general

• quick summary - a beautifully illustrated collection of poems on love by both classic and contemporary poets.
• key themes - all kinds of love!

interests

• what i found interesting - I loved how ridell divided and included all kinds of poems and love in this collection. I think the ones who resonated more with me were the ones about familial love, especially the sad ones. it was a surprise to see some songs included. for some reason I rarely think of them as poems. comparing poems written centuries ago with ones written in this century is a funny exercise on human nature- we are still the same, and we feel the same as we always did.
• what i learned - I had no idea that leonard cohen was a famous poet before becoming a singer lol
• fav poem - sisters of mercy <3 it gave me such hope.

further reading

• follow-up context research - I realized I really love the romantic poets, and I am hoping to read more of them in the future.

rating

• 5/5 - this was such a wonderful read. I was so afraid of reading poetry because I did not know how I would get the meaning of the poem in fully- reading it out loud did for me. I laughed and I cried, and I feel so close to the poems. The illustrations were perfect too. I hoped there would be more queer poets, but it is alright. The only poems I had a harder time grasping were shakespeare's, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy 19th poetry was to understand with a little bit of patience and a dictionary. I definitely recommend it to everyone, and it is a extra special book to read in february.