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The Hell with Love: Poems to Mend a Broken Heart
by
This collection of poems expresses the anger, hurt, depression of loss: that asks why, analyses rifts and strives for explanation: and that builds resolve, envisions a future and revels in the present.
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Paperback, 256 pages
Published
December 2nd 2005
by Warner Books (NY)
(first published January 1st 2002)
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Showing 1-30

Start your review of The Hell with Love: Poems to Mend a Broken Heart

It's still broken.
...more

Sep 12, 2008
La Petite Américaine Cash App: $Covid2020sucks
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Poetry Fans
Shelves:
kicked_ass
Picked this up in 2003 when I was bitter about my first love coming to an end. As I started reading, I realized that this was not some silly little chick-lit book of sappy guys-suck rants, but one of the best poetry anthologies I've ever read. It includes some moving verses by May Swenson, along with William Carlos Williams, Margaret Atwood, Donne, Auden, and good ol' Bill Shakespeare.
This book won't mend a broken heart, as it claims. If you want to do that, slash the dude's tires and sleep with ...more
This book won't mend a broken heart, as it claims. If you want to do that, slash the dude's tires and sleep with ...more

A mediocre collection. The curators of the collection clearly had a couple of favorite poets that re-appeared time and again through the book, and even some of my own favorite poets or pieces seemed shoe-horned into the categories for their assigned chapter. I took to skipping the chapter intros, as it felt too much like when someone spends ten minutes telling you all the things their favorite song makes them feel. If it's a good song, let me draw my own conclusions.
...more

A different kind of advice for the lovelorn, this book is divided by 'stages of recovery' when your heart has been broken: Rage, sadness, self-hatred, false hope, resolve, relapse, real hope, and moving on. Each phase has a short introduction that talks about the feelings people go through at such times, and links it to the chosen poems. Some poems provide empathy, some provide kick ass advice, and some are for a good laugh at the craziness of love.
I myself am not currently recovering from a br ...more
I myself am not currently recovering from a br ...more

I bought this book in my 20's because the black cover with pastel candy hearts declaring, "THE HELL WITH LOVE" seemed so giddily and ironically and self-consciously emotionally confused as to be irresistible. It elicited a kind of geeky, quirky, pathetic chortle - don't you instantaneously want to protect something you are so embarrassed to be curious about, that places its vulnerability so completely on display, and that (worst of all) you might potentially (or even probably) identify with?
Anyw ...more
Anyw ...more

Oh, wow. I picked this book up from the library on a whim, and didn't think too much of it at the time. I'm leaving for France tomorrow (well, it's 3 am, so later today really), and right before bed I decided I wanted to read something to help me sleep. I didn't realize how much I needed this book. (I'm not over him yet.)
It's one of those books whose charm is pretty situational, but I don't think that should necessarily devalue my review. There were certain poems I just identified with so strong ...more
It's one of those books whose charm is pretty situational, but I don't think that should necessarily devalue my review. There were certain poems I just identified with so strong ...more

The number one best book of poetry I've ever come across. Years ago, I was lucky enough to have my best friend in B&N with me right after a messy broken engagement that left me a complete wreck. She picked out this book for me and I fell in love with anger, the angst, and the terrible beauty of it immediately. The second part of the book's title says it all very truthfully - these are poems to mend a broken heart.
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This book came to me at a time I needed it most, I had just been dumped by my first boyfriend, and was having a horrid time dealing with it. I've shared it with best friends, thrown it across the room in rage, and held it tightly sobbing like the angsty teenager I was at the time. And now, 12 years later, I still turn to this little black book, thumb to my favorite poems and read.
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I just picked this up on a whim when I saw it on the library staff's picks for the month. I didn't like how at the beginning of each chapter the authors tried to "explain" how the poetry fit the different stages of breaking up. I only pushed myself to finish it because I wanted to read something else next.
...more

This is by far the most contemporary take on the painful experience of heartbreak that I've found. Broken up into stages- Rage, Sadness, Self-Hatred, False Hope, Resolve, Relapse, Real Hope and Moving On, it contains a few poems in each vein that actually dare to point out the messiness, the deep emotions, the anger and dark side of love.
...more

Jul 31, 2007
Leslie
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
the broken-hearted
Shelves:
datingrelationships,
poetry
This cute little poetry is the perfect thing when you are going through a breakup or have been dumped. All the emotions are there--anger, rage, sadness. My friend John has a poem in this book. It would be a good gift book for a birthday or a pick-me-up.

Not my favorite collection. I kind of expected something differently. So, maybe if I had gone into it not thinking about what I'd be getting I would have liked it more.
Too many repeated poets. I would have preferred a bigger selection. ...more
Too many repeated poets. I would have preferred a bigger selection. ...more

well... this is okay, but i suspect its meant for a different reader. I started to feel the selections weren't as inspired, and were awfully 20th-century-centric, instead of being lost in the beauty or profundity of the poems. But this might be just the ticket for somebody else.
...more

I started reading this simply because it features Robert Frost but I ended up really liking it. It covers emotions you feel when 'broken hearted' anger, resentment, denial, then moves into funny poems with hope for the future. Cute book.
...more

Shut it. I don't care how cliche it is. I need this book & will buy it after the library lending time is over.
...more

This book is excellent. A collection of poems for every stage of getting out of love. My favorite poem out of it is called "Promises for sons".
...more

A clever little collection. We need more anthologies to make people see poetry again. It's a balm in hard times.
...more
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