Phoenix £8.99
Best Poems on the Underground, ed Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicely Herbert
Sunday 10 October 2010
Latest in Reviews
Related stories
What is great about the Poems on the Underground project is that it doesn't demand high commitment from the reader. The poems are short, easy to read, and the range is so wide and eclectic that if you don't like or get one poem, you'll be likely to like or get the next. This latest edition to collect the 300 "best" poems used for the project captures that spirit perfectly.
The alphabetical arrangement leads to some pleasing juxtapositions: Anne Stevenson rubbing shoulders with RL Stevenson; Robert Herrick hanging out with Geoffrey Hill; AE Housman cheek-by-jowl with Langston Hughes; Edna St Vincent Millay slumming it with Spike Milligan. There's a pleasing balance of old favourites and contemporary poetry, and a decent sprinkling of poetry in translation.
Inevitably, there are a few duds (I could have done without Elizabeth Barrett Browning's godawful "Sonnet from the Portuguese") but overall the hit rate is high. I love Hugo Williams' "Saturday Morning": "Everyone who made love the night before/ was walking round with flashing red lights/ on top of their heads..."
The perfect anthology to while away a tedious Tube journey.
- 1 Fanny Brice: A Funny Girl revival ignores the real scandals in the Broadway legend's life
- 2 Men in Black 3D (PG)
- 3 Independent podcast: Vasily Petrenko - Shostakovich
- 4 One is nipping to Tesco: Jubilant Jubilee royals as seen by Alison Jackson
- 5 First Night: Paperboy, Cannes Film Festival
- 6 10 best festival essentials
- 7 Illness forces Elton to cancel concerts
- 8 Alec Baldwin launches foul-mouthed tirade at producer Harvey Weinstein
- 9 Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team
- 10 Jacob Zuma's lawyer weeps in court case against artist
- 1 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 2 Society: The only way is Finland
- 3 Portugal 'sells' Ronaldo to Spain in £160m deal on national debt
- 4 Northumberland bids to create one of the world's biggest dark sky preserves
- 5 We will 'grow' all organs to order in future, says pioneering surgeon
- 6 Therapist who tried to 'cure' me of being gay thrown out – but the system is still broken
- 7 Owen Jones: If socialists really did run the show, working people would benefit
- 8 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 9 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
- 10 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize
Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make
Gorgeous Georgian cuisine
Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team


Comments