I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy

by Liz Rosenberg

Overview

The teenage years are a time filled with sadness, madness, joy, and all the messy stuff in between. Sometimes it feels that every day brings a new struggle, a new concern, a new reason to stay in bed with the shades drawn. But between moments of despair and confusion often come times of great clarity and insight, when you might think, like the poet Rumi, “Whoever’s calm and sensible is insane!” It is moments like these that have inspired the touching, honest, and gripping poems found in I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. After all, what’s normal anyway?

This collection includes poems by Charles Bukowski, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, T. S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, W. B. Yeats, Dorothy Parker, Jane Kenyon, and many more, including teenage writers and up-and-coming poets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618564521
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/24/2005
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,088,688
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Liz Rosenberg is a poet and author of more than twenty books for young readers. She teaches English and creative writing at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Table of Contents

Sadness Without Reason: Moods A Sad Child by Margaret Atwood Infant Sorrow by William Blake I Hate My Moaning by Gerald Stern Untitled poem: “I like my anger” by Ikkyü The Stranger by Charles Baudelaire A Place for Everything by Louis Jenkins A Larger Loneliness by Eli Bosnick The Eyes of My Regret by Angelina Weld Grimké Let No Charitable Hope by Elinor Wylie A White City by Michael Burkard “Do you think I know what I’m doing . . .?” by Rumi To Solitude by John Keats Reality’s Dark Dream by Samuel Taylor Coleridge End of Winter by Liz Rosenberg Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith

Wild World Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar Much Madness is divinest Sense by Emily Dickinson Father William by Lewis Carroll London by William Blake Holding the Holy Card by J. Patrick Lewis Oda para Leticia by Oscar Bermeo clean that god damned room already by Deena November Her Kind by Anne Sexton Ornate Iron Gates by Das Lanzilloti From The Black Riders and Other Lines by Stephen Crane Kitchen by Twain Dooley In the Boobiehatch by Das Lanzilloti Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio by James Wright Clearly Through My Tears by Susan Love Fitts When I was a kid in Nueva York by Alvin Delgado The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth

Lopsided Love The Folly of Being Comforted by W. B. Yeats He Bids His Love Be At Peace by W. B. Yeats Discord in Childhood by D.H. Lawrence Anecdote by Dorothy Parker Autumn Valentine by Dorothy Parker The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot From A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare Wasted by June Jordan One Art by Elizabeth Bishop Melba Street by Deena November Always Secondary by Deena November When We Two Parted by Lord Byron How Heavy the Days . . . by Hermann Hesse Fall On Me by Kate Schmitt The Taxi by Amy Lowell “You don’t have ‘bad’ days and ‘good’ days . . .” by Rumi “When I am with you, we stay up all night . . .” by Rumi

Rapid Tumble No Moment Past This One by Stephen Dobyns The Year I Found by Dieter Weslowski Brotherhood by Yehoshua November Dream Song 22 “Of 1826” by John Berryman Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell Things by Fleur Adcock The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe Hysteria by T. S. Eliot Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath Having It Out with Melancholy by Jane Kenyon Prelude to the Fall by Kate Schmitt Fallen by Kate Schmitt The Waking by Theodore Roethke Jealousy by Elaine Resitfo Babble by Cesar Vallejo I Told Them I Should Be Here by Kate Schmitt Wanting to Die by Anne Sexton Mad Song by William Blake "The first Day’s Night had come” by Emily Dickinson Lines Written During a Period of Insanity (1774) by William Cowper National Depression Awareness Week by Mary Ruefle Anonymous by Susan Love Fitts “There is a light seed grain inside . . .” by Rumi

Wish You Were Here: The Return So, We’ll Go No More a Roving by Lord Byron Poems of Delight by Liz Rosenberg Raising My Hand by Antler nobody but you by Charles Bukowski Window Box by Thomas Scott Fisken Back by Jane Kenyon The Journey by Howard Nelson Jade’s Iguanas Are Dead by Gregory Razran I Think I’ll Call It Morning by Gil Scott-Heron Résumé by Dorothy Parker From Death’s Echo by W. H. Auden Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens From The Prisoner: A Fragment by Emily Brontë A Glass of Water by May Sarton How A Place Becomes Holy by Yehoshua November Sunflower by Rolf Jacobsen Late Fragment by Raymond Carver “For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself . . .” by Rumi Evil Time by Hermann Hesse

Editorial Reviews

"Includes poems of great intensity . . . alongside verses with humor-tinged darkness." —Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

"The wide range of styles, from poets both famous and lesser known, from various time periods, also adds interest. . . . Good biographical notes and indices of authors, titles, and first lines conclude the volume." —Horn Book Horn Book

"[A] deeply affecting, and sophisticated collection, which will resonate with young people in all states of mental equilibrium." —Booklist Booklist, ALA

"Powerfully written and easy to understand. . . . This efficiently organized, concise, and interesting collection is an excellent choice for libraries serving teens." —School Library Journal School Library Journal —

From the Publisher

Organized into sections such as "Lopsided Love" and "Rapid Tumble," I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, & Joy, ed. by Liz Rosenberg and Deena November, includes poems of great intensity such as Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus," about her attempted suicides, alongside verses with humor-tinged darkness such as T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." More contemporary poets include Margaret Atwood, Naomi Shihab Nye and editors Rosenberg and November. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 9 Up-The poems in this diverse collection range from classic (Shakespeare, Lord Byron) to modern (by the compilers themselves). While some of selections might be too complex and antique for reluctant readers, most of the pieces are powerfully written and easy to understand. Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, and Rumi are among the poets included. Two short introductions explain the inclusion of many of these selections and the significance of each of the book's five sections. A biography section gives interesting summaries of each poet's life. This efficiently organized, concise, and interesting collection is an excellent choice for libraries serving teens. However, as November states in her introduction, "This book is for everyone and anyone."-Jessi Platt, Auburn Public Library, AL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

This intelligent anthology will accomplish two amazing feats: It will please teen readers and simultaneously satisfy their teachers. Poet, children's author and anthologizer Rosenberg, with former student, November, collect verse that sensitively addresses those readers who are susceptible to emotional downdrafts and uptakes. The poems range from the classics (Wordsworth, Blake) to the contemporary (James Wright, Gerald Stern, Stephen Dobyns) to the just composed (Das Lanzilloti, Deena November)-which guarantees the teen authenticity. Moreover, the poems, organized in five sections, "speak" to one another across time and through generations, addressing theme and subject and giving young readers a sense of immediate connection and belonging. They also lay a foundation for young readers to begin to see for themselves how one work of literature may spark another. For example, included here is Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy," which features the line "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Unforgettable characters such as J. Alfred Prufrock and Richard Cory make their appearances here as well. Handy backmatter includes poet's biographies and an index of first lines. A must have for teachers who need the just-right book for their eighth-graders. (Poetry. 14+)

Kirkus Reviews