Reader Reviews for The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis:
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Summary: Jackie Kennedy Onassis' Favorite Poems
Comment: Caroline Kennedy here selects her mother's favorite poems with a general introduction as well as introductions and comments to each of the chapters: America, First Poems, Adventure, Escape, Romance and Love, Reflections and In Her Own Words. Ms. Kennedy has included over a hundred poems although not all of them are her mother's favorites since she includes a favorite of her grandmother's,"Paul Revere's Ride," as well as other poems that she said her own children like.
This book of course will appeal to the vast numbers of Americans fascinated with any aspect of Ms. Onassis' life. It should also speak to ordinary people who may like a poem here and there in their lives since each selection is short and accessible-- and beautiful. Many of the poems included would make any "most popular" list of poems: for example, Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods On A Snowy Evening," John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud," Tennyson's "Ulysses," and William Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII," which begins with the famous line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
There are poems here by Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Homer, selections from the King James Bible-- in short the usual suspects. I was pleased to see also two of my favorite poems, the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy's "Ithaca," a brilliant poem about the journey being more important than the destination, and William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow," that Ms. Kennedy indicates her own son Jack chose:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Particularly poignant is "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes with the line that goes to the bone: "America never was America to me." Ms. Kennedy also includes some of her mother's own poetry. While they may not be good enough for a poetry magazine, they certainly are nothing to be ashamed of either. Her own words on reading: "Read for escape, read for adventure, read for romance, but read the great writers. You will find to your delight that they are easier and more joy to read than the second-rate ones." She also encouraged-- by her own example-- her children to memorize poetry and then give them as gifts to people they cared about. I remember when English teachers required students to commit to memory poetry and other fine writing. I believe I can still quote in its entirety Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address+ and portions of Shakespeare plays for which I owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. John Killian Jones, my fantastic high school English teacher.
Finally, I recently bought this book used from a great bookstore in Maine. It has the following inscription: "Morgan & Nancy, Wishing you two a year full of poetry!! Much love and come back soon! Love, Janie." That is one of the joys of buying used books. We get to share in and speculate about the lives of former readers.
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Summary: A NOBLE DAUGHTER'S FITTING TRIBUTE TO HER BRILLIANT AND MUCH MISSED MOTHER
Comment: I refer here to the unabridged Audiobook three disk CD recording of this fitting family enterprise.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy and our greatest First Lady (after Mrs. Roosevelt) Mrs. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, is also the best-selling co-author of The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights In Action. She serves as President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and follows in her mother's graceful footsteps into the Publishing industry. She also collected A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love, and A Family Christmas among several other works.
We are most fortunate she shares with us here, so beautifully recorded, this generous collection of her brilliant and highly literate mother's favorite poems, read in some of the finest voices of our times, including her own readings of her Foreword and her introductions to the seven sections: America, First Poems, Adventure, Escape, Romance and Love, Reflection and In Her Own Words, in which Caroline herself movingly reads her mother's original poems: Sea Joy, Thoughts and Meanwhile in Massachusetts.
Under America we hear once more the quite elderly Mr. Frost read his Inaugural version of The Gift Outright, as read that historic day of January 20, 1961. Certainly one can hear it elsewhere, but nowhere as fittingly as here, coupled with Mr. Frost's "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration," as read by Daniel Davis. In this section we also hear once more Katherine Lee Bates's America the Beautiful; we hear from such landmark American poets as Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Jean Toomer, and the Honorable Senator Edward Kennedy's lusty reading of Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride.
Please remember these to be the favorite poems of Mrs. Kennedy; although she survived to the nearly post-literate era of Poetry Slams, in which poems are shouted as weapons, or rap, in which poetry enters a new yet ancient world, we find here her favorite poems, which, as revealed in the cover photo, she read with love to her daughter Caroline, instilling within her strong character, wisdom and intellect.
Scattered throughout therefore are further poems from Mr. Frost (of The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged) and of Langston Hughes (of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. We are blessed to discover once more several from Mr. William Butler Yeats (of The Poems (Everyman), including a wonderful reading by Claire Bloom of The Dawn. Here we find of course Sailing to Byzantium, the well-known Lake Isle of Inisfree, The Song of Wandering Aengus, The Second Coming, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven; in short we delight here in a healthy, hearty serving of Mr. Yeats which withstands and rewards repeated listenings.
Shakespeare is here in three Sonnets and an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet and Richard III and Henry V's St. Crispin's Day Speech, etc. Marlowe is represented, as is Coleridge (though not the voluminous Rime), Mr. Milton and John Donne. We reach here back to Sophocles and Aeschylus, even poor old Pindar, and forward to Wallace Stevens. Seigfrid Sassoon warns us of the horrors of war. There are several readings from the Gospels and Epistles, including the opening of the fifth chapter of Saint Matthew. Emily Dickerson adds her shy grace, Poe his strength of mourning Annabel Lee, Edward Lear and e.e. cummings join the chorus; there is much here to hear and remember.
Over 115 individual recordings in all, this collection obviously repays infinitely its small space in any school library, of any age level, in any home schooler who finds here a comprehensive overview of the high points of poetry spoken in the English language. Certainly you may find some left out. Seamus Heaney broke through to his Nobel Laureate rather late; we hear no howls of Ginsberg here, nor the cries of Wilfred Owens. And I might ask where is Mr. Blake? Did no Tyger Tyger burn brightly among these favorite poems. Where is Wordsworth? Perhaps my eyes and ears grow old.
This listing here in no way represents the fullness of poets presented; I have left out Basho's haiku At the Ancient Pond. We find here as well Robert Louis Stevenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sandburg's Fog, the great if eccentric John Clare, William Carlos Williams, and the Visit from Saint Nicholas chronicled by Clement Moore. Several more poets are here; you are certain to find many favorites. You are certain to recall your mother's and grandmother's own favorite poetry here. Poems are best heard rather than read, and heard again. Hear now this reading of the opening of Saint Luke's second chapter and recall how we once were as a Church, as one family, as a people, as a nation of great promise and great expectations.
Hear this book, and hear it again. It stands up firm and worthy. This is our culture and our heritage and our heart. Hear this book, gratefully and gladly. Hear this book.
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Summary: Loving tribute of a daughter to her mother
Comment: This book starts off well, with the title picture of little Caroline and her mother reading to her. Obviously, Caroline Kennedy cherished the fact that her mother brought her up with books, and that is what made her compose this book, too. And it is evident that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had a very good literary taste, as can be seen by the poems and literary pieces selected. Some of these selections are favorites of mine as well.
Others may disagree as to the selections, though. But it is well known that Jacqueline had a great love and a good taste for literature and the arts at all times. I am wondering, though: Walt Whitman also wrote, "Come up from the fields, Father", an anti-war poem, which apparently was not one of Jacqueline's favorites. Also, she liked Aeschylus and Sophocles, but what about Euripides? Tennyson's ULYSSES has the famous phrase "Come, my friends, tis not too late to seek a newer world" which motivated Robert Kennedy, as is well known. And some of the authors are also my favorites, such as Homer, Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and others. But Caroline Kennedy did a masterful job in keeping the memory of her mother alive, and I hope her children will do the same with her. I would like to know what Caroline's favorites are.
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Summary: Bland! Please don't think poetry is always like this!
Comment: This is my poetry nightmare. It feels more like an overdose of sleeping pills than a dynamic encounter with art. All the readers--even the normally fabulous B.D. Wong--whisper the poems as if they were sacred text, rather than living words.
This sort of thing drives people away from poetry.
The first 6 1/2 minutes, during which Caroline Kennedy drones on in a monotone are the worst. Uncle Teddy is better, but he can't sustain his energy for the long "Paul Revere's Ride."
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Summary: This Book Is Treasured by My Daughter
Comment: This book is an elegant, beautifully presented collection of poems and, while I originally purchased it for myself, my then 10 year old daughter is the one who curled up on the sofa and read it cover to cover. I was surprised as she'd never shown much interest in poetry nor the Kennedys but she took great pride in being able to recite some of the poems. We also spent hours reading and re-reading the poetry. I highly recommend this book to everyone, no matter their age. Caroline Kennedy did a wonderful job of picking out poems--including one I'd never heard of before, "One Art," which talks about the "art of losing." I found this particularly poignant as it seemed to be about her brother.
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