John Donne - Selected Poetry

****

Excellent introduction to his work 21 Feb 2007

The review which appears on this page seems to be rather out-of-place, inasmuch as, despite her many qualities, Vanessa Redgrave has little to do with John Donne's poetry, at least in any direct sense. As such, it seems a new review is necessary.

The majority of people who buy this book will be in the business of studying it, and for that purpose it is well equipped. The text has been modernised, but those who need an original spelling edition will not be looking at a "selected" edition, so we need not let that worry us. Indeed, there is much to be said for setting the idiosyncrasies of 16th century orthography to one side, although the modern rendering sometimes loses the charm of the original, and flexibility of the old spelling system did allow for a reflection of stresses that are no longer so clear.

If you are not studying Donne, then this volume will give you all the poems you need, and many more. All the favourites are here, from the bawdy through to the divine, and there are dozens more gems to be found.

My only caveat with this edition lies with the introduction by John Carey. In many ways it is excellent, but it would have been useful to have had more grounding in contemporary context. However, there exists the excellent Cambridge Companion to John Donne which offers a far more detailed range of essays.

So the decision has to be reached as to whether this deserves four or five stars. The poetry, of course, is belittled by even the highest star rating, but the edition is not yet perfect. However, for most people's needs it is far more than sufficient, and besides, it's John Donne, who remains the finest poet ever to have written in the English language.