Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

BROUGHT OUT THE KID IN ME..ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL
I cannot think of a better way to introduce the poetry and stories of Edward Lear than this small volume.The selection is excellent and of interest you the young reader.The commentary is quite relevant as are the pictures which accompany it.I find that often now, our young people go all the way through the early grades in school and many of them have never heard of Edward Lear, much less read their poetry.This was the sort of stuff my generation and the generation before it grew up on and cut our teeth on.I do not feel I am any worse for the wear.I am fearful that we are bringing up an entire generation (rightfully or wrong, although I feel it is the later) of young folks who will have no appreciation to this great art form and will miss a lot.This book helps.This entire series helps, as a matter of fact and I certainly recommend you add this one and the others to your library.Actually, it is rather fun reading these with the young folk and then talking about them.Not only do you get to enjoy the work your self and perhaps bring back some great memories, but you have the opportunity to interact with your child or student.It is actually rather surprising what some of the kids come up with.I read these to my grandchildren and to the kids in my classes at school.For the most part, when I really get to discussing the work with them, they enjoy it.Recommend this one highly.

Fabulous
I had these stories read to me when I was a child and was thrilled to find this book for my son.The illustrations are wonderful and the stories are particularly fun to read aloud.For those of you not familiar, give them a try.I know that there are some terms in these stories that have other connotations to Americans, but the stories are pure, fantastical and innocent.

The Poetry Man
Edward Lear, what a talented man. Lear was born in 1812 in England. Though being born in England he spent most of his life away from his home land. This particular book that I read was a very good book that was interesting to me no matter my age. He showed great illustrations and they always found a way to make the picture match the story. Lear had great creativity in this book. It was full of rhythm and joy for all type of people.

Kids Love It!!!
Poetry for Young People is a wonderful series, and I have the whole series in my classroom, but I have to buy extra copies of Edward Lear's book all the time because everyone wants to read it, and I keep giving copies away.Students who have never cared for a book in their life go so crazy over this one that I just have to make it a present to them.The illustrations are fun and colorful and exciting, and the poetry is zany and silly and rhythmical.I like to read aloud from this book, and we can read these poems over and over (which promotes fluency).If you want to motivate your students or your children to read poetry, or if you want to introduce your kids to poetry so they'll develop a love for it, give them this book.And like I said, the whole series is great.The biographies provided at the beginning of each book are brief, but give a pretty comprehensive picture of the interesting events in each writer's life, and give insight into the works that follow. ... Read more

Product Description
With more than 100,000 copies sold, The New American Poetry has become one of the most influential anthologies published in the United States since World War II. As one of the first counter-cultural collections of American verse, this volume fits in Robert Lowell's famous definition of the raw in American poetry. Many of the contributors once derided in the mainstream press of the period are now part of the postmodern canon: Olson, Duncan, Creeley, Guest, Ashbery, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Levertov, O'Hara, Snyder, Schuyler, and others. Donald Allen's The New American Poetry delivered the first taste of these remarkable poets, and the book has since become an invaluable historical and cultural record, now available again for a new generation of readers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great Anthology
Although the name does seem redundant, this book is a great anthology.It has Kerouc and Ginsberg's work when they were younger and not yet famous.They are some of the best poets in the last 50 years now.I recommend this book for a real poetry enthusiast or someone who needs to add to their poetry library, but if you just want a taste of poetry, find something else.

An exciting moment in American literature
Donald Allen's New American Poetry served its purpose very well as adignified, major anthology of poets whose reputations were then far fromsecured. It has two very serious flaws. It vastly under-represents women& poets of color. It also creates arbitrary "schools" ofpoetry that hardly existed then & exist not at all now. In the year2000, the purpose of this book is perhaps not so clear. Except for Olson,these are all early poems from young poets, many of whom are quite deadnow. This anthology is hardly a fair representation of, or introduction to,their art.

But there are two strengths at work here. The New AmericanPoetry is a marvelous historical document of a particular time, an excitingmoment in American literature. Also, there are many poets here whosubsequently had wonderful careers without attaining the celebrity of AllenGinsberg, John Ashbury or Robert Creeley. Some of the finest poets in thisbook have pitifully few of their own best books in print .. the delights oftheir smaller collections. So the reader may be encountering Helen Adam,Larry Eigner, Ron Lowensohn, Ray Bremser & Joel Oppenheimer for thefirst time. Or become reacquainted with Paul Blackburn & DeniseLevertov.

Even when you keep in mind that the New American Poetry isneither an infallible literary bible of its time nor a substitute forbroader anthologies like The Voice that is Great Within Us, the beautifulmusic it contains will still pack a wallop to your heart & mind.

BobRixon

A great introduction to this poetry
I find this book a great introduction to this type of poetry. You can find a lot of different authors, topics, type of poetry, and each piece you read has something good. I recommend it to everyone that loves contemporanypoetry or wants to start reading some.

Significant anthology.
I would like to quote from the recent book "A Secret Location on the Lower East Side" by Steven Clay and Rodney Phillips.The New York Public Library/Granary Books.

There was no more significant poetryanthology in the second half of the twentieth century than THE NEW AMERICANPOETRY, 1945-1960, edited by Donald M. Allen and published (orig) by GrovePress.

one of a kind guide to post-war american poets
this book does need a review, it stands by itself as a compendium and illustrator of american poetry after 1945, an exceedingly fertile period. many people have spent many an hour with their nose in this book, gettingintroduced and reacquainted with our exceptional post-war poets. badderthan charlie parker, it really swings its ass off. ... Read more

Product Description
"By the time you're done, your biggest problem may be that you wish there was more."
– WALL STREET JOURNAL

"The definitive anthology of poets reading their own work."
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"This grand immersion in poetry follows the best-selling Poetry Speaks (2001) and includes a never-before-published and truly thrilling recording of James Joyce reading "Anna Livia Plurabelle" from Finnegans Wake. Book and CDs work beautifully together, kindling deeper appreciation for the transmuting power of poetry, a practice of discipline, skill, and magic."
- BOOKLIST

"...The prose comes to life when read aloud, especially when you hear James Joyce read it himself."
– NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Jacki Lyden

"This tome is a reminder how the human spirit is capable of finding an outlet in oppressive times, how poetry can help explain why we do what we do as a thinking people...Certainly, in our struggle to make sense out of what we do not understand, Poetry Speaks Expanded helps on so many levels." – Carol Hoenig, THE HUFFINGTON POST

"...[A] bountiful experience: there is the thrill of discovery and re-discovery as with any good anthology, with an added emphasis on the poets' personalities and growth" – John Hammond, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"[An] accessible, beautifully executed collection guaranteed to offer poetry fans a memorable reading and listening experience" – WORDCANDY.NET

"...[A]s I savored these beautiful poems, it reminded me of French poet Charles Baudelaire who wrote, 'Any man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.'" - Norm Goldman, BOOKPLEASURES.COM

"Light[s] up a reader's eyes." - Frank Wilson, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Hear And Read All Of These Poets (And More)
244 Poems Included In The Book
107 Poems Read By The Poets Themselves On 3 Audio CDs

Robert Graves, E. E. Cummings, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, Ted Hughes, Robinson Jeffers, Philip Larkin, Wallace Stevens, Louise Bogan, Melvin B. Tolson, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Ogden Nash, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Allen Ginsberg Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Robert Frost, Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Randall Jarrell, Jack Kerouac, John Berryman, Dylan Thomas, Robert Lowell, Robert Browning, Robert Duncan, May Swenson, John Crowe Ransom

Poetry Speaks Expanded is a fusion of the poet's words with the poet's voice, including text and recordings of nearly 50 of the greatest poets who ever lived, ranging from Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot to Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.

"This book has the potential to draw more readers to poetry than any collection in years."
-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW

"Readers and listeners are guaranteed to hear poems in a new way after spending time with this book and CD set."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW

"Superb, accessible....A unique and essential purchase"
-SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

Poetry
--For the first time ever, James Joyce reads "Anna Livia Plurabelle" from Finnegans Wake alongside the original text from the book
--T. S. Eliot reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
--Sylvia Plath's anger and raw emotion as she reads "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus"
--Jack Kerouac reading from "MacDougal Street Blues," accompanied by Steve Allen on piano
--May Swenson rehearsing "The Watch" prior to a reading
--H. D. reading a part of "Helen in Egypt" from a rare recording made shortly before her death
--Ted Hughes reading "February 17" during a BBC interview
--A never-before-published recording of Alfred, Lord Tennyson reading "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
--W. B. Yeats explaining his reading style and why he chooses to read that way
--Robert Frost reading "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Essays Written By Today's Most Influential Poets, Including: W. S. Merwin on Robert Graves, Seamus Heaney on W. B. Yeats, Paul Muldoon on James Joyce, Robert Pinsky on William Carlos Williams, Sonia Sanchez on Gwendolyn Brooks, Galway Kinnell on Walt Whitman, Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson, Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop and Al Young on Langston Hughes

"The most ambitious, innovative poetry project to be published in years."
-QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB

A Book Sense Top-10 Selection ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good poems but incomplete recordings
I was bitterly disappointed by this package, which I bought entirely for the recordings. Many of the recordings of the longer poems are cut halfway through. Some even start halfway through. Imagine buying a music anthology and finding the songs were cut halfway through. No decent music publisher would take such liberties with music, yet this lot feel able to cut poetry.

Although most of the recordings are complete, don't expect that you're going to hear all of 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', 'Howl','Hugh Selwyn Mauberley' or 'She Bowed to Her Brother'.

Disgracefully, the person whom you'll hear most of in total over the 3 CDs is one Charles Osgood, who provides short, unnecessary introductions to each poet. What a waste of CD space. Who's buying the CDs to hear Mr Osgood? His intros, if they must exist, could easily have been set down in print.

I was also fooled into thinking that all the contents of the book - a worthy selection - would be represented on the CDs. Wrong. Only some poems from each poet are. While Robert Frost has 5 recordings, most poets only get 2-3. Don't expect to hear '13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' (Wallace Stevens) or 'My Last Duchess' (Browning). Disappointingly also, Stein's 'If I Told Him' doesn't feature (it does on other poetry CD compilations).

If you want to be sure what you're getting and to listen to these poets read their poems through from beginning to end, then you need to look elsewhere.

Very disappointing! Sent w/o CD's!
The book is fine, but I was so-o-o looking forward to sharing the CD's of poets reading their own poems. However, I did NOT receive the CD's. Now I have to go to all the trouble of returning the book.

Disappointed in Product
I was so excited to order this book but very disappointed in what I received. The poem choice, overall, was not good. I would not order another in the series.

Excellent Purchase
This anthology is very comprehensive - both as text and audio.The quality of the recording is really good and a delight to hear.Using the text as a companion to the audio makes for a very pleasurable experience!

An Enthralling Experience
Although poetry was read, recited and memorized by entire families through the 19th century, during the 20th century it fell out of general popular favor."Modern" poetry was considered too difficult for the average reader, so while it was read in schools and adored in academia, it moved out of the family parlor and into the anthology.

Enter the latest edition of "Poetry Speaks."Seeking to make a new connection with potential readers (and listeners) of 20th century poetry, Sourcebooks has again assembled a package that is at once enthralling and educational.Each poet (47 in all) featured in the volume receives a biography, an extremely readable analysis of the poet's work and several key poems.Some of the "chapters" also include a fascimilie of a poem or section of a poem written in the poet's own hand.

The outstanding feature of "Poetry Speaks, Expanded" is, of course, the set of CDs which feature each poet reading their own work.This, aside from being extremely exciting for those of us with a bit of familiarity with a particular poet, also sheds some interesting light on the poems themselves.Who knew, for example, that Tennyson meant to emphasis the word "rode" in his poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (as in: "into the valley of death RODE the six hundred) or that Gwendolyn Brooks' "we" of "We Real Cool" was a barely audible syncopated beat in her famous poem?

But the real thrill is that by listening to the poets read their beautiful poems, one gets a window into their very souls.Carl Sandburg sounds Swedish (who knew?) and musical, Robert Frost sounds weary, Sylvia Plath sounds bitter, Edna St. Vincent Millay sounds actressy, Dorothy Parker sounds melancholy, Jack Kerouac sounds cool (which is obviously to be expected from the author of "On the Road," but his beloved jazz music playing in the background helps!) and Robert Browning sounds, well, inaudible, but kudos to Sourcebooks for including him and several other 19th century poets -- they're a bit scratchy but, aside from Browning, basically audible.While listening to Dylan Thomas, one wonders if his absolutely gorgeous voice had something to do with his immense popularity, since he gave extensive readings of his work during his short lifetime.

In addition to including well known poets such as those already mentioned, "Poetry Speaks, Expanded" also includes the work of many lesser-known poets including Louise Bogan, Louis MacNeice, Muriel Rukeyser, Robert Duncan, and Robert Hayden.The book presents the material on each poet so thoroughly that it is a marvelous way to gain an introduction to the work of previously unfamiliar poets.

The poems collected here are the very best of the very best and hearing them read by their creators is absolutely breathtaking.The CD also contains brief but very insightful introductions to each poet by Charles Osgood who is very easy on the ears.

Poetry, in its essence, is meant to be heard, not merely seen, and this edition of "Poetry Speaks" has gone a long way towards making that happen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Accessible and Often Nostalgic
Now I see so clearly on the days
when rain turns to snow
wind passes quickly
along the surfaces of things,
how calmly it probes this chilly place
where I have moved
with everything I own.

~ from Evaporation poem 3

While reading Kathleen Norris' poems, I cannot help feeling nostalgic for a life I've never lived. Then, suddenly she writes about a part of a life I have lived and I can somehow relate to both situations.

I started to read this book months ago, and then finally decided to read three poetry books all in a row. I am impressed with Kathleen's poems because they take many forms and express a wide range of emotions. She is the ever-observant poet who can remember the exact details of her experiences, right down to the exact wording of various conversations.

"Excerpts from the Angel Handbook" threw me into an instant state of amusement. In this poem angels are instructed in such important principles as hiding their wings or listening and never telling a lie.

You will never tell a lie,
but you will have many secrets.

In fact, the poem amused me so much... I am going to send it to a friend who claims he is an angel. I'm amused.

Then, onward to the erotic musings in "The Dancers." In this poem, a preacher's daughter reveals her thoughts about a farmer boy.

Through reading Kathleen's poetry, you enter her inner world and peer out through her words, observing the sheer magnificence of a world in which a poet dances.

The first few poems( 1969-1973) seem to have a coolness in their observation. By the time you reach "Inheritance" on page 31, you can feel Kathleen starting to really delve into her deeper emotions.

The poems from 1982-1986 are filled with surprises. Anyone who loves to cook will enjoy the exuberant "Pommes de Terre." If you are looking for something a little more innocently erotic, you might enjoy "Young Lovers with Pizza."

By the time you reach the poems from 1987-1999, you have seen Kathleen explore so many emotions and worlds. She seems to be returning to deeply rooted traditions. She says goodbye to those she loves, she seems to be searching for meaning and then finally seems to find a place for God in her life.

I also loved the last poem and especially the last six lines about the bumblebee.

~The Rebecca Review

Finally, a collection of KN's new and selected poems
Had a collection of Kathleen Norris's poetry come out a few years ago, I would have bought it, and never had the pleasure of searching for and finding her earlier, out-of-print books. For those less motivated to hunt for Falling Off, The Middle of the World, The Year of Common Things, and Astronomy of Love, this is perfect buy as it includes most of the poems in those collections as well as poems from her more recent book of poems, Little Girls in Church.

The cover art isn't especially beautiful (surprising since it is a University of Pitt Press book) and the title is a bit weak, but let neither of these things discourage you from purchasing the book.If you're a fan of any of KN's work (non-fiction or poetry), you'll want this collection.If you're a ardent reader of contemporary poetry, you'll want this collection.If you'd never read poetry beyond high school, you'll want to open this book, as it will surely make you hungry for more poetry.

Like her instructions to angels in her poem "Excerpts from the Angel Handbook," she is always asking us to be open and wary, skeptical and believing, and dreaming and restless.Her poems implore us to be better than we are, to listen more closely to the music in our head, and to watch out for and care for the lonely traveler, the needy neighbor, the lost among us, and the loving. ... Read more

Product Description
In the nineteenth century, Alexis de Tocqueville suggested that the poetry of the new American democratic state, free from the staggering weight of centuries of European aristocracy and tradition, would focus on "man alone ... his passions, his doubts, his rare properties and inconceivable wretchedness."For hundreds of years, American poets have presented their various images of the land and its people. But what is "American poetry?" Is there truly such a thing as an American poetic tradition, spanning over nearly four centuries from colonial times to the turn of the millennium? InJay Parini, a respected American poet and critic in his own right, offers an authoritative survey of the elusive category that is the poetry of the American people. covers all of the canonical American poets, from the colonial to the contemporary-Anne Bradstreet, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Adrienne Rich are all included.But Parini has also selected a broad sampling of poetry from voices that have been heard as widely over the years. Here, for the first time, is a thorough collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry by women, Native American, and African Americans. Within these pages readers will find the many different traditions that make up the expansive collage of American poetry. Here are the Transcendentalists-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau; and the Imagists-William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, H.D., and Carl Sandburg.Readers will discover also the early twentieth-century movement of African-American poetic expression, known as the Harlem Renaissance-James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Langston Hughes are all solidly represented in Jay Parini's introduction deftly guides us into the rich tradition of poetry in our country. Whether in search of a well-known classic or a poem that is not yet considered part of the American poetic tradition, readers will find much to enjoy in ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent resource for teaching
I've owned and loved this anthology for a decade. I'm especially fond of its choices in American nature poetry; it follows the transcendentalist line from Emerson and Thoreau and Dickinson through such Emersonian contemporaries as Louise Gluck and Charles Wright. This is also one of the few American poetry anthologies on the market that reaches back to pre-colonial times and moves right into the present. One of its interesting features is its representation of women's voices from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the 20th century. There are also many African American poets. The book has obviously been through many printings, and over the years the editors have cleaned up copy-editing errors that appeared in the original edition. The introduction is fresh and appealing to students and readers of all levels. A great classroom book, although it's skimpy on the Beats and the West Coast school, and even the New York school (although the selection of poems by John Ashbery is particularly original).

Praise, with Faint Damning
This is a decent anthology and represents a fair sampling of the major American poets and poetry of our country's literary history.One of its major positives is that it strives hard to cover the span of our poetic history, from Bradstreet to the present day, and it manages to reflect both a nice cross-section of cultural history, as well as the major poetic movements. On the negative side, the book has some strange idiosyncratic features that will distract some readers -- particularly those using this as a textbook.For example, Emily Dickinson's poetry is published here in a conventional form, minus the stylistic dashes and capital letters that we associate with Dickinson's style.Early editors of Dickinson's poetry "cleaned up" these features in Dickinson's work, and it wasn't until the features were replaced some time later that readers became acquainted with Dickinson's work as it was actually written.Why Parini chose to revert to this presentation is inexplicable. Equally inexplicable is his decision to publish an earlier, inferior version of "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" instead of the version usually included. Likewise, while teaching William Stafford's poetry to a class, I was mortified to discover that the entire last paragraph of Stafford's "At the Bomb Testing Site" was not included in the poem!These are editing/copyediting lapses, but one wonders how on earth they made it through into the final copy.Teachers using this as a class text will also be mystified about the complete dearth of footnotes with poems (imagine students trying to read "The Waste Land" without footnotes), or the absence of biographical material about the writers. These are large matters, but one hopes future editions will rectify them. There aren't many decent single volume end-to-end anthologies of American poetry on the market, so this one serves a function. But someone needs to fix parts of it. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

CERTAINLY ONE TO READ WITH THE YOUNG READER
I cannot think of a better way to introduce the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow than this small volume.The selection is excellent and of interest you the young reader.The commentary is quite relevant as are the pictures which accompany it.I find that often now, our young people go all the way through the early grades in school and many of them have never heard of Longfellow much less read his poetry.This was the sort of stuff my generation and the generation before it grew up on and cut our teeth on.I do not feel I am any worse for the wear.I am fearful that we are bringing up an entire generation (rightfully or wrong, although I feel it is the later) of young folks who will have no appreciation to this great art form and will miss a lot.This book helps.This entire series helps, as a matter of fact and I certainly recommend you add this one and the others to your library.Actually, it is rather fun reading these with the young folk and then talking about them.Not only do you get to enjoy the work your self and perhaps bring back some great memories, but you have the opportunity to interact with your child or student.It is actually rather surprising what some of the kids come up with.I read these to my grandchildren and to the kids in my classes at school.For the most part, when I really get to discussing the work with them, they enjoy it.NOTE:After reading the reviews above from School Library Journal and Kirkus review, I am not sure if they or I read the same work. I would personally recommend you rather ignore some of the negative comments.I will say though, that this is one you might want to read with your child or children though, as there are some rather archaic terms used, delightful, but archaic.Recommend this one highly. ... Read more

Product Description
WRITING POETRY is intended to be an all-purpose poetry writing textbook, a fount of inspiration and informtion on the writing process, a solid first step for beginners, and a source of ideas for writers and teachers at all levels. Taken from the Greek word meaning making something up, poetry gos beyond the simple act of creation to inspire. In this textbook, the core structure of the genre is dissected so the intangible may be a little more understood. WRITING POETRY is an appreciative study of an allusive art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Barbara Drake Teaches Writers and Readers.
I have used Barbara Drake's Writing Poetry with my writing classes. Many of my students keep and reuse their copies for years. Drake knows how to encourage imagination, imagery and layered depth in a poet's thoughts on what it means to be alive.

Well worth it for any aspiring poets
I am currently using this book as a textbook for a poetry class, and I am very satisfied with it. It utilizes plenty of examples to illustrate the concepts in the book, and has dozens of ideas for getting started writing poetry.

Terrific aid for aspiring poet
This book is well done with many writing ideas to keep you generating poems for the rest of your life. The discussions of the sample poems are excellent and clear.Another good book to add to my stash of books for teaching writing classes.

~Joan Mazza, author of six books including DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF.

good but not $47 good
This forty-seven dollar paperback is an adequate introduction into poetry writing.In fact, it's quite compreensive in its approach.

But it won't make you a good poet.You need other things, like a dictionary, a dictionary of synonyms, a brain, and a heart.Now to get all of these things after paying $47 for a paperback is tough.A good dictionary is tough to find these days.So is a good brain, and even harder to find after you got the brain is the heart.Who has all five things?

I'm holding the book in my hand and it seems small.It's helped my poetry skills (but, of course, I'm only writing for myself)but, I don't think it was worth the whole $47.Maybe $20.But it's worth having.

Bible for Aspiring Poets
This book is full of examples and ideas to jumpstart a struggling writer into many rich hours of poetic bliss. ... Read more

Product Description
anthology: the matrix of world poetry 1945 & after ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Perfect Museum Piece
When the history of postmodernism is written, and let's hope that is sooner rather than later, if you know what I'm saying (and if you're a postmodernist I suppose you have to concede that you do not, nor does anybody), this book will make an excellent museum piece. When future generations leaf through "Poems for the Millennium" they will wonder, What - in God's name - were those people thinking! The book has no real answers, but plenty of examples. Answers are almost impossible, you see, because language is meaningless to the postmodern mind. Words don't mean anything, and it is with this basis that the poetry in this book was written. Now, this makes a poet's job rather easy. With no meaning there can be only one standard by which to write - namely, just how meaningless can I make it? Not that there are degrees of meaninglessness. But one must assume that surely a book like this exists because somebody has determined that some of this is meaningful. There is, in other words, meaning in meaninglessness.

Another safe assumption is that there is apparently some kind of strange credibility among the academic literati that attaches to people who become expert in the recognition and publishing of meaninglessness. Good work if you can get it. Great example of postmodernism! you declare about a "poem" that simply lists words in a random order. Print it! Once your reputation is made, who can argue? And so Rothenberg and Joris go down as foremost experts among the intelligentsia in how to recognize meaningful meaninglessness when one sees it. And so where the laymen sees randomness and nothing, our experts can tell us we are witnessing the experimental, the avant-garde. This is groundbreaking stuff, you see. We are pushing the envelope. Or, to put it into a postmodern verse: glass rectify bard and sugar hedgehog. (Whoa! I think I just blew my own mind.)

Now, to be fair, there is some manner of explanation within the pages of "Poems for the Millennium." There are manifestos by the poets themselves. Unfortunately, these make no more sense than the poems. (Of course they don't - it's postmodernism; haven't you been paying attention?)

It is with little doubt that the people represented in this book are sitting somewhere giggling at the fact that their pointless drivel has been not only taken seriously, but anthologized to boot. Like adolescent kids, which is fitting because when the history of postmodernism is written, I suspect the period will be likened to poetry's adolescence. This is the period we all broke away from our parents and tried different things. We wanted to rebel. Why? Because that's what kids do. They thumb their noses at convention. (What are you rebelling against, Johnny? What have you got?) It's all a part of the growth process, you know. One hopes a level of maturity will soon replace this moment in history. And we see it already, do we not? Literary journals seem to be swinging back towards publishing works that are actually ABOUT things. It's a nice trend. Hopefully, soon, we'll be able to look back and laugh at our gangly selves - acne, bad hair, and all - and say, Cripes, am I glad that's over!

"Poems for the Millennium." Enjoy it. It is close to 900 pages but do not let this overwhelm you. After all, you only need to pick out one or two pieces at random, and you'll pretty much have read the whole thing. Meaninglessness, you see, is good like that. It can be covered quickly and then you can move on. History, it is a certainty, will do just this with the postmodernists.

The Best Contemporary Anthology
Rothenberg and Joris have assembled an absolutely stunning collection of modernist and postmodern poets in this fat volume. Not only has he included some well-known but seldom anthologized writers like Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, but he has included Fluxus artist/writers like Dick Higgins, Jackson Mac Low, Emmett Williams and many other important, but lesser-known poets. Nearly every poet that one would expect to find in a good anthology is to be found - and many people and writers that one might not expect to find in a poetry anthology are also found here. And once found, the choices seem obvious and not forced or contrived.

With so many great poems and poets to choose from, most readers will find at least one omission, (where's Leonard Cohen? Charles Bukowski? Sylvia Plath?) but with such a huge scope these are mostly forgivable. After all it is easy to find volumes of work by Bukowski and Cohen, but a volume like this anthology presents the opportunity to expose us to equally interesting and lesser known writers.

Most of the poems are followed by a brief quote from the poet and a short vignette about the poet written be Rothenberg or Joris. Anybody who is serious about the enjoyment of reading and writing new poetry will enjoy this book and will want to add it to their library.

Amazing
This book has become my bible.The selections is incredible, there are poems, manifestos, and commentary.TheOlson, Duncan, Creeley, John Cage, and Nathanial Mackey selections are very impressive. After obtaining this book I realized how important it is that I have taken a class taught by Professor Joris.JerryRothenberg is, of course, also an amazing poet and this work shows this dedication to the field.

Great for beginners, students, and veterans alike.

Filled to the brim with poetry
Both of these volumes are tremendous works illustrating a wide range of poetry from a wide range of voices. I love how the sections are delineated, and there is a wealth of information about poets, poems, schools of thought and poetics along with the actual poems. I learned a lot about poetry just by reading these two volumes. This is truly an example of wonderful, dedicated editing.

poetry?you bet!
if you get this volume you have to get the first volume and the OUTLAW BIBLE OF AMERICAN POETRY.if modern american poetry is something that gets you goin, then these volumes are for you.

rothenberg does a great job of introducing and giving information, critiques, etc of the poetry encased in these volumes.

dig it, man.dig it. ... Read more

Product Description
American War Poetry spans the history of the nation. Beginning with the Colonial Wars of the eighteenth-century and ending with the Gulf Wars, this original and significant anthology presents four centuries of American men and women-soldiers, nurses, reporters, and embattled civilians-writing about war. American War Poetry opens with a ballad by a freed African American slave commenting on a skirmish with Indians in a Massachusetts meadow. Poems on the American Revolution follow, as well as poems on "minor" conflicts like the Mexican War and the Spanish-American Wars. This compact anthology has generous selections on the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnamese-American War, but it also includes an unusually large offering on American participation in the Spanish Civil War. Another section covers four hundred years of conflict with Native Americans, ending with poems by contemporary Indians who respond passionately and directly to their difficult history. The collection also reaches into current reaction to American involvement in Latin America, Bosnia, and the Gulf Wars.Showing the depth of feeling and the range of thinking with which Americans have confronted war,American War Poetry expands our sense of what poetry is made to do. While the birth of a national identity is documented in early poems, the anthology also conveys the growing sophistication of a uniquely American style. Although early war poems show that the first justification for war was purely defensive, as American global ambitions matured, American writers moved increasingly to deplore a homegrown imperialism and its terrible costs. While many familiar poems of patriotic ardor have been chosen, other poems show a steady interest in antiwar themes. Lorrie Goldensohn provides a brief biography for each poet and places each poem in its proper literary and historical context. Comprehensive and compelling,American War Poetry not only documents the birth and development of a national style of expression but shows the force of poetry working on the historical moment, making it come vitally alive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Anthology
A topical and very good anthology of poems by American writers about war.The editor has striven for a balance of covering all significant American wars, significant American poets, and representative works, even in cases where the quality is not great.The selection is very good with a lot of fine and some outstanding poets.Included are some famous and some obscure works.Most interesting is the marked increase in the number of quality poems that comes with the 20th century.There are certainly some great 19th century war poems, notably the work of Whitman, but much of what is presented from the 19th century is second rate though of considerable historic interest.The 20th century, however, sees the work of many fine American poets.

poignant way to think about war
There are many good ways to try to understand humanity's dark impulse to slaughter each other in war. When I was thirteen my grandmother took me to Washington, DC in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. I still remember the sights and sounds of protest. Later I visited the War Memorial commemorating that war and watched as visitors groped along the wall to identify the name of a loved one. In 1995 our family stood on the streets of downtown Moscow while a military parade celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II (which claimed the lives of some 50 million Russians). Our family has also appreciated the oral history provided by my wife's stepfather who fought with the "greatest generation." I have also benefited from reading histories written by experts long after a war ended, those written while battles still raged (cf. Iraq), and autobiographical accounts written by soldiers (Jarhead). Everyone, in my opinion, should read Chris Hedges's masterpiece War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Thanks to Lorrie Goldensohn, we can now try to understand war through poetry. About half of the 232 poems in this book were written by war participants. She has arranged the poems in chronological order by the poet's date of birth, grouping them according to specific wars (Colonial Wars, Revolutionary Wars, War of 1812, etc.). The poems begin with skirmishes with Indians in 1746 and end with insurgents in Iraq. Each section begins with a brief description of the war and its social context. Brief biographies of the poets (pp. 367-404) humanize them even more. These war poems written across nearly 300 years explore almost every human emotion you might imagine--pride and patriotism, propaganda and protest, victory and defeat, bravery and fear, death and mutilation, glorious triumphs and depressing futility, so-called "good" wars like World War II and "bad" wars like Vietnam. Contrary to the misconception that poetry is unrelated to "real" life, Goldensohn documents the efforts of poets interacting with the greatest of human tragedies. ... Read more

Product Description
Poetry Speaks features the work of the most influentialwriters in modern poetry—written and performed—from 1892 to1997. This book combines their most significant poems in print withthe authors themselves reading their poetry on audio CD. Poets rangefrom Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and DorothyParker to Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath and GwendolynBrooks.

The power of spoken poetry is at the heart of Poetry Speaks. Poetry isa vocal art, an art meant to be read aloud. Listening to a poem readaloud can be a transforming experience. Poetry Speaks not onlyintroduces the finest work from some of the greatest poets who everlived, it reintroduces the oral tradition of poetry.

Poetry Speaks features over 40 poets in chapters each containing:
• The poems that are read by the poet on the audio CD
• Additional poems in print form to allow the reader to further explore the poet
• A short biography and photo of each poet
• Original manuscripts and letters for most of the featured poets
• An original essay for each poet written by today’s most influential poets, a veritable Who’s Who of poetry, including: Seamus Heaney on W.B. Yeats; Richard Wilbur on Robert Frost; Mark Strand on Wallace Stevens; Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop; Glyn Maxwell on Dylan Thomas; and Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson.

Poetry Speaks—combining the talents of great poets past and living,their words written and spoken—is the most ambitious, comprehensiveand innovative poetry project to be published in years, and is sure tobe the model for collections to come.

Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove and Dana Gioia are featured EditorialAdvisors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

What a deal!
This book was so much cheaper than buying it at a normal bookstore.It is in great shape and the shipping was very fast.I am very satisfied.

Poetry Speaks in Scratchy Tomes
I was excited when my Poetry Speaks arrived in the mail.Who wouldn't want to hear the voices of their favorite poets reading their original works of literature aloud? Unfortunately, how I envisioned the readings, did not come into fruition.The recordings were scratchy, almost as if Thomas Edison was reading his phonograph rendition of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for the very first time.With today's technology, surely something can be done to clean up these recordings.The poetry itself earns an "A" while the recordings a "C-".

Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath
Once in every 100 years a book is created which captures, both in written and spoken word, the ongoing development of an art form. Poetry Speaks is one such book. Glancing at its cover and size, some people will conclude it to be a 'coffee table book', impressive to look at but hardly ever read. For those persons whoread the smaller print: Hear Great Poets Read their Work from Tennyson to Plath, they experience a pregnant pause ..'Tennyson to Plath'...Tennyson??It is then book's pages have called and the reader/listener are absorbed into its binding. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman and Robert Browning, were all 19th century poets who died in the late 1880s - 1890s. Yet, because of wax cylinders and the wizardry of Thomas Edison, his desire to capture the human voice, and his love of poetry,1886,he recorded each. Nearly 120 yars later,we are able to listen to these poets reading selections of their own writings. We are invited into the studio, hear their puzzlements, frstrations aw well as triumphant celebration, after recording and hearing,for the first time, their own voices.

Poetry Speaks not only has selections of writings, it includes three CDs. Narrated by Charles Osgood, listeners are escorted through a century of recorded voices and explains how recording itself changed the way poetry was presented when read out load. Within the book's pages, each selected poet is introduced with a brief biography, explanation of th poet's style,as well as how outside events and societal changes and influencesshaped both poet and poetry.Some presenters include handwritten copies with lined out deletions and revisions. The study of each poet is an educational find.
The collection is a treasure. Whether you enjoy poetry, find it a bit
intimidating or just what to share something a very special for a very special person...such as yourself, Poetry Speaks will let your spirit soar. You will need to take it from the coffee tabe, open its pages, and read along with its authors.

Margaret C. Barno

Poetry Speaks
Fantastic short and to the point essays about the greats of poetry along with the ability to hear them read in their own voices - invaluable asset to the serious poet or poetry fan.

History through an iPod
The Poetry Speaks collection features works and readings by 42 of the greatest poets ever.

The book itself is rather weighty (literally), but the essays and poems themselves are organized in such a way as to make even the non-poet appreciate them.

The one complaint I have about the collection is the narrator's unbearable way of trailing off mid-sentence. The "introductions" to the poets and their works were bearable enough--- as I said, the book is very user friendly and is a good intoduction to the world of poetry to those who dont know Donne from Shelley--- however, not saying the whole sentence (whether for theatrical effect or simply to save CD space) leaves listeners frustrated. For example, in the introduction to Robert Browning: "At the end of the historical recording, Browning..." Browning what? We know that Browning apologizes for forgetting the words in "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", but with simply "..." Browning could have hit Thomas Edison over the head with a phonograph for all we know.

Mysterious narration is not a good enough reason not to get the book however. The joy of hearing Whitman and Pound and Plath far surpasses even the most irritating introductons.

The solution: import all the audio files onto your computer, delete the introductons, transfer the files onto your iPod and voilà. C'est parfait. Find a nice shady tree to sit under, balance the book on your knees, switch on your iPod and experience history. ... Read more

Product Description
You can find almost anything in it.We very much doubt anyone is going to producebetter anthology of Irish poetry than this one.--The New York Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Old Friend Returns
I ordered this book to replace a copy that had been in my childhood home.It was like having a long, lost friend return.I've spent hours pouring over this book, rereading poems I have loved for years and discovering new treasures.

I keep it in the bathroom
This is a breathtaking overview of Irish poetry. Great history in some of the older ones. I could have wished for more of that, but then there wouldn't have been as much room for the masters. I keep this one in the bathroom so I can take in some bits and chunks when I have a minute. It's a classic! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Poetry for Young People
Poetry for Young People by Emily Dickinson is a wonderful book for young readers.Although I do not usually read poetry books I truly enjoyed Dickinson's poems. A lot of the poems in this book are very short but they are also very interesting. All of these poems are unique and very clever.Reading some of her poems is about the same as looking at a picture of what she is describing because she illustrates things so vividly and with so much imagery.I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry.

Poetry and Art
This is a great collection of some of Emily Dickinson's most famous poems, and I love the paintings taken; they fit the poems so well. Great little collection.

Page turning poetry
what this little book does very nicely is make great poetry very accessible.The format is designed with 'young' people in mind, however I left my copy on a shelf during a recent family gathering and it was my 40 year old daughter who picked it up and without referring to her own children picked out her favourite poem.

This is a book for everyone, if you don't already know, Emily Dickinson is one of the explorers of human nature, and every other form of nature.

Finally, my favourite poem is Revery.

THIS IS ANOTHER GREAT ADDITION TO A WONDERFUL SERIES
I cannot think of a better way to introduce the poetry or Emily Dickinson than this small volume.The selection is excellent and of interest you the young reader.The commentary is quite relevant as are the pictures which accompany it.I find that often now, our young people go all the way through the early grades in school and many of them have never heard of Emily Dickinson,much less read their poetry.This was the sort of stuff my generation and the generation before it grew up on and cut our teeth on.I do not feel I am any worse for the wear.I am fearful that we are bringing up an entire generation (rightfully or wrong, although I feel it is the later) of young folks who will have no appreciation to this great art form and will miss a lot.This book helps.This entire series helps, as a matter of fact and I certainly recommend you add this one and the others to your library.Actually, it is rather fun reading these with the young folk and then talking about them.Not only do you get to enjoy the work your self and perhaps bring back some great memories, but you have the opportunity to interact with your child or student.It is actually rather surprising what some of the kids come up with.I read these to my grandchildren and to the kids in my classes at school.For the most part, when I really get to discussing the work with them, they enjoy it.Recommend this one highly.

Brandon's thoughts on Emily Dickinson
The book "Poetry for Young People Emily Dickinson" edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin and illustrated by Chi Chung is a wonderful book for the beginning poet or any person who likes poetry. It has good background information in the beginning of the book telling a little bit about Emily Dickinson and her life. I also liked the way any hard words in each poem are listed below each poem with their definitions.

There are also good illustrations for everyone of the poems. The pictures were well drawn and positioned through-out the book with each poem.

There were many good poems in the book but I really liked the one.The one poem which I liked very much is "The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee - A clover, any time to him is aristocracy."

I would strongly recommend this book to other children between the ages of 9 and 13 years.

By: Brandon Ortiz
February 12,2006 ... Read more

Product Description
SUMMARY: A poetry collection by author/artist/non-conformist, Jess C Scott. Trouble showcases Jess's penchant for "bending the rules"--read with caution.

* Most of Trouble features in Jess's writing/illustrating portfolio, Porcelain ($2.99). Trouble focuses on poetry, only.


Praise for JESS C SCOTT's poems:

"I abandon all 'insistencies' I've ever had regarding formal poetry."
-- editor of The Moose & Pussy literature & art magazine

"...each word [Jess] writes is exactly what she wants to say and as a reader, it is very natural in terms of comprehension and flow."
-- loafhunter13, LibraryThing.com

"You pack huge volumes of experience and information into your life. You're impressive, I'll say that, and edgy and interesting. And mildly scary."
-- T.D., via e-mail, 2010


EXCERPT ("grey" for British spelling):

Slates of Gray

Sullen faces like slates of gray--
What I'd seen on a walk today.

Bodies rushing bodies bolting
Time for life a disregarding.

Money to make and to grow old
What about the hands to hold?

Deadlines, projects, people to meet
What about our own two feet.

Sullen faces like slates of gray...
What I'd see most anyday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jess identifies herself as an author/artist/non-conformist (and is an English/Business senior at Adams State College). She was a research assistant for the 2010 Jossey-Bass/Wiley publication, My Lie. Her work has appeared in a diverse range of publications, such as Word Riot, ITCH Magazine, and The Battered Suitcase. Her novella, The Devilin Fey, hit #1 in Amazon's "Hot New Releases in Bargain Books" in July 2010. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful book of poetry!
I read Trouble last night and it was quite a pleasant way to spend an evening.Trouble is, for the most part, a collection of several different types of poetry. I enjoyed all of the poems, some were provocative, some vengeful, some grateful, some simply humourous.What made this book of poetry stand out is that often times Ms. Scott would include a personal note at the end of each poem.I thought this was a brilliant idea because poetry is much easier to get into and understand if you can know a little about where the author is coming from.

There were a few other longer pieces of writing at the end of Trouble-her writing Manifesto, an essay on love, an author Q&A.All were of interest to me.After the personal nature of poetry, it feels only right to learn even more about the woman behind the writing. ... Read more

Product Description
After centuries of oppressive Ottoman rule, the Arab world began to find new vitality and freedom in the twentieth century. The accompanying resurgence of creative expression is splendidly reflected in this definitive anthology of contemporary Arabic poetry, which spans the modern Arab world from the turn of the century to the present, from the Arab Gulf to Morocco. The editor, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, a renowned expert on modern Arabic literature, presents a through introduction to the works of more than ninety Arab poets. To create the best possible English translation, each selection has been translated first by a bilingual expert and then by an English-language poet, who creatively renders it into idiomatic English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wow!
This book blew me away.Fearless poetry.....that's all I can say.These poems are utterly proud, audacious, textured, & profound.If you are a lover of poetry, you will not be disappointed.

An Incredibly well chosen selectionof arabic poetry
Some of the poetry in this volume are works that western readers would never have the privelege of reading and would have been otherwise deprived of the beauty of this work.A sensitive translation that involved each poet.Discover the voices of arab poets in this volume.

A masterpiece
According to Jayyusi view, the cultural bias favoring the group over the individual remains constant, with the poet seen as "a worker producing for the group" with the poetic "product" limited by what thegroup can accept and utilize. Jayyusi believes poetry is thus driven by asocial functionalism expressed in two main directions "one ideologicalof religious origin and the other musical, in the form of singing andtarab."

In other words, poetry must serve a cause, and ideology inthe first case, while in the second, and in fact the more keenly felt andpopularly enjoyed function, the purpose is sheer pleasure and jubilation.Ideally, the two functions concur--this is the goal of such a poetry.

Jayyusi emphasizes that "tarab," i.e. singing, remainsfundamental, indeed intrinsic to Arabic poetry past and present. Poeticverse is always subject to this standard. "Don't we notice that theHoly Koran today, for example, is a matter of audition or tarab for mostMuslims more than a matter of reading, and comprehension andcontemplation," Adonis writes.

Jayyusi points out that the twoelements, "song" and "function (the serving of acause)" are so fundamental that any poetic expression not embracingthem is culturally relegated to the status of "philosophy,"something deemed complex and remote from the people. Thus, unrhymed,non-musical poetry, poetry based on "contemplation and examination ofinner worlds" lies so outside Arabic poetic taste as to be utterlymarginalized, removed from any but a tiny, refined audience.

Jayyusisees a conflict between this cultural reality and his own conviction thatpoetry must challenge boundaries and establish new aesthetics. This poeticeffort means embracing rather than spurning the difficulty and ambiguity ofmeaning. "The problem in this context, lies in the refusal of Arabicpoetic taste to place poetry at par with the great cognitive and discoveryintuitions."

As Jayyusi points out, poetry continues to be judgedby the causes and concerns it champions, and by the author's affiliationsand ideologies. "Original readings concern themselves not with theessence of poetry but with its 'soil' and the 'climate' in which it isproduced."

This phenomenon, according to Adonis, will only bereinforced by society's increasing domination by the non-literate media, TVin particular. Thus, modern communications technology only serves thereligious and social traditions already so profoundly established. Thisleads Adonis to an equally profound pessimism regarding the present andfuture chances of Arabic poetry to escape its traditional limitations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A veritable gold mine of practical, useful, time-tested information, ideas, and instructions.
Poetry is an especially difficult field in which to be published. An ideal instruction manual for aspiring poets seeking to have their poetry published, "How To Publish Your Poetry: A Complete Guide To Finding The Right Publishers For Your Work" by book editor, freelance writer, and published poet Helene Ciaravino has compiled a step-by-step 'how to' instruction manual that will materially assist the complete novice to publishing to have their poetry put into print and made available to as large a readership as possible. Writers of poetry seeking publication will be able to maximize their chances for becoming published; will learn how to create an effective submission package; avoid common mistakes in their attempt to become published; learn how to craft a cover letter for their manuscript that will attract the attention of acquisition editors; utilize a simple but practical seven-step system for becoming published; minimize the time, effort, and financial costs of becoming published; take advantage of available resources for the aspiring poet; learn about a diversity of outlets for poetry; and benefit from honing their skills at the craft of writing poetry. Of special note is what Helene Ciarvaino has to say about self-publishing with respect to poetry. Especially recommended for academic and community library Writing & Publishing reference collections, anyone contemplating becoming a published poet should give "How To Publish Your Poetry" a very careful reading. It is a veritable gold mine of practical, useful, time-tested information, ideas, and instructions.

My Accomplishments
I started writing my own poetry some time ago and still trying to get it published,with all the support and help of family and friends I know it is all possible and only a matter of time and effort

Publish Your Poetry
For those of us who write poetry we know there is not a very big market out there for poetry, and we also know the pay is not as well for poetry as it is for articles, books, and short stories. However, we still write poetry for many reasons, to write our feeling on paper, to express our thoughts and feelings, and more. And once we complete the poem, we must begin submitting to markets to publish the poem. This is where Helene Ciaravino's book (How To Publish Your Poetry) comes in handy.


How To Publish Your Poetry will show you how to create an effective submission package, how to write a effective query letter and cover letter, and she will guide you step-by-step through what to do first.


This book is a MUST for all poetry writers out there. If you are unsure on how to write an effective query letter for one poem, or for a book of poems, then this will show and tell you how. In addition, you will also learn a lot more to help you publish your poems.

Poetry Publishing (...)
This collection covers a lot that new and established poets will find useful.
It saves you many hours of needless research - spend more time writing poetry; and then take the advice on publishing it.

Great guide for poets!
Helene's book is comprehensive and filled with tips for beginning and experienced poets. She walks the writer through all the steps necessary to get a poem published and provides lots of great information and tips along the way. It's the perfect book for anyone interested in publishing their poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
Shelley's short, prolific life produced some of the most memorable and well-known lyrics of the Romantic period. But he was also the most radical writer in the English literary tradition of his day, a fiery political visionary committed to social change and progress. The generous selection in this volume represents the wide range of his writing, both poetry and prose. Arranged chronologically, the accompanying introductory essays set Shelley's works in their historical, social and political context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Edition for Most, Inexpensive for All
Everyone inevitably has a favorite among the young English Romantic poets - Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Keats -, but all three are among the language's best and have individual strengths. Shelley is second to Keats in pure beauty and second to Byron in sheer readability and humor but excels both in intellectual vigor and is also arguably the most original and the best craftsman. Even most of the greatest poets find it hard to match beauty and craft with depth; only Alexander Pope and Thomas Hardy among English poets rival Shelley here. He wrote some of the greatest philosophical poems, focusing specifically on theology as well as other weighty subjects, yet manages to remain nearly always readable. However, he is not limited to this, also writing more than a few of the most blazingly beautiful love lyrics in English and as some of the most poignant paeans to nature and other forms of transcendence. Perhaps most impressively, may be the all-time greatest English political poet; his unabashed liberalism may turn off some, but the very quality of his political verse is nothing short of incredible. Though fervent in his beliefs and extremely extroverted, he never forgets that he is an artist; he was never didactic or preachy after Queen Mab, his somewhat heavy-handed debut poem, published when he was only twenty. His political works are engaging - and, above all, readable - without forgetting the importance of form. Whatever one thinks of Shelley's views, these poems are remarkable for showing just how far ahead of his time he was. Few people have ever been so radical for their era; it is hardly hyperbolic to say he would be a radical even now, two centuries later. Yet he was no mindless liberal but always ready and more than willing to justify his views intellectually and practically; his poems reflect this and are the better for it. Finally, Shelley's diversity and greatness showed themselves not least in his astonishing variety of poetic forms, several of which he introduced or pioneered. Few poets have contributed as much in this area, especially in such a brief career. A work like Prometheus Unbound has more variety than most poets manage in a lifetime, and Shelley was a master of forms ranging from the sonnet, which he pushed in new directions, to the mini epic. Suffice it to say that anyone even remotely serious about English poetry needs to own Shelley's poems.

As for this edition, it is ideal for most but will fall short for some. The main complaint is that, unlike many Wordsworth editions, it is incomplete. It has nearly all Shelley's poetry, but the long works Laon and Cythna, more famously republished as The Revolt of Islam, and Peter Bell the Third are here only in extracts. This will not be a problem for most, as they are not Shelley's best works. Some fans value Laon highly, but it is overlong and drags in parts. Those who like it here will be encouraged to seek out the whole, but the excisions will serve most readers well. Peter is near-universally considered one of Shelley's least significant works; a generally unsuccessful march on Byron's mock-epic territory that attacks William Wordsworth, whose conservative conversion both poets detested, it tries almost painfully hard to be funny but rarely is. Few will bemoan its loss.

There are several compensations even for those who will miss these works. Most importantly, several pieces not often included in such collections are here. Perhaps the most notable is The Cenci, Shelley's brilliant play. It is one of the most underrated English dramas and a great treat. His famous closet drama Prometheus Unbound is of course also included. Additionally, in contrast to most Wordsworth poetry editions, there is a generous prose selection. Here we see another area where Shelley outshined his fellow young Romantics and, indeed, nearly all other poets. It is a true compliment to his prose to say that it is nearly as good as his poetry. He wrote a significant amount of prose covering many topics, and this has six offerings aside from the various prefaces and notes to his poems, including the legendary ones for Queen Mab. The selection is by no means complete, about one hundred pages compared to 550 for the poetry, but is quite representative and will make the interested seek out the rest - no small accomplishment. "A Declaration of Rights" summarizes his case for Irish independence, a compelling argument and very far ahead of its time. "A Letter to Lord Ellenborough" concisely summarizes some of his arguments for freedom of the press as well as much of his articulate religious criticism. Shelley's outspokenness about this last was incredible for its era and unfortunately harmed him in several ways, but he is a leading light for skeptics to this day. Few religion critics have been as articulate and, indeed, convincing. "A Vindication of Natural Diet" is even more interesting, if less valuable in the wide sense. A vegetarian manifesto, it again shows Shelley well ahead of the proverbial curve. Even today, vegans would be very hard-pressed to find a more forceful and well-written justification; the arguments are very interesting, even if some - such as the claim that eating meat leads to violence - now seem overly novel or even naïve. "An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte" and "A Philosophical View of Reform" are probably Shelley's most thorough and important political prose writings. One gets from them a good sense of his views and comes away with admiration of his clear and persuasive writing, however much one agrees with the content. The latter is particularly comprehensive and impressive, especially since it is unfinished - not to mention that it was so progressive that it went unpublished for a century. Despite the title and like the other work, it has much practical content and is still very relevant. The book closes with "A Defense of Poetry," Shelley's most famous prose piece. It clearly shows that, on top of everything else, he was an immaculate critic. This magnificent work not only brilliantly and convincingly espouses Shelley's poetics but also makes one of the most compelling cases ever for poetry's usefulness - aesthetically as well as practically. It is of course somewhat self-serving, but even those who violently disagree will surely come away with a new appreciation of the subject and increased respect for Shelley's intellect and writing.

As for supplementary material, this has a surprising amount that will certainly be enough for most but will leave diehards dry. Unlike many Wordsworth poetry editions, there is an extensive introduction providing an overview of Shelley's life and thought, including a timeline, and an overview of each poem with some critical commentary. Also unlike most Wordsworth poetry volumes, there are footnotes; they are surprisingly extensive, clearing up nearly everything likely to elude but avoiding dense commentary. Title and first line indices make browsing easy and, again unlike some titles in the series, the print is quite large. Lack of line numbers will go unnoticed by many, but some readers will be annoyed, especially with the long poems. Finally, while not on par with more expensive editions', the binding is quite good; my copy has held up well over years of frequent browsing. All told, anyone looking for a near-comprehensive look at Shelley's poems and/or much of his prose while trying to avoid spending a lot of money could not do better. Those wanting a more concise introduction may be better off with a volume containing only his best work, though the inexpensiveness of this edition and the fact that it has prose mean one might as well go for it. Only those looking for complete and/or deluxe editions of the poems should look elsewhere, though the generous prose selections may entice even them.

A fine bargain edition
I would recommend this volume for all casual students and readers of Shelley.It is inexpensively priced, and I believe it contains all the pieces printed in Mary Shelley's 1839 version of her husband's "complete works," along with their corresponding prefaces (rarely provided in more insipid 'best of' collections of Shelley).However, I am unable to award this book a higher rating because it is plagued by some very glaring typographical errors and misprints (example: "and if the spark with which Heaven lit my spirit/Had been with purer nutriment supplied" from "The Triumph of Life" is presented as "purer sentiment" in the Wordsworth edition).Nevertheless, at less than 5 bucks, this book is a great introduction to the unjustly neglected poetic achievement of Shelley, in my opinion the supreme genius of the great triad of the younger Romantics.

Small Print makes reading hard
Personally, I thought the Poetry itself wasn't too bad.Unfortunately the print was way too small, making reading difficult. For that reason, it didn't hold my interest too well. I hope to return to the book again later, once I get my new prescription specs. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection features the work of some of New York's preeminent poets, including Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn and National Book Award finalist Alicia Ostriker, at a pivotal moment in America's history-one year after the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks. The poems, including many that have never been published before, cover an extraordinary variety of responses to the experience of writing and living in the aftermath of September 11. Some pieces offer eyewitness accounts of poets at the scene; others touch more indirectly upon the events and reflect the somber resonance of the tragedy's impact upon life in the city. All reflect a gravitation toward the healing powers of self-expression, which were visible everywhere in the days after the attacks: on the walls of the firehouses, in letters to the editor at local newspapers, even scrawled in the dusty ash covering lower Manhattan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Why we write poems
I'm tempted to try and hook you into a very goodbook of poetry today.
Good poets trying to do the impossible, while bleeding a city and nation's pain.
But I will say it was a book given to me that is worthy of a read on the day of rememberance of a national horror. Because of this day so many of us changed.

My daughter wrote a poem on one of those 9-11 days remembering. While helping me teach my 1st grade as a Principal read a poem on the intercom and life went on. Like a lot of things her words on that little day a few years later might wash away, as so much ink, but I keep the poem around because it holds me, and contains some of our joint family memory....a day we remember how we worried over our family in New York, and the nation's safety...I think I'll share her work. It won't help you evalate this book, but it will send you to it I think. It should.... the poets in the book are among our best.

september 11th, by Sylvia Puglisi,
A depressing sort of poem. But there could hardly be a happy one today, I suppose.

* * *

september 11
17 first-graders
moment of silence skipped
for the immediacy of fresh strawberries
and the novelty of pencil sharpeners
(which may never wear off in this lifetime)

invisible principal over the intercom
(like in the old cartoons that reliably reproduced so many aspects of school particularly the cliched plots and precocious love lives)
reading bad poetry in a
flat lifeless voice
like shakespeare in junior high
with unenthused classmates
esoteric
and meaningless.
stephen asks me to sharp his pencil
and wonders why i
teacher stands there for several moments
staring blankly ahead
looking like she's about to cry
and then laughing quietly
at how absurd it all is.

come to the rug, children.
i want to tell you a story
of something that happened before you were born
to people you will never get to know
in a place you've never been.
(next will be a story of a
giant blue-green ball hurtling through space
and a giant yellow ball
they hold like lovers
el sol y la tierra
we love story time
especially doctor seuss!)

in the story it is a tuesday
just like today.
here is the sign for tuesday, make a t with your fingers and circle
tuesday
a cold bright tuesday just like today
it was september 11 that day
just like today.
september is a long word that starts with an s
and let's count to eleven
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven
and in spanish
uno dos tres quatro cinco seis siete ocho nueve diez once
once upon a time
in the year 2001
before most of you were
born or when you were the tiniest infant
gnawing your fist and smiling to the delight of your parents.
on a day just like today
when little children just like you were counting the date
a bad thing happened.
a very bad thing.

bad people
very angry, nasty people
who perhaps did not have enough
people to love them
hurt our country
the United States of America
you know America in sign language, children
it is like a hug in a circle
show me, children.

our country was attacked
some airplanes were flown into buildings
important buildings
two tall ones in New York
which fell down
also a military building called the Pentagon
which has five sides
show me five fingers, children.
very good.
and the last plane
the good people took from the bad people
and flew into the ground instead of a building.
many, many people died.
the people in the planes and the buildings
and some of the firefighters who tried to save them
they were heros, do you know that word?
it means brave, brave people who did something amazing
like going into a building that is on fire and falling down
and rescuing people.
are you listening, children?
isaac, put your head down.

this was the biggest attack on American soil ever
which means
that it was really scary for us
really scary for your parents
who probably grabbed you
their babies
from the cradles
and held you close
and whispered soft comforting words to themselves
as they watched pictures on the tv
and cried or
just sat
watching.

the world is different now
you don't know because you don't remember
how it was before
you can't ever know the time when parents
worried about teething rings and toes
and not fiery explosions.
you weren't sitting there like i was
in a classroom on tuesday
(which was picture day and everyone
was dressed to the nines
it was two days after my birthday
and i had new clothes
i was looking sharp)
a whisper went around
that something terrible had happened
a disaster
an earthquake
a bomb
people were dying
where? new york
new york which was more magical and mystical to us than disneyland
new york with the giant apple and the statue of liberty
with the buildings that scraped the sky.

there was a moment of silence

kids fidgeted a little just like
you fidget today just like
we fidgeted when old men with gravelly voices told us of pearl harbor.
they speak of it like an old scar
the memory is still fresh.
september 11 is for me a cut
that it took a long time for me to realize was bleeding
like the scrape on the leg that i got from band
which i didn't feel at the time any more than a poke
but later my band teacher gasped and
pointed at when the blood was dripping to the floor.
i have a scar now, too.

but you children have no scars
you are young and
tiny and unblemished and i
truly hope no history is made in your lifetime
because it is a messy business
or so i have found.
we with memory scars will age and fade
recounting stories for
our childrens' school reports on historical events.
you will grow and replace us and get your own scars
falling off your bicycle.
you will remember the date as a
sad story and me
teacher crying a little when you're not looking
and so will move past me
into the future
without my fears and doubts.

this consoles me, children
on this big blue ball going around the big yellow ball
you have danced around six times
keep dancing, children
the slow beautiful waltz of time.

The world outside their navels comes a'knocking...
I've added one star for the benefit of modern poetry lovers, who will no doubt see more in this collection than I did.

In the introduction to this slender collection of poems, the editors plump the persistence of poetry. Immediately after the Towers came down, poems appeared everywhere. Nailed on poles, taped in windows, scrawled in dust, poetry answered a need of expression that other forms could not. In their extremity people just let their feelings pour out in verse.

Unfortunately, all the poems collected here are by professional poets. I daresay that nobody reads contemporary poetry except other poets, so this collection betrays a pretty self-absorbed mood. As the editors proudly note in the forward, few of the poems make any direct reference to the atrocity, and only two mention retaliation, and that in a negative way. Instead, these curdled by irony bards spin blank, meterless lines of...whatever comes to mind, apparently.

Poetry as therapy seems the dominant theme. The closest to a recognizably human sentiment anyone comes up with is one poem ticking off all the missing street vendors. Others just muse upon their mute shock, using descriptions of bric-a-brac in their apartments for grace notes or codas. Still others focus on a single incongruous detail out of the surrounding calamity, funny how some things catch your attention. One guy goes cruising in the gay Chelsea district, an imaginary Walt Whitman on his arm, while decrying all ickiness in life. Another types up a passable Guardian editorial, blaming America, but we know it's poetry because of all the indentations. And there's an alphabet of alliterations in another.

Okay, poets are people too, and must have their own ways of dealing with disaster. Other poets reading this will no doubt nod in sage recognition of many of these images and moods. No one expects the War on Terror to have a Rudyard Kipling or a Rupert Brooke, or for that matter a Civil War-era Walt Whitman.But it does seem to me that the plainest, most heartfelt poems of 9/11 must have been washed down the drain along with the ash they were written on. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Good selection of poetry for young people
I bought this book for home schooling. I knew it would be excerpts from poems, but I didn't want to buy an adult book. Each poem is preceded by short comments explaining the poem. The comments even helped me to understand because some of the poems are about a particular event in history. The drawings are very good, not childish, and I enjoyed sharing them with my son. Rudyard Kipling is a great writer and shouldn't be missed because of lack of time or understanding. This book had me going to look up the longer versions of some of the poems.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK - ALSO MY FAVORITE POET
I cannot think of a better way to introduce the poetry of Rudyard Kipling than this small volume.Now I do admit that Kipling is at the top of my list as a poet, so take this with that in mind.The selection is excellent and of interest you the young reader.The commentary is quite relevant as are the pictures which accompany it.I find that often now, our young people go all the way through the early grades in school and many of them have never heard of rudyard Kipling,much less read their poetry.This was the sort of stuff my generation and the generation before it grew up on and cut our teeth on.I do not feel I am any worse for the wear.I am fearful that we are bringing up an entire generation (rightfully or wrong, although I feel it is the later) of young folks who will have no appreciation to this great art form and will miss a lot.This book helps.This entire series helps, as a matter of fact and I certainly recommend you add this one and the others to your library.Actually, it is rather fun reading these with the young folk and then talking about them.Not only do you get to enjoy the work your self and perhaps bring back some great memories, but you have the opportunity to interact with your child or student.It is actually rather surprising what some of the kids come up with.I read these to my grandchildren and to the kids in my classes at school.For the most part, when I really get to discussing the work with them, they enjoy it.Recommend this one highly. ... Read more

Product Description
A generous selection of Kipling's eminently quotable works, including the Nation's Favourite Poem "If-", "Mandalay" and the moving "Recessional". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An exciting recording
This is an exciting recording by multiple readers. Some poems are recited by Boris Karloff, who is best known from the film version of Frankenstein. Karloff is the stand-out in the group. Other more recent speakers do well also. Recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
A classic anthology of poetry - by one of America's renowned poets and anthologers - is back in print. Untermeyer's illuminating selections, ranging from Wordsworth to T. S. Eliot, and a new introduction by children's literature scholar Leonard S. Marcus, make this an invaluable guide to understanding the power and beauty of poetry. Includes ribbon marker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry
I purchased the book for my wifes 54th birthday.

Poems from the book were read to my wife when she was a little girl.Her sister would read poems from the book each night and my wife was so taken by the poems that she actually remembered works such as Beth Galert and the Highway Man.

This book has given my wife such pleasure I cannot describe.The book was in excellent condition on arrival.

Thank you.
Barry Smith

The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry
This book is an excellent book of poetry for all ages, but especially for children ages 9 to 15.I had the original version of this book when I was a child, and I absolutely loved it. I must say that the original version of the book, The Golden Treasury of Poetry (copyright 1959), is better, because the illustrations are printed in blue, brown and green rather than just the black of the newer version.Also, the pages of the original are heavier, and the original includes about five poems which should not have been removed in the newer version. However, if the original is not available, I would buy this new version in a heartbeat.It is a wonderful introduction to classic poetry.

The Best of Children's Poetry
This was a Christmas gift from my mother when my children were small. We wore out the book and it has been taped together lovingly to read now to my grandchildren. This is one of my favorites from the book.

The Chickens

Said the first little chicken,
With a strange little squirm,
"I wish I could find
A fat little worm."

Said the next little chicken,
With an odd little shrug:
"I wish I could find
A fat little bug."

Said a third little chicken,
With a small sigh of grief,
"I wish I could find
A green little leaf!"

Said the fourth little chicken,
With a faint little moan,
"I wish I could find
A wee gravel stone."

"Now, see here!" said the mother,
From the green garden patch,
"If you want any breakfast,
Just come here and scratch!"

Wonderful collections!
I was given this book when I was two by my grandmother, a librarian.I have poured over this book from the very first day it was given to me.First, looking at the pictures and having my parents read the nursery rhymes. In elementary school,I began to read it myself.By late elementary school through high school, the book had become a useful reference.I still have the one given to me by my grandmother and absolutely treasure it.I look forward to sharing my book with my soon-to-be born first child.

This collection covers everything from nursery rhymes to Shakespeare.Wonderful illustrations and a great collection of poetry, which doesn't believe that children are too young to grasp the meaning of the poems.

it has staying power
My favorite poem(terrifying) was the Skippery Boo, next, The Tyger (Blake).Great book for parents reading to kids and introducing poetry, at many age levels:great for that. Glad it was reissued and on the market again!And what about James the Snail reaching the end of his brick, eh?! ... Read more