Taylor Randolph has compiled a collection of 31 uplifting poems packaged in this thin volume. They include famous classics like John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud,” Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Rudyard Kipling’s “If” and Dorothy Parker’s “Inventory.” There are a few not-famous poems, but they’re pretty lackluster. Poems for Life: 31 Classic Poems to Live By will probably make a fortune by providing a gift for those buying graduation presents for seniors they don’t know very well, but otherwise it’s just meh.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and St. Martin's Essentials in exchange for an honest review.

Taylor Randolph (editor) has thoughtfully collected a smattering of familar and not-so familiar poems. The collection will likey inspire and resonate many readers. Many of the poems I recognized but hadn't ever seen in their entirety (i.e. ). Other poets and their work were completely knew to me ; the poet Lola Ridge, for instance, was a new discovery. What a delight to read and re-read Ridge's poem, "Wind Rising in the Alleys" (1920). " .... you are full of unspent dreams ... You are laden with beginnings .. ". [big sigh here.] This collection is filled with beauty. The particularly nice detail is the book is pocket-sized so the book can be easily carried in a purse, bag, pocket etc. The appearance of the cover and font are attractive - the book will be a good gift for friends, family or yourself.

I deeply enjoyed this collection of poetry. I found it thoughtfully arranged in a unique and meaningful way, that definitely made me delve deeper into the connections between the poems and the experience of life itself. As Taylor Randolph said in the foreword, these poems are unique maps to help you on a journey to see that there is more to life than what we see, or what we own. Each poem flowed into the next with great rhythmic purpose. I appreciated that there were a few of my favourites as well as many others that I have not seen in prior collections. I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of this adorable pocket-sized gem when it becomes available.

Sending out a thank you to St. Martin's Press, for the early eGalley of this book, through NetGalley.com, I greatly appreciate it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very short collection of mostly nineteenth and twentieth century poems that all have some sort of uplifting aspect. It was a pleasant read, but doesn't stand out from similar collections I've stumbled upon.

This is a very good collection, and would make a nice holiday gift. I didn't like all of the poems, of course, but the ones that resonated the most with me made me want to go to my favorite bookshop and get a couple of poetry books from these authors, when I haven't read poetry in years! 10/10 will recommend.

A lovely collection of poetry filled with wise words of advice on life! This is the kind of book you'll want to own so you can dip in and out of it and return to it when you need it. I've already copied down a couple that I like and that I want to come back to - some great meditations on life, love, death, success, fame, work, etc. There's a good mix between more famous poets and some lesser known verses, which I appreciated, as collections like these often turn out to be a bunch of things you've seen before. I did wish the editor had been a bit more intentional with the organization of the collection: they are in alphabetical order by the author's last name, and I would have liked to see different poems paired and put near each other perhaps by theme instead. The kind of book you can revisit again and again and get something new out of every time!

Whatever happened to poetry? Of all the literary genres and styles out there, it had to have had the worst evolutionary trajectory. Somehow it devolved from a thing of beauty and elegance, a precise lovely rhyming arrangement of grand sentiments and purpose to meowling, navel-gazing, self-involved stream of consciousness mess.
It went from sweeping to weeping and not even interestingly weeping at that. More like whining. And whatever happened to rhyme? Nowadays, the poets barely utilize rhythm.
In fact, a modern rap song is closer to a poetry ideal of yesteryear than whatever passes for modern poetry. It’s no longer macro, it’s all micro. A list of complaints about societal wrongs, usually the ones specifically pertaining to the poet themselves, in race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
And you can almost forget about how good poetry used to be from reading all this modern crap as I had been, but then you read a collection like this, pure classics, the way poetry had always been intended, to move, delight, AND wow…and you remember.
Rousing isn’t an adjective applicable to modern poetry. It doesn’t even seem to aspire to that.
So, the editor of this compilation had to go back in time to when poetry was grand. The result is…well, grand, Poems to buoy the spirit, to inspire, to lift up. Absolutely lovely. The sort of thing you can go back to over and over again. Poetry, the way it was meant to be. A very enjoyable read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this collection in advance for an honest review.

This collection of classic poems was beautiful. While I did not connect with all of them (as expected), the ones I did connect with are now stuck with me for eternity.
However, this ebook version is very difficult to read from a formatting standpoint. Once the poem was too long to stay on one page, the format was slanted to the left until even one word was hyphenated. I hope this will be fixed as I was unable to finish some of the poems and actually brought down my enjoyment, and thus the rating.

Overall, excellent collection.