Product Description
The Poet's Notebook brings together excerpts from the working notebooks of twenty-six American poets. Unsystematic, spontaneous, irreverent, intense, witty, unexpected, these notebooks shimmer with reflections, speculations, confessions, quotations, impressions, and ruminations. They create a portrait of the artist as a purposeful gatherer and sifter of every kind of experience. Included are the notebooks from such distinguished and eclectic voices as Rita Dove, Stephen Dunn, Carolyn Forch, Donald Hall, Garrett Hongo, Joy Harjo, Donald Justice, Yusef Komunyakaa, James Merrill, Mary Oliver, Charles Simic, and William Stafford. Amazon.com Review
In The Poet's Notebook readers are privy to memories, dreams, reflections, poems, and overheard conversations as recorded in the notebooks of 26 contemporary American poets who subscribe to Somerset Maugham's belief that "the mere habit of notebook keeping might make the writer more observant." Donald Hall compares writing (favorably, it lasts longer) to orgasm. William Matthews ponders a Dylan bootleg, envying the musician his ability "to turn one's work inside out, mock it, vamp it, make it both new and continuous with its former versions" (a published poem is, well, published). Liz Rosenberg likens a poem to a baby, because both are "self-absorbed and containing ... the universal breath, and needing constant tiny cares and adjustments." And Lisel Mueller invokes Yehuda Amichai's demand that "every poem should be the last poem, written as if it contained the last thing the poet would ever say, shaped to contain a condensation of all the messages of his or her life." Whew. If you keep your own "compost heap," as poet Rosanna Warren calls her poet's notebook, pick up a spare; yours will surely be filled by book's end. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fabulous!
This is a great book for any writer, or anyone interested in the craft and process of writing.Not just poetry, there's a lot of prose, too.The seller sent it relatively promptly, and I've had nothing but pleasure from the book.It's in great shape, and fits perfect in my backpack.Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the art of writing.

WIT AND INSIGHT!
This one's great fun to read! Spot through it and light
yourself up a while! ... Read more

Product Description
Acclaimed poet and World War II veteran Harvey Shapiro's pathbreaking gathering of work by more than sixty poets of the war years includes Randall Jarrell, Anthony Hecht, George Oppen, Richard Eberhart, William Bronk, and Woody Guthrie. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A marvelous collection of poetry, based on America's experience during WWII
When I was in high school, I was honored to be chosen to deliver Memorial Day addresses, General Logan's Orders (creating Memorial Day) as a junior and the Gettysburg Address as a senior. Logan's Orders capture some of the very worst of Victorian prose; Lincoln's Address is, of course, sublime -- I recited it to myself as I was writing this review and the hairs still rise up on the back of my neck.

In many ways, this collection of poetry did the same thing. The Library of America has started to publish (and send to you by email) extracts from its publications. The extract for last week featured a poem story written by Edward Field from Poets of World War II (American Poets Project) "In this poem recounting an actual incident, an American crew on a bombing mission is forced to ditch its plane in the North Sea.

. . . We radioed our final position for help to come
but had no idea if anyone
happened to be tuned in and heard us,
and we crouched together on the floor
knees drawn up and head down
in regulation position for ditching;
listened as the engine stopped, a terrible silence,
and we went down into the sea with a crash,
just like hitting a brick wall,
jarring bones, teeth, eyeballs panicky.
Who would ever think water could be so hard? . . .

This volume contains a remarkable collection of poems. Perhaps the most famous, Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", which reads in its entirety:

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Woody Gutherie's "The Blinding of Isaac Woodward" was important in forming my early commitment to civil rights works, and the lyrics still resonate:

My name is Isaac Woodard, my tale I'll tell you;
I'm sure it'll sound so terrible you might not think it true;
I joined up with the Army, they sent me overseas;
Through the battles of New Guinea and in the Philippines.

On the 13th day of February 1946
They sent me to Atlanta and I got my discharge pin;
I caught the bus for Winslow, going to meet my wife,
Then we were coming to New York City to visit my parents both.

...

There are many wonderful poems here, spare, direct, moving. I've included the Table of Contents in the first Comment to give you an idea of the riches here.

Robert C. Ross 2010

Poets of World War II (American Poets Project)
Out of the murderous, dehumanizing hell of the war were born powerful, often graceful and miraculous works of art full of passion, pain, loneliness, and ultimately proof that each poet survived with a sense of dignity and integrity. Poets served on the ground, in the air over Europe and Japan, and in ships on every ocean. And in providing a strong, coherent, pacifist yet patriotic perspective on the home front in that "Good War", poets such as John Berryman contribute their works as well.

WONDERFUL ADDITION TO A WONDERFUL SERIES
This little volume is one of twenty seven volumes published so far by the Library of America and aptly named The American Poets Project.These publications are attempting to collect, present and a collection of the most significant American poetry of the many distinguished poets of our country, and so far they have done a wonderful job with this endeavor.This series is quickly becoming one of my favorite.

Poets of World War II has gleaned through and gathered the works of 62 American poets and presented us with 120 poems; the centrally theme being World War II.The mix and representation in this work is good.While the vast majority of the poems featured here are from poets who actually experienced combat, there is also a good representation from those who did not which include those who chose not to serve, some who had loved ones that did and everything in between.While volumes upon volumes of poetry inspired by World War I are available, World War II has been by comparison, overlooked to a great extent.The reader of this collection will be struck instantly by the change in attitude, ambiance and general outlook of this generation compared to the Previous.War is war and it is an ugly thing in everyway.Poems of the writers here reflect a much more pragmatic outlook, a harsher and less romantic view than many of the poems of previous wars. Many of these works have sharp twists of irony interwoven in their lines; a bitterness, yet in many cases, a bitterness mixed with pride and always, an amazement.

The poets here are some of the best of their generation and era.Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Conrad Aiken, Vladimir Nabokov, Eve Triem, Lincoln Kirsten, Woody Guthrie, John Frederick Nims, Howard Nemerov and Alfred Hayes are but a partial list of poets whose names appear.The works here represent many attitudes and observations.From the cutting irony of Lincoln Kristein's"Rank,"and "Snatch," to the sheer terror of John Frederick Nims "Shot Down at Night.'' to William Bronk's "Soldiers in Death," the full gambit of war time experiences are exposed.We have the horror well represented of course, the death, pain, mass destruction along with the mind numbing fear, but also examined in a rather brutal but whimsical way, the visit to a house of prostitution by soldiers just off the front line.

The poetry of war is not to the taste of all, but the subject matter here which is war, brings out the full array of human emotion (or in some cases the lack of), and digs deep into the very soul of those who where involved; those who were witnesses.

There will be very little argument over the quality of the writing here no matter what the style used in each separate poem.These writers are the best of the best and most have or had cut their literary teeth in other genre.I cannot say that this is a pleasant read; a fun read, but it is certainly a worthwhile read and as we seem to be stuck in a perpetual cycle of war, it is quite likely an important read.No one can understand the un-understandable, but these little works go far in that direction

This is a wonderful addition to this series and well worth the time to read and ponder.I highly recommend this work and indeed, this entire series.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Still a connection
I am using this collection in my American Lit survey class to cover WWII, and it's tremendously effective. I'm having my students choose a poem and read it and discuss it in class, and I believe they are finding the experience very moving. To them as well as to me, WWII is history, the past, but close enough to seem real.

Powerful
This anthology is one in a series published by the American Poets Project, an effort intended to produce a first-time "compact national library of poets" (back cover).The volume under review here consists of 120 poems by 62 poets, where 42 are veterans, the others non-veterans, thus making it similar in concept to kindred anthologies such as Jan Barry's 'Peace is Our Profession: Poems and Passages of War Protest' (1981).As such, it includes works by conscientious objectors and other war-resisters such as Robinson Jeffers and William Stafford. All the contributors are a credible collection of Objectivists, Imagists, "followers of the formal school of Southern verse and dense rhetoric..."(xxxii). The editor is Harvey Shapiro, an Ivy League-educated poet, and veteran of thirty-five combat missions as a B-17 tail gunner.He sets a solemn tone for the volume, stating that although the Allies were victorious, "the sight of dead bodies is scattered among these poems the way bodies were washed up on the shores of invasion beaches..." (xix).Moreover, his purpose for this anthology is "to demonstrate that the American poets of this war produced a body of work that has not yet been recognized for its clean and powerful eloquence" (xx).
Shapiro gathers some of the best poetry of the war.Included are those infrequently published but no less majestically poignant air war poems by John Ciardi, James Dickey, Richard Eberhart, Richard Hugo (though his opus magnum, 'Mission to Linz', does not appear here), Randall Jarrell, and Howard Nemerov.Some of the best poems of ground combat are by Louis Simpson, George Oppen, and Anthony Hecht.Several poems are quite moving, such as James Tate's 'The Lost Pilot' (218-220), written for his father who was killed in action when Tate was five months old, and Peter Viereck's 'Vale from Carthage' (110-111), which Viereck wrote on the occasion of his brother's death in the European theater.There are sublime elegies like Vladimir Nabokov's "When he was small, when he would fall" (20), and Richard Eberhart's 'A Ceremony by the Sea' (31-34).Many poets achieve a powerful austerity through just a few lines, such as Samuel Menashe does in his 18-syllable, 5-line poem, 'Beachhead' (214).Yet, the poems here are not solely about combat and its affects, for they also inform the wider ontology of war, verse that emerges into the foreground of military victory to ask the unanswered questions of race and class.Compelling examples are Witter Bynner's 'Defeat', and Gwendolyn Brook's 'Negro Hero' (1, 115).
For enthusiasts of poetry and studies of how war relates to literature and the arts, Shapiro's book proves an exemplary and diverse collection, and a perfect companion to Leon Stokesbury's 'Articles of War: A Collection of American Poetry About World War II' (1990).It includes an Introduction by Shapiro, and a very helpful biographical notes section.There has always been a debate over how poetry can close the aesthetic space between the poetry reader's expectations and the poet's ability to meet them.This work accomplishes that closure quite effectively despite the decades that have passed since the end of the Second World War.
... Read more

Product Description
This lavishly illustrated, oversized (17" x 10") book brings together the last major print series of the celebrated Japanese artist Hokusai (1760-1849) and the Japanese poetry that inspired these beautiful prints.

Whether showing semi-nude women abalone divers struggling with their catch while a male crew of shriveled old salts leers from a nearby boat, or the carefree rapture of a leisurely group of men and women observing cherry blossoms at their peak, Hokusai captures, with drama and delicacy, sublime and ridiculous states. The artist's simplicity, though deceptive, is also remarkable: he illustrates a poem about a lovers' seaside tryst with a magnificently imposing yet unadorned sailing vessel, its small window offering a coy glimpse of the fortunate couple inside.

Each of the 111 color prints (as well as 41 black-and-white sketches of projected prints apparently never completed) is accompanied by the poem, in Japanese and English, a biographical note on the poet and by Peter Morse's comments on literary and artistic intention and execution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Read the Poems, too!
I completely agree with the other reviewers that the prints are fantastic and the book is very high quality. I would like to add that the poems are very enjoyable, too. To my knowledge, there is no other translation into English of all 100 poems; the book also has a phonetic transcription of the Japanese original, explanation, and information about the authors.

The poems are all short, and most are based on observation of nature, so they are still surprisingly contemporary, in spite of being, for the most part, seven- or eight hundred years old.

The compilation itself (Oogura Hyakunin Issho, 100 Poems by 100 Poets, or literally 100 Persons, One Poem [Each]) enjoys huge popularity in Japan, and is known and memorized by a great number of people. There is some argument about the poems included: critics have argued that sometimes the poem included is not the best one a poet wrote, and some poets are barely remembered, apart from the poem included in the collection; but overall, the importance of the collection cannot be denied.

Hokusai One Hundred Poets
What a beautiful book!Leave it on a coffee table and anyone you have over will be drawn in.Very interesting, to see the translated poems that each picture is about.Hokusai was a genius.But you already knew that.

A gorgeous, rare treat
I read this on my bus commutes... and quickly found it such a treat that I relished each page, found myself feasting over every page as leisurely as I could because I didn't want the book to end.

One Hundred Poets is an ancient accumulation of poems (100 poems by 100 poets) done around 1200 in Japan or so; a classic text, that Hokusai began to illustrate.Roughly 1/3 of his illustrations were published, the rest never were, but he did complete the drawing work for the 100 poems.

The author has a great grasp on the poems, and delights in tracing how Hokusai's illustrations cleverly take the theme of each poem and carries it off in an unexpected or unusual direction, thus creating a second level of artistry.It's hard to find any book that will give Westerners like myself a glimpse of the particularly Japanese way of looking at these poems and art, but this author clearly gives us a keyhole through which I can peek... one of the best I've read, in that regard.

You should know, that when Hokusai drew a picture, that picture got destroyed by the process of carving wood-block plates.So it turns out to be a particular treat to see the roughly half of this book that are Hokusai's original drawings which were NEVER turned into plates.Those drawings, I feel, are far more beautiful than the full-color plates we all know.The variability in thickness of strokes never got captured by the wood-block carvers, and I relished seeing it in these drawings.

In short, it was a perfect way to spend half-hour increments of quiet time; reading the poem, mulling over what it might mean, exploring different translations with the writer of this book and thereby getting a deeper understanding of the poem; tracing the elements of the poem that Hokusai picked out for his drawings; appreciating his sense of humor, pun, and fun in how he chose his drawings' subjects; delighting in the balance, artistry, and whimsy of the drawings; simply enjoying the beauty of each two-page spread.I've never encountered a better book about Japanese drawings than this.It's a treasured piece, one of about 50 books I've stumbled across over the years that I truly hold dear.

Gorgeous book, great scholarship
I recommend this gorgeous book to any fan of Japanese prints in general, or Hokusai in particular. This series of prints, never completed, combines a thousand years of Japanese poetry and culture with Hokusai's rich imagination, giving more meaning to the poems and imagery than either could have by themselves.

After a brief and informative introduction, each two-page spread presents one of the images. It appears on the right-hand side, at roughly the original size (oban, aboutu 10"x15"). Text appears on the left-hand page: the name of the poet, a five-line poem in rigidly defined form, biographical information about the poet, commentary on the poem, and analysis of Hokusai's rendering. Although helpful and informative, the writing never falls into dry pendatry or restatement of the obvious. In books like these, I very often skim the text; here, I take the time to read Morse's comments. They really add to my understanding of the prints and their cultural context.

This series holds special interest because it was never completed. Only twenty seven of the hundred are known to have been printed in color, and they all appear here. Only the key (black ink) block appears for another, over fifty appear as full-sized drawings but were never cut, two drawings are now lost but appear as photos taken when they were still extant, and four appear as prints from blocks cut by a twentieth-century artist working from Hokusai's original drawings. It is maddening to know that Morse has seen photos of two more, held by a collector who has not granted permission to reproduce them. In a few cases, the print and preparatory drawing have both been presented; the drawing appears in reduced form with the text, opposite the print.

As much as I love Western printmaking, it rarely equals the complexity or subtlety of Japanese woodcuts. Among Japanese printmakers, Hokusai holds a position as an undisputed master. This collection does a lot to cement that reputation for the Western reader.

-- wiredweird ... Read more

Product Description
Covers black American poetry from the slave songs through the 1960's. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

"To Make a Poet Black and Bid Him Sing"!!!!
I first laid eyes on the late, great Black poet and publisher, Dudley Randall, back in 1969, as a freshman accounting student at the University of Detroit, located on Livernois and McNichols, in Detroit, Michigan.

I already knew about Randall because I graduated from Cass Technical High School, one of Detroit's jewels, in June, 1969. At Cass, I majored in Computer Programming.But, because I was always an avid reader, huge fan of poetry, and loved to write, I took several advanced English courses, where we studied a few of Randall's poems.

So, when I got to U of D, the first thing I heard was that Dudley Randall, the author of "the Ballad of Birmingham", a sad, but powerful tribute to the 4 little Black girls murdered by a bomb planted in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, a mere 18 days after the historic March on Washington, was the reference librarian.

His desk was on the first floor.And, whenever I saw him, he was working methodically and quietly, among stacks of books that were scattered about on what must have been his desk.It wasn't until I took several Black Literature courses, during the latter days of the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, that I discovered the real Dudley Randall and his impact on Black literature and American letters, in Detroit and around the country.

Using his own money, Randall founded and financed the Broadside Press, located near the U of D campus, while working full time as a reference librarian.And his pioneering work as a Black publisher and mentor to a generation of young Black poets, like Don Lee, later known as Haki Madhubuti, and ex-convict, Etheridge Knight, best known for his poem, "the Idea of Ancestry" and the folk poem, "I Sing of Shine", opened up the closed doors of the White publishing world, and introduced White and Black America to a generation of Black poets, who had a lot to say.

In one of my Black literature courses, taught by Mary Helen Washington, years before she became Dr. Mary Helen Washington, of "Black Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds" fame, one of the books we used, "the Black Poets", originally published in 1971, has to be called Dudley Randall's magnum opus.

He was not only the editor of this unprecedented anthology, but some of his most complex and profound poetry, like "Black Poet, White Critic", "Roses and Revolutions", and "A Different Image", was included.

As implied by each of the seven 5-star reviews, and explicitly stated by Dudley Randall in his scholarly introduction, from the beginning of the Black sojourn in America, through the 1960's, "the Black Poets" is the definitive anthology of Black poets, and their struggle to define themselves, the Black experience, and the movement towards the creation of what Randall called "a new poetry".

This book is an absolute treasure.It should be be read and re-read by anyone who loves literature, in general, poetry, in particular, and is open-minded enough to benefit from the wisdom and profound insights this ancient art provides into the complexities, contradictions, failures, hopes, indomitable spirit and triumphs of the Black people who often died in attempts to make the promise of America a realilty.

From the simple, but power packed rhythms, rhymes, and dialect of the "folk poetry" of unknown Black bards:

"We raise de wheat,
Dey gib us de corn;
We bake de bread;
Dey gib us de crust;
We sif the meal;
Dey gib us de huss;
We peel de meat;
Dey gib us de skin;
and dat's de way
Dey take us in),

to Countee Cullen's 20th Century musing about what Black people, forcibly removed from our native land, may have lost, and the real meaning of the African Diaspora,

What is Africa to me:
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronze men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang,
When the birds of Eden sang?
One three centuries removed
from the scenes his fathers loved,
Spicy grove, cinamon tree,
What is Africa to me?,

Dudley Randall's, "the Black Poets", carefully and repeatedly read, takes American literature, poetry, and the idealistic, pristine life it often depicts, and turns it upside down, so that anyone, Black or White, with the eyes, heart, and willpower to discern and accept the truth, about the real Black experience in America, can be inspired to begin the hard work of making this country the land of freedom and equality, for everyone, that God meant it to be.



.

The Black Experience in all its Diversity!
If you could only own one book of poetry by African-American poets, this should be the one. It is -- on the one hand -- a legitimate scholarly collection of poetry stemming from slaves through the 1960s,and including renowned poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. But, it is also a barebones, emotional journey into the hearts and minds of a people who have faced the most brutal oppression and adversity ever inflicted upon a people in America -- and survived to tell the tale. But anyone looking for single-minded thinking from the black `community' will not find it here. This collection shows the rich diversity of thought, experience, and insight of African-Americans, including those that push an examination of thought among Civil Rights-minded people in the 60s beyond the traditional with such poems as "What is the Color of Lonely?" This is a book one should own. I bought the library binding edition because it was the only hardcover version available at the time, Worth the extra cash for a hardcover book that will last a lifetime!

Excellent Poetry and Historical Account
I am an author and a poet and will state that this is an excellent job by Dudley Randall.The poems in this anthology flow very well.The section on the Harlem Renaissance is very pleasing; know the struggles encountered and the determination of will to succeed, the poets during that era showed strength and courage and are well documented.The book is a history lesson in itself regarding poets of the past and present.There is a distinct contrasting of poets who are classified as folk and literary poets.The additional distinction between pre-renaissance and post-renaissance poets is also made in the book.Overall, the poems from poets in the anthology are outstanding and give a great blending of African-American History.

A poem for all your moods
I first encountered "The Black Poets" as a college student back in the 1970's.It features a wide selection of poems by many well known Black Poets.Many are humorous, such as "I sing of Shine" others romantic, others revolutionary, but all thought provoking.I couldn't find my old copy so I repurchased another recently.This book is definitely worth owning.It will bring you pleasure whenever you pick it up.

Moving book....
I remember reading this book while in middle school.And, I am a 2002 high school graduate.I found this book in the library, and its very impowering - real.The poetry resonates with Mildred D. Taylors, Roll of Thunder poem.I was fascinated by the Run n*****- run master comin get you poem.Its a good book!
Lots of old great African American written poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition presents, for the first time, the entire oeuvre of the Pearl poet with both the original Middle English works and complete verse translations. Poet and scholar Casey Finch uses anapestic tetrameters (and iambic tetrameter for Pearl) in his translations rather than the accented tetrameters of the originals, thus achieving the rhythmic regularity the poems would have displayed when performed to music, as they surely were meant to be. Finch's translations are printed facing the best modern editions of the poems, those of Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron and of Clifford Peterson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Collection, but would like more!
I have been reading this edition in the context of a university class.The notes on the text are extensive and helpful and the facing page translation makes for a quick and enjoyable read.However, for the purposes of truly studying these texts I would have appreciated having the middle english version glossed on the more obscure M.E. words to enable me to grapple with the original text and language a bit more.I am also partial to texts that annotate on the page rather than endnotes, as the constant flipping back and forth can become tedious, to say the least.
Overall I was surprised how much I enjoyed these stories, especially Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.The translation of that was especially enjoyable, so much so, that I read it aloud to my children (5 & 7) and they loved it too. ... Read more

Product Description
The first bilingual anthology of Brazilian Poetry to cover its entire 500-year-long history, this book drew the following comment from Yale's expert in world literature, Harold Bloom: Poets of Brazil: A Bilingual Selection is the only book available that gives these poets to us in both languages, Portuguese and American English. The choice of poets is remarkably inclusive and various and is particularly enlightening in the works of the twentieth-century Republic of Brazil. In particular, the representation of Manuel Bandeira, of the three Andrades and of Archanjo are brilliantly rendered. The quality of the introduction and notes is also estimable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Endless family entertainment...
My wife and I (both bilingual in Brazilian Portuguese and English) have sat for hours reading poetry from this book to each other.What could be more fun than that, reading poems with the Mrs?A great glimpse into the literature and culture of Brazil.Fascinating works.We both believe we could improve on some of the translations (hey, that's what we do), but, all the same, most of the translations are excellent work, too.We've really enjoyed this book together.More history about the poets themselves (like in a Norton's Anthology or something) would be of interest, but, as far as the works themslves, great stuff.The book is well put together, laid out, edited, etc., and gives hours of enjoyment for those interested in poetry, or Brasil, or both. ... Read more

Product Description
DESCRIPTION OF BOOK: A MASTERFUL SELECTION OF WORKS FROM ONE OF THE RICHEST OF ALL LITERARY PERIODS. WILLIAM BLAKE, ROBERT BURNS,SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, LORD BYRON, PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, JOHN KEATS, RALPH WALDO EMERSON, EDGAR ALLAN POE. AND MANY OTHERS. "I FIND IT HARD TO USE ANYTHING BUT SUPERLATIVES ON THE AUDEN-PEARSONCOLLECTION OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN VERSE. IT IS THE BEST (AND I KNOW IT IS THE BEST) COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF ITS KIND IN EXISTENCE." - HORACE GREGORY. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Spectacular!
I absolutely love this book! At first, I only bought it for my Literature class, but then I found out how wonderful it is. It may just be my love of romantic poets showing, but this is a great buy for anyone who loves classic romantic-era poetry.
The list of all the poets included in this book:
William Blake, Robert Burns, George Crabbe, Philip Freneau, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Hartley Coleridge, William Cullen Bryant, Walter Savage Landor, Thomas Moore, George Gordon (Lord Byron), Percy B. Shelley, George Darley, John Keats, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Hood, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, John Clare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Barnes, John Greenleaf Whittier, Jones Very, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, and Edgar Allen Poe.
An impressive display to be sure. Although some of the poets only have one of their poems in the book, the wide range of poems by many differnt poets compensates nicely.
This is a great read for any poetry-lovers out there. I'm really glad I bought it.

The overflow of spontaneous emotion recollected in tranquillity
The great defining moment of the Romantic movement in English poetry is generally considered the publication by Wordsworth and Coleridge of 'The Lyrical Ballads' in 1797. But the editors of this anthology take an earlier point of origin and begin with the great myth - master and singer of songs of innocence and experience, William Blake. They include in their anthologynot simply English Romantic poets but also the Americans , Emerson and Thoreau( Transcendentalists) and Poe. They also include a number of minor, lesser known poets.
But what is most important is that they have most of the great definining poems of English Romantic Poetry, the great poems of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats.
There are of course as many definitions of Romanticism as there are of other key intellectual-historical concepts such as 'Nature' and 'Classicism' But one clear element is a new found emphasis on self, and subjectivity , the expression of the individual's feeling of the world. Wordsworth went to everyday life and language, to nature and the world of the ' simple people' he met in his countryside wanderings. Coleridge went to the world of myth and mystery, but they both provided in deeper ways whole worlds of feeling which were at times ' deeper than tears'.
An outstanding anthology of one of the most important 'movements' or ' periods' in the world- history of poetry.

A good selection, co-edited by a poet
One of the annoying things about the received opinion about the Romantic poets is the statement that there were exactly six of them--Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and Shelley.This pronouncement is usually delivered with equal conviction to assertions you usually hear only in the natural sciences--e.g., that there are three kinds of human muscle (cardiac, striated, and slow-flexing) and two kinds of stony drip-accreted icicles in caves (stalactites and stalagmites).Nor elsewhere in the area of literature do you quite hear that there were so many Russian realist novelists, so many French Symbolist poets, so many English medieval poets, etc.So it's something of a relief to read in the editors' introduction to the "Portable Romantic Poets" that American romantics are included as well, because poets don't just arrest their reading, as anthologizers usually arrest their selecting, at continental or national boundaries.It's also welcome to see the inclusion of poets who are sometimes left out because they might be felt to be minor or unpopular (Landor) or generically different (Burns) by anthologizers.This anthology is a welcome corrective to received wisdom about who actually qualifies as a Romantic.And the efficient introduction is a minor masterpiece of cultural exposition as well.

Man can imagine states of existence other than they are.
The first verse of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence appears in Bronowski, as homage to Ludwig Boltzmann: " To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour...." William Blake was born in London in 1757. He attended drawing school and thereafter eked out a very modest existence as an engraver and artist. He was not able to find a publisher so in 1789 he himself engraved and published Songs of Innocence and The Book of Thel. Blake died in 1827. Blake was one of many 'romantic poets' of that epoch. Auden and Pearson point out that the romantic definition of man appears towards the end of the eighteenth century. The divine element that man possesses is not power nor free will of reason, but self-consciousness. Man can see possibilities, he can imagine states of existence other than they are.

nice collection, provides context with poems
Far be it from me to critique these poets, but I can say something about this particular presentation.It's a handy little volume, with a several-page introduction providing historical context, and a several-pagecalendar of British and American poetry from 1750 to around 1850.Thecalendar doesn't just list poetry, it includes events like "Watt'ssteam engine patented" and "Lewis and Clark Expedition" aswell as the publication of novels and music, so context is wellestablished.At the back of the book is an index of poems by title and byfirst line, and there's a set of biographical notes on the poets.

If youwant to know what romantic poetry's all about, take a look at this.Idon't know how an English Lit Ph.D. would rate this book but I think it's anice collection. ... Read more

Product Description
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

In this stunning volume of epic breadth, Michael Schmidt connects the lives and works of more than 300 poets over the last 700 years--spanning distant shores from Scotland to Australia to the Caribbean, all sharing the English language.

Schmidt reveals how each poet has transformed "a common language of poetry" into the rustic rhythms and elegiac ballads, love sonnets, and experimental postmodern verse that make up our lyrical canon.

A comprehensive guided tour that is lively and always accessible, Lives of the Poets illuminates our most transcendent literary tradition.
Amazon.com Review
Michael Schmidt's Lives of the Poets should engenderendless debates. Anytime anyone attempts a project thismonumental--nothing less than the entire history of poetry in English,after all!--plenty of people will disagree with how he or she goesabout it. Take, for example, the fact that Schmidt crams 500 years ofpoetry (Richard Rolle of Hampole through Walt Whitman) into the firsthalf of his massive tome, then spreads a mere century and a half(Emily Dickinson to the present) across the rest. And even 900-pluspages isn't enough space to treat every poet equally--indeed,it may be that Schmidt's choices will spark theliveliest disagreements. Then there are his various pronunciamentos onpoetry itself--everything from its form to its influences. But nomatter what you may think of Schmidt's methods or conclusions, hiscredentials are above reproach. Editor of PN Review and founderand editorial director of Carcanet Press, he is a man both passionateand knowledgeable about poetry--and poets. While Schmidt does, indeed,provide biographical information about his subjects, it is with theirinner lives, their imaginative landscapes, that he is chieflyconcerned. Open the book to almost any page or any era, and you'llfind detailed analyses of not only the poems themselves but also thetimes, the culture, and the literary antecedents that affectedthem. Of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound he writes: "Eliot and Poundrebelled together against what they saw as the misuse of free orunmetered verse." And in discussing Eliot's The Waste Land, heremarks:

In The Waste Land he demanded to be read differently from otherpoets. He alters our way of reading for good, if we read him properly. Thepoem does not respond to analysis of its meanings--meanings cannot bedetached from the texture of the poetry itself.

Customer Reviews (10)

Massive Tome To Me To You
I can't believe I read the whole thing.You may find yourself saying the same thing too I you should so choose to tackle Schmidt's lengthy analysis on the history of English poetry.With that statement I suppose is the warning.Reading this book from cover to cover is probably not for the average reader.You have to really love poetry and not just the language but what goes into it, what resides behind the words in the fabric of each poet's life.The book is not without merit though for the casual poetry semi-enthusiast.It is also a pretty enjoyable read for quick bite analysis.Pick it up, turn to an era, poet, or genre, and away you go for a quick 10-15 minute before going to sleep read.I was reluctant to give this book 4 stars tending towards a lower rating due to the weightiness, but the fact that I made it through speaks to the entertaining value of Schmidt's writing.To make literary analysis readable is no small feat.

Michael Schmidt is not without opinions.You may find yourself vehemently in disagreeance or enthusiastically joining the choir and singing along.For instance, Schmidt pretty much holds low opinion of the likes of Alan Ginsburg and his use of mind altering drugs to create poetry with little form."Ginsburg dropped on American poetry like a bomb; his generation outgrew him and American poetry has outgrown him."It's not so much that Schmidt has an opinion.Of literary criticism, that is to be expected.But instead, it is that Schmidt offers up his opinions as imperatives, absolutes not to be countered.

Reading Schmidt's book it's as if all of English poetry revolves around Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot.He is downright ebullient in his praises of the two."After Pound we read poetry differently."and "In The Waste Land he demanded to be read differently from other poets.He alters our way of reading for good, if we read him properly."And so it goes in Schmidt's world poetic view of the ushering in of modernism.Elsewhere, Schmidt decries the loss of formal verse or at least verse that respects formalism.It is here that he finds the true poet's art.Again an opinion presented as an imperative.

Schmidt is in need of conciseness.He is self-critical is his choosing of format biting off too much swallowing too little.He spends precious pages to launch campaigns for regional poets, virtual unknowns, and underappreciates.These are pages, he could be spending making a case for his St. Eliot and St. Pound sainthood.If a poet caters to a specific culture with a specific language virtually unintelligible to the rest of the English speaking world, why be inclusive?Toss 'em out and save 'em for the regional anthologies.Sorry about the preceding colloquial language, friends.

With all this criticism, Schmidt's massive book is a treasure for poetry lovers.It is high brow in places, but when you finish reading the whole thing or just bits and pieces you will know more about poetry, appreciate more in depth poetry, and be indebted to the history and love of language that precedes us and will succeed us.Literary infinitum by good friends.Read on.

The Cost of Eloquence
Schmidt's history opens with an occasion on which he chaired a debate between Heaney, Walcott and Brodsky, contemporary giants - hence a portrait of himself in situ with the Gods - but its true opening scene is a typically more casual one mentioned in aside - where he tells us that his father disclaimed any further interest in his prospects when he announced his intention to publish poetry; he had put himself beyond the pale, made himself "a gambler" at best, and it is this chatty comfortableness along with self aggrandizement which holds the charm of this survey. Schmidt's paternal conference has the air of "Brideshead Revisited" as the painter Charles's father wonders aloud what became of a cousin who had run through his allowance early, gone off to Australia perhaps? Wherever possible in his account of the poets from Langland and Gower to his own stable of Khalvatis and Cissons Schmidt tries to give the impression that he was there, in spirit if not in person, and it is his identification of publishers' base motives not less than poets' fleeting visions which conspire to make this not so much a critical sourcebook as a story of how English poetry wound its roots into a tree.

Of the eighteenth century Tory publisher and clubman Tonson, whose Kit Kat club saw writers gathering with him to eat superb pies, he remarks that it was clever of him to gather writers round him so that he could pick off their completed works like berries ripened off the bush. It is just possible, he allows, that writers and publisher actually enjoyed each other's company socially. Of the printer who bought out Milton's copyright from his widow for an additional eight pounds after a total payment of fifteen, he observes that this was a good buy. The fathers of poets are viewed by Schmidt companionably as "men of substance", if they have wealth, and the sorry ends of poets who do not have such means or a career besides come to seem regular as passing calendar leaves. Spenser's work went up in flames, he ended very poor. Charlotte Mayhew, a favourite of Hardy's, consigned to a friend the copy of her poem taken in that great man's hand, and drank bleach. These, as well as the publishers' copyists, scribes and outgoings for paper are the cost of eloquence: a life in foolscap.

What emerges from the trawl of centuries is a generalism not common in this age of political axe grinders for critics: Schmidt sees that the ageing rebel turned conservative Wordsworth ("the silent muser had become the comfortable talker") echoes acrosscenturies the radical turned arch-conservative Eliot, both critics in their age who turned their backs on ground broken. A half page on the dogs at poets' sides and what they tell us of their owners - Pope, Byron, Elizabeth Barret - is a gem. The readings of the poets are quirky but often fair: Browning left nine tenths of his work not worth re-reading, but that leaves a tenth that stands, a huge amount. Donne gets a quick seeing to - too clever and abstruse - Raleigh, with his deathbed nerves of steel, is "a man of flesh and blood". More often than not it is a chain of well chosen adjectives that makes Schmidt's prosecution or defense briefly and irrefutably - Johnson, despite his sloth, had "put so many projects into motion" that he achieved them, Dryden was happy to be top of his heap and did not "struggle with himself" to get higher. He quotes the great critics and sources so regularly - Aubrey, Wharton, Hazlitt, Eliot - that the intrusion of an occasional croney of his own - Cissons, Donald Davies - draws you up short. We had come to believe Schmidt was ensconced there in the Mermaid Tavern, what does this latter day vaingloriousness here? In these bowings to others' views he sometimes loses his tone - at his best he either lifts great critical cases outright or makes his own gruff motions to the jury, often digging up a soul long lost to view in the dungeons of posterity's Old Bailey.
It is a vast book. I have still not reached the twentieth century, though those I've browsed of the contemporary listings do not retain his scabrous touch. Pity. He leaves to other publisher-writers the honour of regaling us with tales of chicanery in his own poets' contracts. Or he reveres too much his comfortable perch with them to risk scaring his own poets from his own pie shop. Still. It's not possible to skip while reading through his earlier centuries. His greatest achievement is to make English poetry live like a story you do not wish to miss parts of - you never know when Burns will echo Piers Ploughman, you do not know when Schmidt's map, like a three dimensional model, will let you see the Pearl poet peeping up at the bottom of the sea beneath a fishing trip by some contemporary craft.

Blahs of The Poets
It is no small irony that Schmidt takes his title from his curmudgeonly Eighteenth Century ancestor, Samuel Johnson.The irony is that Johnson, while judgmental, was at least interesting in his thundering declarations.

I cannot for the life of me understand why all the other reviewers find this work daring or controversial.Schmidt says nothing new.He is, in fact, the most diplomatic of judges.And I challenge any reader to find an unequivocal take on any of the poets.He inevitably has both good and bad things to say.

A further irony is that the title of the book is a misnomer.Yes, Schmidt provides a few scanty biographic facts, but a better title might be The History of Metrics or something of the sort.The book is mostly concerned with the form English poetry has taken over the past several hundred years.

Above all, Schmidt hates exegetics.Don't expect in depth explorations of a poem's meaning or the evaluation of poet's oevre.Truly, this book reads like a hopscotch through the history of meter and rhyme.No wonder it only took him ten months to write the 900 or so pages.He didn't have to think!

A Survey of Poetic Form in the History of English Poetry
Schmidt's boldness is nearly unmatched among literary critics.For this reason alone, his book, Lives of the Poets, is a stimulating read.Of course, there are problems with the book.He spends nearly a third of his book on the last fifty years, after swiftly encompassing the rest of English poetical history in the first two thirds.A few glaring omissions are almost unforgivable, such as James Merrill and A.R. Ammons.One must remember, however, that Schmidt is a publisher by trade, and not really a literary critic.Even Samuel Johnson wrote about bad poets, though it may have been his advisors who pushed for such a shift of emphasis.In the end, one is often refreshed and enlightened by this book.

The buck stops here
A great value, this book contains lots of fax 'n' info about the important and not-so-famous poets.Schmidt combines chronology with history and attempts a kind of psychobiography or mentalistic theory to try to get inside the minds of the poets.This approach, though it strikes me as somewhat culturally German, is I think quite effective.Schmidt is not a scholar but an enthusiast of poetry whose love of the material is overwhelming.And I also think Schmidt is an excellent teacher.He mentions that Spenser was highly influential up through the first half of the twentieth century, and from my recent browsing in the tradition, I could confirm this statement for myself.He also points out that Shelley is a great guide for budding poets, and I think that this is the kind of specific generosity that brings out the best in Shelley.Recently I've been reading Dryden's poetry and prose on the strength of Schmidt's recommendations.As for one reviewer's umbrage at the description of Spenser as small hands, etc., well so what?It's just--gasp--friendly irony at best, Germanic sarcasm at worst.Nobody thinks any less of Samuel Johnson for being ole blood 'n' guts Dr. Johnson with big appetites and, like Schmidt, strong opinions--but unlike Schmidt, smack in the middle of the English tradition, probably never even spent a weekend in Cabo San Lucas.So there! ... Read more

Product Description
Discover How Whitman’s Spiritual Life and Vision Can Enlighten Your Own

Walt Whitman was the most innovative and influential poet of the nineteenth century. The self-proclaimed "American Bard," Whitman challenged his contemporaries to resist conforming to society and shocked them with his embrace of the sensual. But beneath his manifesto for social revolution lies a vigorous call for spiritual revolution as well.

This beautiful sampling of Whitman’s most important poetry from Leaves of Grass, and selections from his prose writings, offers a glimpse into the spiritual side of his most radical themes—love for country, love for others, and love of Self. Whitman seeks to tear down the belief that the spiritual resides only in the religious and embraces the idea that nothing is more divine than humankind, nothing greater than the individual soul.

Rich with passion, reverence, and wonder, this unique collection offers insight into Whitman’s quest for self-discovery, which involved an ongoing mystical experience of the world. Though seemingly personal, his verse speaks to universal harmony and universal love, optimism and joy, and celebrates the outwardly mundane details of life through words electrified with love and spirit.

Whitman’s collected poems and prose are not an object or icon to be gazed upon or revered but a transparency we look through to see ourselves with greater clarity, excitement, and meaning. They wake us up to our potential, to learning about and from ourselves…. To experience his writing is to experience ourselves more deeply….
—from the Preface by Gary David Comstock ... Read more

Product Description
In the winter of 1979 Nabeel Yasin, Iraq's most famous young poet, gathered together a handful of belongings and fled Iraq with his wife and son.Life in Baghdad had become intolerable.Silenced by a series of brutal beatings at the hands of the Ba'ath Party's Secret Police and declared an “enemy of the state,” he faced certain death if he stayed.

Nabeel had grown up in the late 1950s and early '60s in a large and loving family, amid the domestic drama typical of Iraq's new middle class, with his mother Sabria working as a seamstress to send all of her seven children to college. As his story unfolds, Nabeel meets his future wife and finds his poetic voice while he is a student.But Saddam's rise to power ushers in a new era of repression, imprisonment and betrayal from which few families will escape intact.In this new climate of intimidation and random violence Iraqis live in fear and silence; yet Nabeel’s mother tells him “It is your duty to write.”His poetry, a blend of myth and history, attacks the regime determined to silence him. AsNabeel’s fame and influence as a poet grows, he is forced into hiding when the Party begins to dismantle the city’s infrastructure and impose power cuts and food rationing.Two of his brothers are already in prison and a third is used as a human minesweeper on the frontline of the Iran-Iraq war. After six months in hiding, Nabeel escapes with his wife and young son to Beirut, Paris, Prague, Budapest, and finally England.

Written by Jo Tatchell, a journalist who has spent many years in the Middle East and who is a close friend of Nabeel Yasin’s, Nabeel's Song is the gripping story of a family and its fateful encounter with history. From a warm, lighthearted look at the Yasin family before the Saddam dictatorship, to the tale of Nabeel’s persecution and daring flight, and the suspense-filled account of his family’s rebellion against Saddam's regime, Nabeel's Song is an intimate, illuminating, deeply human chronicle of a country and a culture devastated by political repression and war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Pretty boring
I enjoyed reading the book for the historical aspect but I found the storty telling to be quite boring and disjointed.It was tough to get through, although the pace did pick up about mid way.I would recommend it if you are curious to know about Iraq under the Bathists but not as a great read.

A Poet of Baghdad
We seldom get an insight of what living in Baghdad was like before the war in Irag.This book provides this through the daily life of a poet.We learn of his struggles and that of his family, and how he eventually escaped to another country.
It is always important to learn about the countries we invade, to provide a proper insight as to how we should help them help each other and become independent.
Jeanette Miraglia

Throw out the media mirage!
If you know Iraq only through the media, it's time for you to read this book.We see war-torn Iraq, but do not have a clear understanding of how it came to be this way.This book gives a human face to daily life before and during Sadaam's dictatorship. It's an eye opener!

The Poet of Baghdad, formerly known as Nabeel's Song
This is a heart breaking and at the same heart warming tale of a shia man and his family and their lives before, during and after the Regime of the despot Saddam Hussein. Love laughter, sadness and torture at the hands of a madman, how a man and his family survived and actually flourished. Now you will know why the present population of Iraqis are at times so angry and hostile to foreigners!

Learning more about life in Iraq.
Because of the insights into life under Sadam Hussein and other groups in Iraq, the reader's group I lead chose this as their book for discussion for their November meeting.Most felt that they had learned a great deal about the struggles between various political groups in Iraq and how Sadam Hussein's rise to power affected freedom of speech and movement in that country.Many commented on the ability of an illiterate mother to produce and guide chhildren who became leaders in many areas ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The spiritual source of poetry
I became aware of Kathleen Raine through an interest in the poet William Blake and the Neoplatonist Plotinus. The eleven addresses in "The Inner Journey of the Poet" had me thinking some things I hadn't before.

Raine has much to say about the reality of imagination vs. the reality of materialism. She herself admits that her views are not particularly original. Her arguments got me thinking that imagination is its own kind of reality, a particularly (if not uniquely) human reality. The ultimate reality of the creative imagination is alive in the minds of those who believe it. If it doesn't really exist, it probably can't be disproved, since the dead are likely in no position to know and report. So, meanwhile, while we're alive, our crediting imagination as the highest form of reality is what prevents us being just cogs in the materialist mechanistic universe.

Raine discusses Blake's faith in Imagination as key to his philosophy. She quotes snatches of his prophetic books that make sense in the context of her explanations. For instance, she interprets Los as Time and Enitharmon as Space, and then quotes some passages that support that interpretation. This makes Los seems somewhat less daunting than the pages and pages of definition in Damon's "A Blake Dictionary." So, I sense that a beginning reader of Blake's prophetic poems may benefit from first reading Raine, and then may profit from reading Damon, Erdman, Bloom, Frye and others.

Raine also points to sources of Blake's thought in Thomas Taylor's translations of Plotinus, and of Divine Love and Wisdom by Swedenborg. She also mentions how much of his thought is supported by the later writings of Henry Corbin. All three of these -- Taylor, Swedenborg, Corbin -- may be interesting for philosophical Christians to read. I personally found their writing more tedious than I like to slog through, so I'm glad to have had Raine's summation of their ideas that are relevant to Blake's writings.

This book does not cover the "how" of writing poetry, nor even the "why" of writing it, so much as the "what" of writing it. I was struck by her advice to look inward to find what's most common with other people, instead of looking outward for commonality. To look outward is to look at the material which changes over time. To look inward is find what is always fresh with each generation. She makes a distinction, though, between the surrealists who looked inward for their individual quirkiness, as opposed to those who look inward for the Jungian archetypes and collective unconscious.

She depicts T.S. Eliot as focusing on the fragmentation of cultural tradition as opposed to the imaginative tradition which is renewed with Dante, Milton, Blake, Hopkins, Yeats, etc. She says she's not attempting a criticism of Eliot's poetry, but a description of the impact it made on her. She has things to say about him, Auden, David Jones, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Dante, Milton, Blake, Hopkins, Yeats, and some others. If you have an interest in the spiritual source for the thought of these poets, you will probably find this a rewarding book. ... Read more

Product Description
A distinctive collection of more than 90 effective poetry-writing exercises combined with corresponding essays to inspire writers of all levels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

great
Stated the product as like new, it was exactly that. Sent personal confirmation email within the first 24 hours... got my book extremely fast. Thank You.

I LOVE poetry, so I'll be honest about this book:
Some writers have wonderful exercises that have helped me write and rewrite poetry. Even if you're not a poet, some of these exercises can help you. Like all books, some things will work for you, and other things will not. But overall, I like the way the book is divided. You can go straight to the section you love (or would love) to write about!

THE PRACTICE OF POETRY
Some of the exercises stimulate the muse, while others are a bit brief.
The index at the back should have covered topics and concepts.

Long and involved
These exercises are quite involved.I was hoping for some exercises for writing poetry in the high school classroom.These took quite a bit of time, but resulted in some good poems.

Not bad
Very detailed, a little too structured for my taste. I would however, reccommend it to more disciplined poets or writers. Good to have as a reference tool. ... Read more

Product Description

100 Great Poets provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the poetic tradition in English. Chronologically arranged, the book presents the major poets from Beowulf to the present with representative examples from each author. The headnotes and selections reflect the high notes of each poet¿s career—the classic poems that have earned an enduring place in the canon of English language literature.

Customer Reviews (1)

All a poetry anthology should be.
Of course, I am speaking in my title of the pure anthology, a collection without explanatory or exploratory texts. And that is all this is: a collection of poems by 100 poets. But do not misread "all this is": "a collection" is all this book _needs_ be, and it is that quite exemplarily.

Now, no poetry anthology that is not 5000+ pages in length is going to leave you without any sense of "Oh, they really should have included such-and-such," and this anthology is not exempt. Of course, there are poems and poets that I think would work better than others included toward expanding representation and variation without thinning out the collection. And there are some contemporary poets that Gioia includes that I see little reason behind beside their being popular to someone. And there are contemporary (or late 20th century) poets not included that I believe would have done the anthology well as examples of the art. But as a broad anthology, this exceeds my expectations. Most of the major names are included, and there is enough offered to give a decent sampling of their artistic identities. As well, there is enough breadth to offer examples that would contribute to most any discussion about poetry and poetics. It would be an easy thing to teach poetry simply by opening this book, and exploring what you find.

As someone who has become rather despondant about the abundance of poorly conceived and executed anthologies out there, this one has pleased me (and is pleasing me) to no end. A well put together collection, and worthy of any classroom -- not to mention an excellent sampling of poetry for any curious reader.
... Read more

Product Description
Comedian and actor Stephen Fry’s witty and practical guide, now in paperback, gives the aspiring poet or student the tools and confidence to write and understand poetry.

Stephen Fry believes that if one can speak and read English, one can write poetry. In The Ode Less Travelled, he invites readers to discover the delights of writing poetry for pleasure and provides the tools and confidence to get started. Through enjoyable exercises, witty insights, and simple step-by-step advice, Fry introduces the concepts of Metre, Rhyme, Form, Diction, and Poetics.

Most of us have never been taught to read or write poetry, and so it can seem mysterious and intimidating. But Fry, a wonderfully competent, engaging teacher and a writer of poetry himself, sets out to correct this problem by explaining the various elements of poetry in simple terms, without condescension. Fry’s method works, and his enthusiasm is contagious as he explores different forms of poetry: the haiku, the ballad, the villanelle, and the sonnet, among many others. Along the way, he introduces us to poets we’ve heard of but never read. The Ode Less Travelled is not just the survey course you never took in college, it’s a lively celebration of poetry that makes even the most reluctant reader want to pick up a pencil and give it a try. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

An accessible workshop manual for the poetry neophyte
Just finished this one and have immediately started to read it again.

Poetry has always been something that I have thought was just out of reach; I enjoy a good poem, but I've never really understood the subject. I accept that, to appreciate most art forms, you need to have some grasp of the techniques used. I know, for example, when I look at a painting, why it works as an oil but wouldn't work as a watercolour, how the paint has been layered to give depth and richness and how the use of colour has created a mood. But give me a book of poetry and I'm like a bogan in an art gallery, reduced to the literary equivalent of liking the nice pictures and disregarding anything I don't understand. I know that I like Shelley but don't like Pound, but I have no idea why.

Stephen Fry is passionate about poetry, something that he makes clear in his earlier novel `The Hippopotamus'. The Ode Less Travelled is his attempt to share that passion with a wider world, not by reviewing poems and trying to teach us what the poet is trying to say to us, but by taking us back to the basics and giving us a workshop manual that opens up the art form and shows us its innards. He introduces meter and form with examples and, heaven help us, exercises, which actually work.

Starting us gently with a dummies guide to iambic pentameter, Fry works through all the major metrical types at a comfortable pace that allows the reader to learn without ever really feeling stretched, it was only after the first few chapters that I realised just how much I had picked up, that I could, for example, recognise a trochaic or pyrrhic substitution and could tell the difference between a dactyl and anapaest. If that sounds intimidating (and I think it does) then it is to Fry's enormous credit that he makes it an easy and pleasurable ride, helped along with examples taken from the great poets and self-deprecating samples from his own imagination.

After meter comes rhyme and after rhyme comes form. It's no exaggeration to say that, looking at a collection of poetry after reading this book, it feels almost like seeing in colour for the first time after a lifetime of believing that back and white was the norm.

Criticisms? There are two main ones. The pace increases in the middle of the book, it reads as if Fry has realised how much ground he has to cover in an ever-decreasing ration of words and has had to speed up to squeeze it all in. This leaves it feeling rushed at times and forces the reader (at least, this reader) to go back over sections in a way that was not necessary in the earlier chapters. Then there is Stephen Fry himself. Personally, I like his writing and have read nearly all of his published books. But can I understand those that find him irritating. Fry is immensely clever; I don't think anyone is likely to deny that. The trouble is, that much like Oscar Wilde, who he admires so much and seems to be always trying to emulate, he does spend a lot of his time making sure that you realise it. All of his writing, and this is no exception, has a recurrent theme of `look at what a big intellect I've got'. If you can get past that and would like to be able to read poetry in colour, then I heartily recommend this book.

Brilliant.
Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (Gotham, 2005)

I think every poet at some point, no matter how much they've been raised on free verse, turns his or her attention to formal verse. Thus the enduring popularity of form dictionaries (my personal favorite has always been Dacey and Jauss' Strong Measures). In The Ode Less Travelled (and points to Fry for spelling "travelled" right when my word processor's dictionary flags it as incorrect), Fry has little truck with free verse; it's all forms all the time here, and is an excellent addition to the formal-verse canon.

After some general introductory chapters, Fry breaks a number of types of formal verse down and introduces us to each, with examples both from classic poets and from his own doggerel (I suspect that Fry, who is far more accomplished than he lets on here, specifically wrote doggerel for inclusion here in order to make it all look a great deal easier). While the book is by no means exhaustive--I don't think I've ever run across a truly exhaustive form dictionary--it's a fine introduction to many of the most popular and enduring forms. If you're a poet, even if you haven't discovered the lure of formal verse yet, it's well worth picking this up. You'll get there eventually. ****

Feeds curiosity about poetry with knowledge and wit
A generous book offering the shyly confounded the joy of soaking up some understanding on terms, context and breadth of poetic forms and principles- plus good company in wanting to give it a whirl.A read that's very much about pleasure, respectful of readers' intelligence but never taking itself too seriously.How enjoyable to be in school sat in my armchair.

Grateful to the friendly professor.

Ode
The Ode Less Travelled arrived early and in terrific condition.It was also at a discount.

Helpful tips for aspiring poets!
I have read many books on poetic techniques. What a relief it was to find this book and read it: it shows how to write poetry for those who yearn to write poetry, beginning at the beginning. In a readable, chatty, understandable way content like metre, rhyme, form, and diction and poetics today are covered in helpful, practical, and useful ways. Plenty of exercises. But be prepared for an unwelcome section on smutty poetry - I did not like this part. However, on the whole this is an excellent book for poets seeking that hard-to-acquire basic grasp on what poetry is really all about - the beats, the rhythm, the life - and how you write it. A good glossary of poetic terms is an added bonus in the appendix. Altogether, this book is 300 odd pages of inspiring, fun reading. It helps you! You will know how to write poetry and write it well. ... Read more

Product Description
This all-new book, by the co-author ofCompanion, invitesyou to discover and enjoy your poetic self.

Inspired by the gratifying success ofCompanion, KimAddonizio presents exciting new insights into the creative process, craft, andthe lessons ofher own creativesubjects--love, loss, identity,community--are here, along with a heady variety of writing exercises (and innovative ways to use theInternet). Chapters on gender, race, and class challenge readers to exploretheir creative vision more deeply, Addonizio,hailed for herpassionate, award-winning poetry, shares her breakthroughs and frustrations frankly, including samples ofrejection slips. She offersnot only encouragement but also awealth of knowledge about form andstructure,metaphor andrhythm, revision, and that elusivegoal: publishing.

"Poetry is not a meansto an end," Addoniziomaintains, "but a continuing engagementwith being alive." Her generous guideisfor beginners andexperienced poets, for groupsand in the classroom--indeed for anyone eager to glimpse the angel ofpoetry.

Customer Reviews (10)

Delightful and Insightful
Kim Addonizio creates a delightful series of lessons on writing poetry. Those who work with students will find the prompts and exercises most valuable. The book is pleasing to read and can be digested in short chapters, each containing several techniques that include exercises or prompts.

She mentions Ezra Pound's caution against joining a concrete noun with an abstract one ("sea of love"). I always thought of it as joining a noun that could stretch to work as a container ("a bucket" or "truck full of" or "truckful of") with an abstract noun (preferably an emotion). As in "A spoonful of love".

Highly recommended book.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Getting Reaquainted with Poetry
It's been 2007 since I have sat down and wrote a poem. This summer as my cousin is getting married I decided to write a poem for the wedding. In order to brush up on my skills and re-enter the world of poetry I bought this book used. It's a great tool for wherever you may be in skill level. There are plenty of exercises for writing poems and definitely some challenging ones. Like one is to write a poem with only so many verbs, adjectives, and nouns. There are poems to consider reading to help you write one and just basic advice.

A Perfect Guide for Any Poet, Budding or Blossomed
Ordinary Genius strikes a perfect tone; empathetic but not precious, upbeat but not chirpy, wise but not cynical, savvy but not smart-ass. Kim Addonizio writes with the easy authority of someone steeped in her subject. Unlike too many vaunted academics, however, she also has the knack of clarifying the complex, making it seem achievable, and actually inspiring a stymied writer to settle down and pin some words to a page. She serves a wonderful confection of poetic vignette, personal anecdote, nuts and bolts know-how, and implementable advice. Her feeling for an apt line is palpable, her insights into poetry are first rate, and her advice on how to deal with the challenges to getting published are as helpful as they are sharp. As the anthologist of Sonnets for Sinners: Everything One Needs to Know About Illicit Love, I suppose, I might have been a tad biased in Kim's favor by her observation that poets are entitled to "invent" reality, which reminded me of lines from my favorite sonneter, Elan Haverford, "Poets are permitted lies / there'd be no poets otherwise."Let me add, however, that I have returned to Ordinary Genius, several times, it being one of those books one can dip into and discover a golden nugget on just about any page. In all, a wonderful gift. Bravo -- and Thanks! -- is what I say.

excellent thus far
Kim Addonizio is my favorite poet. hands down, my absolute fav.I'm still reading this book, so I can't review it as if I have finished it.... thus far, it is amazing. It has already inspired me to write again & has obliterated writer's block.There are exercises in here for when you don't know what to write. Its an excellent book by an excellent writer.

Genius In & Out Of The Classroom
Liking Kim Addonizio's work as I do, I confess to coming to this book with expectations somewhere between relating to another poet and being wowed. The potential for either had been fostered by references to "experienced writers" as though this book included them, and I suppose it does from the standpoint of having coffee with a peer with whom you enjoy shoptalk, but again, expectations. I wanted Kim to talk to me on a professional level, but in this book, she focused her far-reaching range of information and attention on beginning poets, class act college students, and the millions of people who truly could benefit from poetry therapy. Had I read this book several years ago, I might not have collected five shelves of books on or about poetry since Kim discusses much of what's said in them and then some. For instance, she helps poets tap into their problems, pain, humor, demons, and addictions while explaining poetic terms and techniques used by a variety of poets, including herself. Labeled as such or not, this book is a mini-course in poetry that new poets or those beginning to study poetry will welcome and embrace. So even though Ordinary Genius (love the title) does not meet my particular needs in a particular time of reading, I probably would have given it a five-star for those who want to learn about and experience poetry without getting bogged down in technicalities. What dissuaded me, however, was a tactile response to the unpleasantly rough newsprint pages printed by a giant in the poetry publishing business. Yes, expectations, but a book meant to be savored and reread needs to entice readers with silken sheets between the covers. In addition, the tasteful cover art depicts a newly hatched egg, implying that the inside information relates to the fledging poet and not those in flight. ... Read more

Product Description
These Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover editions are popular for their compact size and reasonable price which do not compromise content. Poems: Blake contains a full selection of Blake's work, including Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, poems from Blake's Ms. book, poems from The Prophetic Books, and an index of first lines. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For the common reader not the scholar
This work contains 'The Songs of Innocence' 'The Songs of Experience' a selection from Blake's manuscripts, and from the longer Prophetic Books.
For the complicated Blake so loved by Northrop Frye and other literary critics this small edition of his work will of course, not do. But for the common reader, the one who loves the memorable short lines, the striking rhymes this edition is fine.
Great Blake seems so simple and makes myths in short lines and stanzas.
This is a very good collection for those who love the most popular Blake of all.

Mystical vision
Blake is both a great mystic and a great poet. If you enjoy either poetry or mysticism or both you will like his poems. He tends to work on a large scale. For example all of the poems in Songs of Innocence fit a scheme and have a counterpart in Songs of Experience. I like this edition because it is very handsome with nice binding, and includes the major works of Blake. Now all you need is a book of his engravings and paintings. ... Read more

Product Description
A guide to finding the perfect rhyme every time includes more than ten thousand new entries; sight rhymes, vowel rhymes, and consonant rhymes; the forty-three rhymeless sounds to avoid; words with no rhymes; and more. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

The complete rhyming dictionary
I must say that this book was purchased for my son how is 15 years old and he was asking for it so he can wright his lyrics for his songs.
He loves it and is using it all the time and the size of it is good as he often has it in his bag. The only thing with this book I thought was that the cover not very sturdy so we put some extra cover on it to protectThe Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Including The Poet's Craft Book.

We first had a look at Borders here in Australian and found out that this book was very expensive, so we checked on Amazon when we got home and the book was half price including shipping.

We use Amazon more and more as your service if both good and the prices are always competitive.

Thank you Amazon for enriching are lives

Good Resource
I recommend this rhyming dictionary.It does have a lot a rhymes.It takes a little getting used to the organization of the book at first.It is very effective once you figure out how to find the rhyme, since the book is organized by vowel sounds.This book was actually a required purchase for a class I took.One thing, though:If you use it much, it will fall apart on you; the binding is not that great.I think I'm on my third one now.

some non-rhymes are suspect
A fellow reviewer suggests that the rhymes are suspect for the Brits, but fine for Americans. What American doesn't rhyme "north" and "forth?" But this dictionary says they are non-rhymes. Get the Merriam-Webster version.

Get ryhmes with out ummm berrrr relllla
A tool more performers could use. If the rhyme your looking for isn't listed, chances are it will provoke your brain.

Good, but get the hardback
This is a pretty good rhyming dictionary. It divides into one, two, and three syllable rhymes. There is also a very large section about writing. But don't get the paperback edition- it's too fat and narrow to be easily used. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A compelling and moving account
Ward shapes the life of Keats into a narrative as lively and tangible as the best novel. Her obvious sympathy for the poet, in the trials of poetic invention and during the long decline in health that preceded his premature death, is never overpowering, nor does it cloud a balanced presentation of the details of his life. By far the best literary biography I've read.

John Keats:The Making of a Poet
This is an excellent, fluidly written book which explores the life and writing of John Keats.Aileen Ward writes from a psychological perspectiveand seems to enter deeply into the inner workings of the poet. Shedescribes his development with sensitivity and elegance.Her writing isseamless, and although she explores Keats's life thoroughly, the text neverseems weighed down by detail. Ward's account may seem in certainsections to idealize Keats as 'the poet' and set him above the 'commonman.'She can also seem subtly manipulative in her treatment of his lifeand the psychological journey that she believes him to have undertaken.Attimes, the reader wonders how she could write so authoritatively on Keats'sinner life. However, despite these issues, Ward's biography is extremelyvaluable for anyone who wishes to better know Keats and his life.It is aperfect book for the beginning Keats scholar-- a deeply-felt biographywhich seems true to its subject in style as well as form. ... Read more