The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse

This was an odd little book. The editor (A.R.Davis) handpicked poems from between 600BC and the 1940s, and used them to try to show how he thought Chinese poetry has evolved over that period. There is a long introduction to establish his point, followed by about 200 short poems (mostly 4-10 lines) from the poets considered the most celebrated of the era.

I was surprised how incredibly beautiful I found some of the older poetry. There was a simplicity to the language and structure that I found really powerful. I will be looking out for more in the future, and have already identified an anthology by two poets (Li Po and Tu Fu) that I will be on the hunt for. I am hoping this will be the start of a(nother) new reading direction for me.

The show more poetry then, was very good, which is helpful, because pretty much nothing else was. The introduction is overlong, wordy and concentrated on changes in the number of lines and syllables, rather than how these changes affect how the reader interacts with them. Perhaps it is uncharitable to be overcritical on this point, because the poems were, after all, in translation, but Davis' words did nothing to help me with the book. Poems are crammed, sometimes up to 3 per page, which creates a hurried feel to the book. Finally, the poets biographies are stored far from their poems which, given the shortness of the poetry, meant that I was flicking pages every 20 or 30 seconds.

In short, this a wonderful present in godawful wrapping. I intend to read more of the older poetry if I can, and would recommend you do as well. Just don't do it using this book. show less

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