Thing." However, some poems have a heavier tone, such as D. H. Lawrence's "Song of a Man Who Has Come Through" and William Stafford's "Learning How to Lose." Overall, the selections gel smoothly, with each poem bringing its own unique voice to the theme and adding its own layer of understanding. The book concludes with 36 pages of biographical notes.Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OHCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.