Snarkattack Female, 30. Melbourne, Australia

Provides a close reading of each of Shakespeare's sonnets. By reading, I mean you get treated to a small essay on each of the sonnets exploring them in painstaking detail.

If you want to get a copy specifically for study, this is essential. The introduction is very, very long but informative and the text itself has lots of notes. It's an excellent edition.

If you have this exact edition, then please... don't read the introduction beforehand! It contains massive spoilers (unbeknownest to me at the time, alas. Benefit from my experience).

I wouldn't call this a book of poetry as such, but rather of miniature essays and observations. It's divided into two parts and the second part seems to be made up of longer, multiple paragraph essays.

I sometimes feel like I'm being preached at, but for the most part am really enjoying this, ... (continue)

It's a pretty bold claim to make that you're choosing the "world's" best poems. I don't know that I would necessarily agree with that assessment.

Having said that, even if the poems in this anthology are familiar to you, you'll still greatly benefit from and enjoy the close reading of each of ... (continue)

Fantastic, grotesque retellings of fairytales that lend themselves very well to psychoanalytic readings. Sexton has chosen Grimm fairytales specifically to rework. There are also illustrations in this edition, as well as an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut.

First major collection by a contemporary American poet. The poems are largely centred on women from fairytales or different mythologies, though sometimes she derives inspiration from current events (e.g. one poem is inspired by a news story that some Catholic schoolgirls hunted down and chased ... (continue)

Fantastic read about the frontman for one of the most seminal post-punk bands ever.