It was difficult NOT to notice this anthology on the bookstore shelves. Surely in that title there is promise if not a prescription, perhaps some wordy respite from the relentless ‘heavy weather’ of our times… It was thus that I came with high expectations to this collection.

Christian Wiman has put together a wide-ranging anthology around the subject of Joy. Perhaps because he is a professor of the Practice of Religion and Literature at Yale, he has begun the book with a rather long twenty-seven page introduction on the meanings and definitions of Joy followed by comments on various selections. I enjoyed this piece when I finally read it but it was not until I’d read through the poetry once or twice (it was a just-give-me-the-drugs situation).

There are not, in my opinion, 100 poems here as a fair number of entries are one or two lines, or a thoughtful paragraph. But, I suppose that is a small quibble and beyond that the anthology is a very good collection that grows on the reader the more one rereads. Like any anthology, one will connect with some of the poems and pieces but not others. Four of my favorites were the Lucille Clifton, Philip Larkin. Sara Teasdale and Seamus Heaney poems. ( )

Enjoyable collection of poems from a wide variety of poets about joy. As with any collection of poems, I enjoyed reading some over others. Some were about a more bittersweet sort of joy. ( )