BLUSHING: Expressions of Love in Poems & Letters

The cheesy title may put readers off, but the contents, compiled by Janeczko, are the real thing, though weighted toward the giants of English literature. Entries include a letter from John Keats to Fanny Brawne ("Do not I see a heart naturally furnish'd with wings imprison itself with me?"), Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Time Does Not Bring Relief" and Percy Shelley's rather brutal dismissal of Harriet Shelley ("I am united to another; you are no longer my wife") as she prepared to deliver their second child. This collection contains 60 pieces in all, ending with Naomi Shihab Nye's "I Still Have Everything You Gave Me": "I do not ache.// I would not trade." (Jan.)