Rating: 
Summary: One of those books that you can call a "friend"
Review: I own a dog-eared, oft-read, much-loved copy of this book which I received as a gift at the age of 12. It remains one of my favorite books of all time--the kind you sit with by a fire on a cold night, the kind you never throw away, the kind you keep by your bedside. These are poems to lift the spirit and inspire the mind with their beautiful rythms, rhymes, and messages. This review may sound corny, but I really do feel this way about this book. It is the kind of book I would pass on to my children and grandchildren . . . one of those rare books I would also call a "friend".
Rating:
Summary: Loved Poems
Review: My parents gave this volume to me for Christmas when I was just 10. I was and still am a voracious reader, captivated by the rhythm and meter of language. This book introduced me to poetry in a fun, enjoyable way. The broad categories include: Love and Friendship, Inspiration, Poems that tell a Story, Faith and Reverence, Home and Mother, Childhood and Youth, Patriotism and War, Humor and Whimsey, Memory and Grief, Nature, Animals, and Various Themes. As an adult, the poems selected in this 670 page tome are not all of my favorites, but they yet strike a gentle idealistic chord in my soul. They ring with the thoughts of a bygone era, before mass media distracted people from books. Yes, they are romantic, yes they are old-fashioned, yes many of them are not of the highest literary quality. Yet I love them for their quirkiness and old-fashioned thoughts. And in many ways as I read, I cannot help but think that we are not so very different from our ancestors, after all. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Loved Poems
Review: My parents gave this volume to me for Christmas when I was just 10. I was and still am a voracious reader, captivated by the rhythm and meter of language. This book introduced me to poetry in a fun, enjoyable way. The broad categories include: Love and Friendship, Inspiration, Poems that tell a Story, Faith and Reverence, Home and Mother, Childhood and Youth, Patriotism and War, Humor and Whimsey, Memory and Grief, Nature, Animals, and Various Themes. As an adult, the poems selected in this 670 page tome are not all of my favorites, but they yet strike a gentle idealistic chord in my soul. They ring with the thoughts of a bygone era, before mass media distracted people from books. Yes, they are romantic, yes they are old-fashioned, yes many of them are not of the highest literary quality. Yet I love them for their quirkiness and old-fashioned thoughts. And in many ways as I read, I cannot help but think that we are not so very different from our ancestors, after all. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!! The best book of poems ever!
Review: My uncle owned this book, but he died before I was born. The book still circulates within my family, but is not in very good condition. That's why I am going to buy a new one. This book inspires one to read and write more poetry. Geoffrey Lawson, Milltown, Newfoundland Canada
Rating:
Summary: Fond Memories
Review: Perhaps, one of my earliest memories of my grandmother is her reading poetry to me from this book. When she died my sisters and I inherited this item and cherished it. We soon memorized much of the poetry particularly the ones that told stories. We were also fascinated by the sequeals to "Casey at the Bat" as well as the clever story of "The Fox and the Gullible Raven" I still have it memorized to this day, "A raven sat upon a tree and not a word he spoke..." This is a great way to introduce young children to poetry.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Find
Review: The Best Loved Poems of the American People was a wonderful find for me! It was first recommended to me by one of my friends who also owned a copy. I bought a copy myself and found it to be a fascinating collection of wonderful poetry- especially the inspirational part of the book. A sure treasure for any lover of poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: Tells me Americans don't know much about poetry.
Review: The two stars don't represent my opinion of the poetry, although most are sentimentalist and jingoistic, but the selection. Are these the poems of the American people? Who says these are? And, if they are, I hold American's view of poetry in very low esteem. I shouldn't be surprised that most poems are actually American, but to be honest I don't think there are half that many actually 'great' American poets. I'm not an anti-American, but come on, America isn't the greatest poetry nation, and this isn't the greatest collection of poems.
Rating: 
Summary: Versifier¿s delight!
Review: There's a distinct nineteenth century feel to this wide-ranging collection of mostly American verse, as though perhaps one might encounter the book by the bedside of Huck Finn's benefactor, the Widow Douglas. Ah, but it's really not that old. First published in 1936 and dedicated to the memory of Adolph S. Ochs, long-time publisher of the New York Times, by editor Hazel Felleman, this is a collection for Everyman. The fact that it's still in print is tribute to Felleman's good sense of what people like. No known species of poetry is shunned. Verse, ditty and doggerel stand side by side with Shelley and Keats (but no Shakespeare!). There are rousing Sousa stanzas and homey hymn-like lines respecting home and hearth, flag and country, and tributes to the dog. There are also epigrams and epithets and limericks and songs sung blue. Felleman arranges the contents by subject matter, beginning with "Love and Friendship" followed by "Inspiration" through "Patriotism and War," "Memory and Grief," etc., ending with "Nature," "Animals," and "Various Themes." There's a slew of poems by "Unknown," some of them doing a mighty justice to anonymity, e.g., "Get a Transfer" ("If you are on the Gloomy Line/ Get a transfer/If you're inclined to fret and pine/Get a transfer...") There are "answers" to popular poems, and burlesques and parodies aplenty. Here you'll find, if you've been looking (and even if you haven't), "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" and "Animal Fair" ("The birds and the bees were there!"), and Joyce Kilmer's much, much maligned "Trees" ("...only God can make a tree"), but also Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and Poe's "The Raven," and Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and William Wordsworth's "Daffodils." Did I mention there's no Shakespeare? One wonders why. Also no William Blake. However there is a poem entitled "A Woman's Answer to the Vampire" by Felicia Blake after Kipling's "The Vampire" ("A fool there was and he made his prayer/(Even as you and I!)/To a rag and bone and hank of hair...,"etc., answered with "A fool there was, and she lowered her pride,/(Even as you and I)/To a bunch of conceit in a masculine hide"). Naturally there is no T. S. Eliot, but there is an Ebenezer Elliott who wrote, "When Wilt Thou Save the People?" ("O, God of mercy, when?"), and strangely no Ogden Nash, who might seem at home here--but perhaps there was a copyright problem. His "answer" to Joyce Kilmer goes, "I think that I shall never see/A billboard lovely as a tree./Indeed, unless the billboards fall/I'll never see a tree at all." Lest you think I am slyly making fun of this book, let me tell you, I love Kipling's "If," and if it weren't for that unfortunate last line, I think it would be close to a great poem. I also love poems like Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," (included) and Henry Clay Work's "The Ship that Never Returned," which inspired a take off tune by the Kingston Trio in the fifties, "Did he ever return?/No he never returned/His fate is still unlearned/He rides beneath the streets of Boston/He's the man who never returned." I also love stuff like Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins" and Alan Seeger's romantic, "I Have a Rendezvous with Death." And where else can you find a poem by Abraham Lincoln? Or a religious ditty innocently titled, "No Sects in Heaven" (Huh?) Or one called "To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train ("O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,/Missing so much and so much?") And I positively delight in Robert W. Service (three printed here, including "The Spell of the Yukon," but alas no "The Cremation of Sam McGee," although there's a nice take off by Edward E. Paramore, Jr. called, "The Ballad of Yukon Jake"). There is even a poem reputed to have been dictated to a spiritual medium by the dead Edgar Alan Poe called "Streets of Baltimore" rendered in the rhythms of "The Raven." (Sorry about that.) "Quoth the raven: Nevermore!" becoming (gulp) "thro' the streets of Baltimore!" Furthermore I love "Poems that Tell a Story"! Although Browning's "My Last Duchess" didn't make the cut, there is here the truly delightful "The Enchanted Shirt" by John Hay, a tale about a king who needed to sleep a night in the shirt of a happy man. And of course there's "Casey at the Bat" followed by "Casey's Revenge" and "Casey--Twenty Years Later." (Some purists might point out that with first base open, the correct strategy was to give Casey an intentional pass; but I ask you, where's the fun in that?) I could go on, but I think the picture's getting clear. This collection really is a revelation of the American psyche as seen by a newspaper person seventy years ago. (Felleman was for fifteen years the editor of the Queries and Answers page of The New York Times Book Review.) As such this should be required reading for historians and sociologists alike.
Rating:
Summary: Something for everyone
Review: This book contains poems relating to every possible subject. Long poems, happy poems, sad poems, poems that tell a story, poems about mom, a lover, animals are all here. The print is easy to read and all of the poems are categorized by subjects. A great asset to any poem collection and great for children to use as a poetry source for school. If you need a little pick-me-up after a long day at work, this is the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: All The Poems You Have Come To Love
Review: This book has all of the poems that the American People have come to know and love through the years. It is broken down into categories that help you find exactly what you are looking for and even has poems listed by their first lines. It's reasonably priced and will quickly become your favorite poetry book.
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