Poems in the Manner Of

Poems in the Manner Of
by David Lehman
Scribner
Poetry
Pub Date 07 Mar 2017
I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of Poems In the Manner of through the publisher and netgalley:
Poems in the Manner of is a tribute to poets throughout the centuries, from Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman to Sylvia Plath.
If you are a fan of Walt Whitman, Shakespeare, Robert Frost or Hemingway I believe you will find Poems in the Manner of, a great read.
Five out of five stars
Happy Reading.

Poems in the Manner Of By David Lehman is a collection of poems by the author that are inspired by everyone from Freud to Emily Dickinson. The poems are written as the the original author, being Dickinson, Frost, or even Freud, might have written them. They are compiled in chronological order based upon when they were written for that particular poet, person, or even time frame. There are "poems in the manner of the 1940's," for instance.

There is a poem on Hamlet and his astrological. There are "poems in the courtly manner" which are more romantic as a bard would have written. These poems are imaginative and cover a bit of everything. We are given a whimsical astrological profile of Keats and a "quiz" after Freud.

I found these poems to be fun, imaginative and entertaining. This is the first book I've read by the author and I will be sure to read more from him. This is a good book if you want to be inspired or just read something new.

I think anyone who likes poetry will enjoy this book. If you don't generally read poetry but want to give it a try I think this would be a good book to read as well.

This book is for fans of Emily Dickinson, Freudian quiz poms, and Robert Frost. This book will make you see poetry in a new way.
I acknowledge that I received this book free of charge from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Poems in the Manner Of... by David Lehman is a book of poems that will be published by Scribner this next March 7th and it will be very particular.

A passion started during the college and never abandoned this one by David Lehman for poets and poems, a classic for every young man or woman at college.

Surely Lehman fell in love, wisely, for the best ones. From Catullus and his love-pains, it is known he died for love, passing through Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, W.B.Yeats, Wordsworth and many other ones, once the idea: writing poems "In the manner of."

At first it was just a passion. Later it became this book.

What Lehman wanted to do writing poems "In the manner of..." was and is celebrating all that genial people who marked this Earth with wonderful thoughts and amazing visions.

You will find also wonderful astrological profiles of these great genius. Thanks to it I discovered why Yeats is so melancholic :-)


Beautiful book for every poetry lover and writers. Wonderfully written.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this book.

Poems in the Manner Of by David Lehman is an interesting take on the art of poetry. Instead of working solely with original works without explanation, the reader gets the author's insight and influences on each piece for the book.

Many of the poems featured were in the manner of or inspired by poets across the history of poetry. Some of the more recognizable influences included Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and more. There were no poems that particularly stood out as better than rest, and in some cases lifting of another poet's line to include in the new work did more to distract than anything else. The explanations were a good insight as to how or why each poet was influential on the author's work.

Poems in the Manner Of by David Lehman is a tribute collection of poetry. In 1994, Lehman succeeded Donald Hall as the general editor of the University of Michigan Press’s Poets on Poetry series, a position he held for twelve years. In 1997, he teamed with Star Black in creating and directing the famed KGB Bar Monday night poetry series in New York City’s East Village. He has taught in the graduate writing program of the New School in New York City since the program’s inception in 1996 and has served as poetry coordinator since 2003. He has edited The Best American Poetry Series since 1988.

I have become familiar with Lehman a few years ago and The Best of American Poetry Series. I look forward to this collection every year. I reviewed his New and Selected Poems in 2013. I enjoyed his writing and his edited works. This work is a bit different and some of it a bit out of my league. I have read some of the classical poets as well as some newcomers. Lehman has a far greater breadth of poets than I do and that lead me scrambling to look up some of the poets Lehman was paying tribute to. It was a learning experience for me and a welcomed one at that. I am still trying to fit the Freud multiple choice section and the Astrological charts. I did get the part of Hamlet on the Harvard fencing team and being foiled and the “Don’t fence me in”. I am sure there was more humor that I was just missing.

The poets I am familiar with were well done. Frost avoiding the path less traveled by just cutting through the pathless forest and the tribute to Gertrude Stein captured that same feeling of being over my head when I first read Tender Buttons. Some poems stuck with me through the collection like the "Poem in the Prophetic Manner" Lehman says was inspired by Bob Dylan’s "Highway 61" revisited. The poem, however, reads in the same rhythm as "Desolation Row" and ended with a "Chimes of Freedom" touch. A few poems later in "Poem in the Manner of the 1960s" a line read:

They are naked and the moon is yellow.

I could help thinking the that the moon isn’t yellow; it’s chicken. I suspect Lehman triggered the Bob Dylan part of my brain.


Tributes to Tennyson, William Carlos Williams, Byron, and Keats are unmistakable in style and theme. Non-poets are included too. Tributes to Hemingway, Woolf, Marilyn Monroe, Jazz music, and even mundane punctuation (which may include a nod to Woolf) are well done. As for the poets I did not know or know well, I learned a great deal and gained a new appreciation. A very worthwhile collection that allows the reader to branch out and has allowed the poet to show how other poets influence his work.

This is a book of SUCH creativity I really commend the author, this is an art form - make no mistake. A really good companion for any English Literature student or somebody interested in the varying literary styles of influential writers, contemporary and traditional.

My favourites & some selections of poets or writers or characters impersonated are... Iago (from Othello... my favourite villain ever), William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman - it's really helpful to know now I can go and look up some poems & perhaps add an anthology or two to my birthday list!

*Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing me with a copy of this in return for an honest review*

This book is excellent to introduce students to the style of various poets. I have several ideas for it: using it for Poetry Speed Dating, side-by-side comparisons, and challenging students to copy their favorite poet's style!

David Lehman is a long time accomplished poet, skilled and productive. This time out he has gifted us with a volume of poems in the manner of other poets, and even poems in the voices of literary characters (Hamlet, Polonius, and others). Not to mention other forms of poetic homage.

Each of which is not just interesting, not just a high-wire act, but also insightful, surprising, and poetic. Lehman's ear for sound and meter is in good working order, so there is much pleasure to be had. If your mind is stocked with the same classics his has, all the better. But he does note who he borrows from and even gives interpretive headnotes that in some cases make it almost too easy to figure out the games he sometimes plays. But these are no mere games - they are true poems in their own right.

Lehman probably won't go down in history as a major poet for the ages, but his skills are first-rate and he is concerned with important matters and he writes delightful mainstream work.