Poems to Read: A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology

By Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz

Book Overview

Poems to Read is a welcoming avenue into poetry for readers new to poetry, including high school and college students. It is also meant to be a fresh, valuable collection for readers already devoted to the art. This anthology concentrates on the actual pleasures of reading poems: hearing the poem in your voice, bringing it to other people, musing about it, taking excitement or comfort from it, wandering with it or--as in the Keats letter quoted in the Introduction--having it as a starting post. Many of these 200 poems are accompanied by comments from readers of various ages, regions, and backgrounds who participated in the Favorite Poem Project. Included are poems by John Donne, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Seamus Heaney, Allen Ginsberg, and Louise Gl?ck, to name a few. The editors offer their own comments on some of the poems, which are arranged in thematic chapters.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393010740
• ISBN13: 9780393010749
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful poems

I checked this anthology out at the library and decided I needed my own copy. I had been out of practice at reading good poetry and really loved so many of the poems in this book. It is a good middle ground for people who enjoy good poetry but are sometimes overwhelmed by denser, more complicated poems. I would recommend "Good Poems" for the starter and "An Invitation to Poetry" for the more advanced reader.

A most noteworthy collection

Even more than the many fine poems cited in this wonderful anthology, I enjoyed the eloquent responses by everyday Americans as to why they responded in certain ways to their favorite poems. These stories are almost as moving as the actual poems and there are dozens of terrific poems, both the familiar and the unexpectedly novel. If you only read the comments, you'd be a richer person, but to read the comments along with the poems, now that's an experience. If this book were required in English classes around the country, maybe kids wouldn't resent poetry units so much!

"Bring me the sunflower crazy with the light..."

I am absolutely blown away by the quality of this anthology! Absolutely blown away. Organized by the people behind the Favorite Poem Project ... this beautiful book strikes the perfect poetic balance; the poems here have depth and meaning, but they are never impenetrable and are always a joy to read aloud. The mainstays are all here: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Whitman, Keats, Frost, etc., but the book often presents their lesser-known works (such as a terrific Langston Hughes piece called "Life is Fine" that I'd somehow missed). There are also more obscure poets; May Swenson, Derek Walcott, and many international writers. But what makes this book truly unique is the commentary printed above most of the poems sent in by people of all ages and professions. Students, teachers, doctors, writers; they talk about their favorite poems with great love and a sense of awe. Their passion is infectious. I plan to buy this book, but instead of sitting on my bookshelf like my other poetry books it will go in my backpack to be with me wherever I go, for anytime I need a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended.GRADE: A