Official Review: Hope Always To Every End

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Christina O Phillips
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Official Review: Hope Always To Every End

Post by Christina O Phillips »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Hope Always To Every End" by Barbara Robinson.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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One of the things that makes poetry so accessible and attractive is how personal it can be. For example, although I write in free verse the majority of the time, I still like my lines to have the same amount of beats within a poem. I have a friend who writes poetry but does not count beats per line; she just simply writes and lets the poetry flow from her pen.

In Hope Always to Every End, Barbara Robinson has created some personal poetry. Overall, the messages are about a creator, having hope, and being a better person (as covered in the poems “Judge Not” and “Treat People Right”). The messages she is sharing are from the heart, which the reader can tell by her tone and her word choices. The personal part is also her style and forms. She has written this short book using free verse. If you aren’t familiar with poetry, this means that there is no set rhyme scheme or any other rules dictating format.

What I found most interesting was that on each page there was a poem written in free verse, and on the adjoining page, there was a brief message reiterating an idea from the previous poem. I could not tell if it was meant to be a short poem of its own or simply a highlight of the accompanying poem’s message. And that was okay; this was the personal part of poetry I mentioned earlier. Robinson has thoughts that she wants to share, and she found a unique way to get her ideas across to readers.

This short collection of poetry (the PDF I opened said 100 pages, but the last thirty pages are blank) may only have about thirty poems, but they are powerful if you are open to hearing the deeper message. It is a short read if you are only reading the verses, but it can take you longer if you take the time to reflect on the ideas. Some of my favorite poems from this collection were “Treat People Right,” which offers up the lesson of the Golden Rule in Robinson’s own words; “Break the Cycle,” which encourages the reader to “change the hopeless ways of thinking;” and “Inner Cage,” whose adjoining message reminded readers that while we have bad days, “making it better;/is up to the stronger side of you!”

I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars. As I said earlier, I enjoyed her style of writing, as I found it so different. The style was intriguing. With poetry, one makes their own judgement on punctuation, so there were no errors that I found. This book would be enjoyable for anyone with a religious mindset or anyone who enjoys poetry and does not mind a religious message. While God did play a big part in this collection, the underlying message is about hope. Who can’t use a bit of that right now?

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Hope Always To Every End
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ikechukwuamarachi+55
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Post by ikechukwuamarachi+55 »

Poetry can actually be a medium through which one can express himself but I find it difficult to understand poems. Nice review.
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