What do you think?
Rate this book
Complete Poems
Ernest Hemingway never wished to be widely known as a poet. He concentrated on writing short stories and novels, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1956. But his poetry deserves close attention, if only because it is so revealing. Through verse he expressed anger and disgust—at Dorothy Parker and Edmund Wilson, among others. He parodied the poems and sensibilities of Rudyard Kipling, Joyce Kilmer, Robert Graves, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Gertrude Stein. He recast parts of poems by the likes of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, giving them his own twist. And he invested these poems with the preoccupations of his novels: sex and desire, battle and aftermath, cats, gin, and bullfights. Nowhere is his delight in drubbing snobs and overrefined writers more apparent. In this revised edition of the Complete Poems , the editor, Nicholas Gerogiannis, offers here an afterword assessing the influence of the collection, first published in 1979, and an updated bibliography. Readers will be particularly interested in the addition of "Critical Intelligence," a poem written soon after Hemingway's divorce from his first wife in 1927. Also available as a Bison Book: Hemingway's Quarrel with Androgyny by Mark Spilka.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
16 people are currently reading
564 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Hemingway
2,227 books32.4k followersErnest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. He married Hadley Richardson in 1921, the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s' "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist and which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
September 23, 2017
The ONLY reason anyone would read this book is because they were written by Nobel-winning novelist Hemingway, so you can see that he never intended to be a poet. I cringed that literary archivists have seen fit to include poems he wrote at Oak Park High School! And love poems to various women, augh! I hope almost all of my poems in a similar vein are destroyed. But because he is Hemingway, we have to have them. I thought they, all 88 of them, stuff he probably scribbled on napkins, were pretty awful, and I bet so did he, but I was still glad to see them again, even briefly. I read them in I think first in 1976 when the edition was just called 88 Poems, and again in 1992 when the new edition came out, and only picked them up again when I saw them out at the library recently, having just re-read some of his breathtaking story collections.
August 15, 2021
There isn't any doubt that I enjoyed this collection. Culled from such disparate times in Papa's unusually complicated life, there's little in connective tissue. The editor points to, see Ezra helped him, or, wow the War disaffected him more than any safari.
Most of the reviews here are violently opposed to this publication. They find it either exploitative or they are against the idea that anything the mythic author scribbled upon is worthy of an annotated edition. I really don't see much to either concern but then I am knackered.
Most of the reviews here are violently opposed to this publication. They find it either exploitative or they are against the idea that anything the mythic author scribbled upon is worthy of an annotated edition. I really don't see much to either concern but then I am knackered.
October 26, 2018
4 stars—certainly not for the overall quality of the poetry but rather for the importance of the volume. It is currently the most complete, annotated collection of Hemingway’s poetic output. And the introduction by the editor, Nicholas Gerogiannis, is a well-considered evaluation of the totality of Hemingway’s poetry.
The volume was first published in 1979. The revised edition, published in 1992, includes an additional poem plus an Afterword that adds some new observations about Hemingway as a poet as well as thoughts about the additional poem.
Hemingway wrote the bulk of his poetry between 1918 and 1925. The overall quality is uneven, more revealing of his personality than of his literary creativity.
The volume was first published in 1979. The revised edition, published in 1992, includes an additional poem plus an Afterword that adds some new observations about Hemingway as a poet as well as thoughts about the additional poem.
Hemingway wrote the bulk of his poetry between 1918 and 1925. The overall quality is uneven, more revealing of his personality than of his literary creativity.
February 4, 2023
Hemingway’s Complete Poems compiles eighty-eight distinct pieces which weren’t collected during his lifetime, but rather gathered posthumously from small press publications, magazines, jotting paper, napkins, letters, and diaries.
Despite being surprisingly slim and hardly meant to be read as such, this poetical corpus reveals Hemingway’s wide range of style and sheds new light on his time on this planet. Some of his poems are political, anti-war tirades or satires; others are plain silly and play with sounds or mock other poets. Sometimes he jokes; sometimes his melancholy knows no bounds. Valentine for example is entertainingly petty. The piece titled Poem, 1928 makes a solid case against false moralism in art. We find traces of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Scott F. Fitzgerald, Kipling, and — most prominently — his loved ones.
Printing only the very best of his poems would result in a brochure; collecting the good ones might pile pages to a booklet. Since even combining every piece ever with foreword, afterword, and annotations makes merely a little thin book, the reader will have to suffer a mixture of literal trash and literary gold.
Despite being surprisingly slim and hardly meant to be read as such, this poetical corpus reveals Hemingway’s wide range of style and sheds new light on his time on this planet. Some of his poems are political, anti-war tirades or satires; others are plain silly and play with sounds or mock other poets. Sometimes he jokes; sometimes his melancholy knows no bounds. Valentine for example is entertainingly petty. The piece titled Poem, 1928 makes a solid case against false moralism in art. We find traces of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Scott F. Fitzgerald, Kipling, and — most prominently — his loved ones.
Printing only the very best of his poems would result in a brochure; collecting the good ones might pile pages to a booklet. Since even combining every piece ever with foreword, afterword, and annotations makes merely a little thin book, the reader will have to suffer a mixture of literal trash and literary gold.
May 12, 2020
Not the Hemingway style I know from fiction. Most of these poems seem like scribblings he never intended to publish. Let's face it, if these didn't have the Hemingway brand name, they'd never see the light of day. Waited a long time to dive into this disappointment.
January 10, 2026
bro should've stuck to prose
October 27, 2011
This book was extremely disappointing. I love Hemingway's novels and short stories, but can now state without any hesitation whatsoever, how much I hate his poetry. I can count on one hand the moments I felt any kind of brilliance here. What does it say when this poem from seventeen year old Hemingway is my favorite?(!!!!!):
[Blank Verse]
“ “
! : , .
, , , .
, ; !
,
1916
This poem at least has some wit and humor.
The editor tries to sell it all as some kind of special portal into Hemingway's psyche, a bridge to understanding his other masterpieces....blah blah...what a crock. Not buying it. I think Hemingway never intended for some of these poems to appear in print for the world to see. Many seem like private journal jots and musings. I guess I will never know the answer; so I must be kind to Hemingway, trying my best to blot his poetry out of my mind, and with works such as Blank Verse, this should not be too terribly difficult.
[Blank Verse]
“ “
! : , .
, , , .
, ; !
,
1916
This poem at least has some wit and humor.
The editor tries to sell it all as some kind of special portal into Hemingway's psyche, a bridge to understanding his other masterpieces....blah blah...what a crock. Not buying it. I think Hemingway never intended for some of these poems to appear in print for the world to see. Many seem like private journal jots and musings. I guess I will never know the answer; so I must be kind to Hemingway, trying my best to blot his poetry out of my mind, and with works such as Blank Verse, this should not be too terribly difficult.
February 18, 2008
I was pleasantly surprised to come across this book. It is a little embarassing to admit, but until a week ago, I didn't know ol' Ernie wrote enough poetry to be collected. Not every piece is a winner, but overall it is strong enough to warrant a solid read from anyone who's enjoyed his more seminal works.
August 29, 2008
He may have been a first-rate novelist, but these poems are pretty pathetic. However, some of them are superbly albeit unintentionally funny. Who can resist "Ezra Pound is the shit"?
January 14, 2023
There was some fine poetry in here, but a great deal of it simply didn't live up to Hemingway's incredible talent. It was incredibly bitter, and he seems to hold nothing sacred in these poems. One area that shines through, though are the poems about war ( which I guess is a given with E. H.); Riparto d'Assalto stands out.
December 31, 2018
To clarify: 2 stars for the poems, not Hemingway.
If you really like Hemingway, then this is fun because of that alone. If you are simply looking for some well written poems, look elsewhere.
If you really like Hemingway, then this is fun because of that alone. If you are simply looking for some well written poems, look elsewhere.
March 1, 2010
This is what I learned from this book:
If you sneeze on a piece of paper, then you become famous, then you die,
or
If you sneeze on a piece of paper, then you die, then you become famous,
that piece of paper becomes a treasure!...or perhaps a national treasure!
Not sure how many pages the Editor/Publisher wasted in this book to show us, the readers, some photos of hand written notes and scraps....as if we, the readers, can recognize Hemingway's hand writing when we see it!lol
....as if the Editor/Publisher himself doesn't believe that what is written in this book is by Hemingway and was afraid that such doubts will spread to the readers, so he/they made extra efforts to prove it by including photos of what I think was brainstorming notes.
Hemingway wrote what in this book or he did not, does not really matter.
Hemingway did not approve what is written and published in this book, so the credibility, at least to me, is lost.
....and just few lines from this book caught my attention.
This is one of the books I felt excited when I found and were very disappointed when I finished :(
If you sneeze on a piece of paper, then you become famous, then you die,
or
If you sneeze on a piece of paper, then you die, then you become famous,
that piece of paper becomes a treasure!...or perhaps a national treasure!
Not sure how many pages the Editor/Publisher wasted in this book to show us, the readers, some photos of hand written notes and scraps....as if we, the readers, can recognize Hemingway's hand writing when we see it!lol
....as if the Editor/Publisher himself doesn't believe that what is written in this book is by Hemingway and was afraid that such doubts will spread to the readers, so he/they made extra efforts to prove it by including photos of what I think was brainstorming notes.
Hemingway wrote what in this book or he did not, does not really matter.
Hemingway did not approve what is written and published in this book, so the credibility, at least to me, is lost.
....and just few lines from this book caught my attention.
This is one of the books I felt excited when I found and were very disappointed when I finished :(
September 18, 2015
Most of this collection didn’t resonate. Much of it was “inside” stuff – messages, of the “get back at” sort, directed at or to be understood by certain individuals. Some of the language was racist, or edgy and course (“whores and bitches”). There are photographs, and copies of his poems as works in progress. The second poem in this collection is titled “Blank Verse.” It consists of punctuation marks only, void of content. The editor’s note explains that this was the high school Hemingway’s “literal rendering of a literary term…to fulfill an English class assignment,” which appeared in the humor column of the school newspaper.” Another poem is of the fun sort: “I’m off’n wild wimmen/An Cognac/An Sinnin’/For I’m in loOOOOOOOve.” And another one has some interesting ambiguity: “If my Valentine you won’t be/I’ll hang myself on your Christmas tree.”
May 3, 2009
I'm not a poetry person but for some reason (during a shopping therapy trip) I bought this book. Some poems didn't really catch my attention but others I loved! I was pleasantly surprised at his humorous poems... honestly I was expecting an entire book of serious, well-detailed, philosophical poetry.
May 3, 2008
Don't like his novels? Try this. Witty. Crass. Sexist. Drunk.
Want to read
October 11, 2011Tempted to create a new MUST READ shelf for this one.
July 26, 2021
A collection of inconsequential (and sometimes outright terrible) poetry, most of which Hemingway would never have expected to see the light of day. Some pieces were published in obscure publications in the 1920s, when Hemingway was still developing as a writer and probably not sure whether to direct himself towards poetry or prose, but most of the poems in this collection are throwaways, loose pieces of doggerel that Hemingway would write as 'warm-up exercises' to get the juices flowing (pg. 148) before he got down to the serious business of writing his prose masterpieces.
Consequently, it seems rather harsh to criticize the book. It even includes poems he wrote in high school, for Christ's sake, and no man should ever be judged on that. But aside from a couple of pieces of merit – I quite liked 'Poem, 1928' and the caustic 'To a Tragic Poetess' – there’s nothing of literary value here.
This is why even the editor of the book writes somewhat apologetically about Complete Poems. There is some truth in Nicholas Gerogiannis' assertion that "as is so often the case with posthumous publications of lesser works, the reader recognizes the man beyond the myth" (pg. xxiv), but it does mean the book is useful only for biography, and therefore only for the Hemingway completists.
Consequently, it seems rather harsh to criticize the book. It even includes poems he wrote in high school, for Christ's sake, and no man should ever be judged on that. But aside from a couple of pieces of merit – I quite liked 'Poem, 1928' and the caustic 'To a Tragic Poetess' – there’s nothing of literary value here.
This is why even the editor of the book writes somewhat apologetically about Complete Poems. There is some truth in Nicholas Gerogiannis' assertion that "as is so often the case with posthumous publications of lesser works, the reader recognizes the man beyond the myth" (pg. xxiv), but it does mean the book is useful only for biography, and therefore only for the Hemingway completists.
June 18, 2021
Having been impressed with the poem "The Age Demanded" in an anthology I bought and read (and still have) when I was just a sprite, I have long been curious as to whether there was more poetry by Hemingway and whether it would be as good. So, finally I found this (thanks, internet!) and although I am glad I read it, the poetry in it wasn't especially good in my opinion. In fact, the aforementioned poem is still the best of the lot. However, the reading of these poems gave me insights into the man himself. On that level, I liked it quite a lot.
The poems are mostly short, though the last section includes several long, rambling, almost incoherent "poems" that read more as letters from someone with a creative bent who's been hit on the head several times. The devil in me liked the "mean" poems, the barbs aimed at various other literary figures, notably Dorothy Parker and my personal non-favorite writer Gertrude Stein, as well as critics who seem to have had it coming. The saddest poem in the book was one he wrote for one of his cats. Sometimes, with Hemingway, it's as if he just can't stop himself from mixing fish hooks into the batter. All in all, recommended for EH fans, not so much for anyone else.
The poems are mostly short, though the last section includes several long, rambling, almost incoherent "poems" that read more as letters from someone with a creative bent who's been hit on the head several times. The devil in me liked the "mean" poems, the barbs aimed at various other literary figures, notably Dorothy Parker and my personal non-favorite writer Gertrude Stein, as well as critics who seem to have had it coming. The saddest poem in the book was one he wrote for one of his cats. Sometimes, with Hemingway, it's as if he just can't stop himself from mixing fish hooks into the batter. All in all, recommended for EH fans, not so much for anyone else.
March 30, 2025
Soooo I get why the man was not known for his poetry.
Regardless, I'm glad I read these. The value of the poems he penned down is in their revealing nature. They hint at how Hemingway viewed the world around him at that particular time in his life and humanize him by unveiling the raw triviality of some of the small events and thoughts that shaped his larger life.
Despite the value of this publication to my English major self, they were a painful read, and I can't help but acknowledge that, if anyone else had written it, I would have put it down after the first few poems. If that wasn't enough, the following lines would have been the the straw that broke the camel's back:
From "The Soul of Spain"
"Home is where the heart is, home is where the fart is.
Come let us fart in the home.
There is no art in a fart.
Still a fart may not be artless.
Let us fart an artless fart in the home.
Democracy."
If the above is your cup of tea, then you're in luck because there is more where that came from!
Regardless, I'm glad I read these. The value of the poems he penned down is in their revealing nature. They hint at how Hemingway viewed the world around him at that particular time in his life and humanize him by unveiling the raw triviality of some of the small events and thoughts that shaped his larger life.
Despite the value of this publication to my English major self, they were a painful read, and I can't help but acknowledge that, if anyone else had written it, I would have put it down after the first few poems. If that wasn't enough, the following lines would have been the the straw that broke the camel's back:
From "The Soul of Spain"
"Home is where the heart is, home is where the fart is.
Come let us fart in the home.
There is no art in a fart.
Still a fart may not be artless.
Let us fart an artless fart in the home.
Democracy."
If the above is your cup of tea, then you're in luck because there is more where that came from!
January 6, 2020
Hemingway was never known as a poet, nor did he want to be. It shows. While his poetry is at times small and childish in rhyme and reason you can catch glimpses of the mans genius in several of his pieces. When he speaks of close relationships that no longer hold love, or losses in combat of foreign affairs, or islands and geography, Hemingway of poetry is the Hemingway of myth and legend.
August 31, 2021
#14Books14Weeks2021 ...#7 (is is it 8?) How is it I am behind and I've still lost track lol. Anyway, I've been in a bit of an Ernest Hemingway phase for a couple of years so when I saw this book I knew I had to read it. Interesting. Odd. Insightful. Curious. Thought provoking. Perplexing. And more. I'm so glad I read this 😊
May 2, 2022
I'm not generally one for Hemingway--I don't like his prose nor his characters often (I think he's a genius author, just not one I enjoy)--, but I think his poems are the peak of mediocrity. They are not particularly well written, nor enjoyable. That's ignoring the often racist language and stereotypes that he used. There were some with a bit of nice humor, but most went without.
Read
October 29, 2021Not giving this a star rating. The poems aren't very good, but were also never meant to be collected and published, which happened posthumously. That said, these poems do provide interesting and further insights into Ernest Hemingway's life and thinking.
October 22, 2018
Sound bias. But anything Hemingway wrote deserves a 5-star in my heart 💕
April 22, 2020
Pleasantly irreverent.
January 25, 2022
If you know your Ernest Hemingway, you will appreciate his poetry.
August 24, 2024
did not like this as much as I thought I would. I suppose there’s a reason he’s not known for his poetry
April 16, 2025
If you like history and poems this is for you!
May 13, 2025
Well, Hemingway may not be the greatest poet of his time, but this book is very informative about this side of his work, with proper introduction and explanatory notes about the poems.
November 18, 2025
1. A good poet can be a good write. but not vice verse.
2. I like books with a lot of footnotes (or say, lol) gossips.
2. I like books with a lot of footnotes (or say, lol) gossips.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews