( 1 reviews )
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( 13 of 15 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jun 20 1998
Narrative poems are distinguished because of their aim to tell a story, rather than share a few thoughts, feelings, or experiences like shorter poetry does. For my money, the best narrative poet is Longfellow, with great tales like Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, or Evangeline; Lewis wrote four narrative poems, only one of which reached publication during his lifetime: Dymer. Dymer is long and complicated and only partially successful as a good story. Walter Hooper, who edited this volume, feels that The Queen of the Drum was Lewis's best of the four poems, while I thought it the least interesting. The two best poems of this book are Launcelot and The Nameless Isle (and not just because they - at 9 and 21 pages respectively - are by far the shortest ones in the book.) I loved the imagery Lewis invoked with these two poems, the nostalgia and almost mystical pull of these stories. If you love narrative poetry, buy this book. If you don't like narrative poetry, this book won't change your tastes.
