I mostly disliked this book, but I did like one thing about it. I liked how each page of the book started a new poem. For example, on the first page, there is a poem called "People" and when you flip the page, the next poem called "Many Mansions" is there. It continued like this throughout the course of the book. I disliked this book, though, because I felt like the poems were a bit dark. In the poem "People," the author writes about how he/she enjoys people, but only at a distance. One of the darker parts of this poem, is when the author writes " I like to see them passing and passing and going on their way, especially if I see their aloneness alive in them." There was not one overarching big idea throughout this book, since it was composed of multiple different poems. ( )

"Snake" remains one of my favorite poems since I first read it as a child, and is the reason I wanted to read the whole anthology. I discovered that not many of the poems are similar to "Snake," though, which is a narrative rather than a description of sensual pleasure, which many of these other poems are. I can imagine some readers will find Lawrence's lack of restraint in these poems--in particular the fruit poems--a little over-indulgent. But what's over-indulgent? What does that mean, anyway, that we are only allowed so much ecstatic reverie per poem? Once I let go of my formal ideas of where a poem should go I loved this collection from start to finish. I found many of the poems shatteringly beautiful.

It's a wonderful experience to read the original collection where a favorite poem was first published. It's a very different reading experience than reading a poem plucked out of context and put into an anthology with other poets. ( )

This is where the voice of Lawrence is best heard, capturing the heart and the is-ness and the passion - and yet sometimes the prosaic essence of the natural world. ( )