Could have been wonderful; isn’t.
Collage illustrations and sidebars accompany 25 of Frost’s most accessible poems.
Organized in three groups, the selections reflect Frost’s keenly observed walkabouts and rueful interrogations of youth and age. A convivial series introduction invites readers’ enjoyment: “There is NO wrong way to experience a poem.” Each sidebar contains three sections. “Engage” poses questions to help readers ponder poetic form and themes. “Imagine” suggests an activity for creative expression, and “Define” explains potentially unfamiliar words (bolded in each poem). The collaged mashups, composed of stock and public domain images, affix birds, flowers, and figures onto rich-hued but often banal landscapes that alternately evoke 19th-century European paintings and retrograde greeting cards. In all but one image, people appear to be light-skinned. Even where Frost specifically names species or describes scenes, generic, often misleading pastiches predominate—a sorely missed opportunity to extend and add visual nuance to the poems. “Hyla Brook” describes a dry June waterway “gone groping underground” with the Hyla frogs—a “brook to none but who remember long.” An image of a frothing, blue-and-white stream contradicts the poem’s subtle meaning. Notwithstanding the editorial openhandedness, an appended commentary provides didactic synopses and final suggestions for understanding each poem. A popular misconception of “The Road Not Taken” is thankfully corrected here, but for “Birches,” Frost’s meticulous imagery of a boy, a “swinger of birches,” is interpreted as “children on swings” in a complete misreading of the poem.
Could have been wonderful; isn’t. (biographical facts, bibliography) (Poetry. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63819-106-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Bushel & Peck Books
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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A poor performance, “[s]ans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” (introduction, indexes) (Poetry. 8-11, adult)
Like the old man’s hose, Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech is “a world too wide” to be well-served by this paltry selection of 21 poems, three per “age.”
Hopkins tries to inject some color into the mix with Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the learn’d astronomer,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee?” and Lewis Carroll’s “You are old, father William.” Unfortunately, these, combined with passages from the speech itself, only make his other choices look anemic. To the “infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms,” for instance, Rebecca Kai Dotlich offers a bland “Amazing, your face. / Amazing”; on the facing page, a “traditional Nigerian lullaby” is stripped of music: “Sleep my baby near to me. / Lu lu lu lu lu lu.” Along with Joan Bransfield Graham’s “A Soldier’s Letter to a Newborn Daughter,” which ends with a condescending “I’m coming home / to my girls… / With All My Love, / DAD,” most of the rest are cast in prosaic free verse. Hopkins’ “Curtain,” probably written for this collection, closes the set with theatrical imagery. Billout supplies pale, distant views of small figures and some surreal elements in largely empty settings—appropriate, considering the poetry, but they lack either appeal for young audiences or any evocation of the Shakespearean lines’ vigorous language and snarky tone.
A poor performance, “[s]ans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” (introduction, indexes) (Poetry. 8-11, adult)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-56846-218-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Visually and editorially unworthy of Dickinson’s incandescence.
This title in the Illustrated Poets Collection presents 25 notable selections from Dickinson, with questions to enhance critical thinking.
The poems fall into three sections: “The Natural World,” “Ideas & Imagination,” and “Heart & Spirit.” Each poem garners a double-page spread and a sidebar with three components. “Engage” poses questions designed to help students grapple with Dickinson’s imagery and emphatic yet delicate use of metaphor. “Imagine” suggests activities for playfully approaching the poems, like drawing a map or making a portrait of a poem. “Define” assists with the poems’ less familiar words. The sidebars and appended thumbnail commentary provide clues to interpreting Dickinson’s linguistic elision, but editorial missteps occur. “She sweeps with many-colored Brooms”—a gorgeous poem that metaphorically casts the setting sun as a housewife at her work—is described thus: “This poem shares how a beautiful sunset is created by a housewife sweeping….The poem sheds some glorious light on the impressive work that homemakers do every single day.” (It’s all the odder considering Dickinson’s own quest to advantage her writing over household drudgery.) Digital collages, created from public domain and stock images, pair cutouts of flora and fauna with landscapes and interiors in haphazard combos. For “These are the days when Birds come back”—a subtle poem limning late summer’s cusp—the book depicts a landscape plastered with geese, ignoring the theme. The people depicted are mostly light-skinned.
Visually and editorially unworthy of Dickinson’s incandescence. (biographical facts, bibliography) (Poetry. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63819-107-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Bushel & Peck Books
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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