aclassicalmess's reviews
150 reviews

Turn Up the Ocean: Poems by Tony Hoagland

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reflective medium-paced

4.0

While I’m lying there naked, flat on my back,
I hope I remember all that I went through —
the storms and the lovers and the mountains;

complaining at the top of my lungs;
salting my grief with my mirth
while being tossed this way and that, askew and asunder,
in this blithering whirlwind of wonder.
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

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dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Being able to read and write did not provide the answers to all questions. It led to other questions, and then to others.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It was dark for so long, so very long. We were all blind. And there was the cold, a vast, unmoving, heavy cold. We could not move at all. We did not move. We did not speak. Our mouths were closed, pressed shut by the cold and by the weight. Our eyes were pressed shut. Our limbs were held still. Our minds were held still. For how long? There was no length of time; how long is death? And is one dead only after living, or before life as well? Certainly we thought, if we thought anything, that we were dead; but if we had ever been alive, we had forgotten it.
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Are not all appearances deceptive in the end? Whatever there is within us - whether good, or bad, or neither - its existence will continue uninterrupted, will it not, no matter what the drape of our clothes, or the colour of our skin? What if it is the world that is a duperie, Mr Reid, and we the exceptions to its lies?
Sultana's Dream by Roquia Sakhawat Hussain

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reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Where are the men?' I asked her. 

'In their proper places, where they ought to be.'

'Pray let me know what you mean by "their proper places".'

'O, I see my mistake, you cannot know our customs, as you were never here before. We shut our men indoors.'
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Poems from the Moor by Emily Brontë

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reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

And what is the future happy one?
A sea beneath a cloudless sun,
A mighty, glorious, dazzling sea
Stretching into infinity.
Utopia by Thomas More

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Pride thinks its own happiness shines the brighter, by comparing it with the misfortunes of other persons; that by displaying its own wealth they may feel their poverty the more sensibly. This is the infernal serpent that creeps into the breasts of mortals, and possesses them too much to be easily drawn out.