BARTLETT'S WORDS FOR THE WEDDING

Barlette's Words for the Wedding is an essential resource for anyone planning a wedding ceremony or renewing vows. Comprising passages from Plato, Sappho, Shakespeare, Shelley, Auden, Rilke, and many others, this gorgeous edition is a source for inspiration and an invaluable core text from which to select passages. Beautifully packaged, Barlette's Words for the Wedding includes prose and poetry selections from ancient times to the modern day.

A sample from St. Augustine: What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

Barlette's Words for the Wedding includes prose and poetry selections from ancient times to the modern day. A sample from St. Augustine: What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

What to read at a wedding, your own or a friend's? What poetry—or poetic prose—will fit the particular couple tying the knot, describe their love clearly without undue sappiness and suit the guests, who may—or may not—read poems for pleasure at home? Brides, grooms, parents, officiants, groomsmen and bridesmaids confront these questions every day; this anthology, assembled by a husband-and-wife team of poets, scours the canon and its fringes for answers. Lauer and Kelley (Isn't It Romantic, 2004) include expectable nuptial greatest hits—sonnets by Shakespeare, Cummings and E.B. Browning, prose from Rilke and the Song of Songs—but much of their inventive, eclectic collection has the power to surprise: clear and charming contemporary verse from Pam Rehm, Lisa Jarnot and Timothy Donnelly, for example; translations from Chinese and Korean; and little-known Renaissance poems, including an absolute stunner from Michael Drayton. Passages from some long poems appear out of context, and a few poems seem unlikely to suit most weddings. Overall, though, Lauer and Kelley have kept utility and accessibility in mind: they've produced a collection with pleasures for readers and obvious, practical use. Few anthologists can say as much. (Jan.)
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