Product Description

Publishing monthly without interruption since 1912, Poetry has become America's most distinguished magazine of verse, presenting, often for the very first time, virtually every notable poet of the last nine decades--an unprecedented record. Decade by decade, this ninetieth-anniversary anthology from Poetry includes the poems of the major talents, along with several lesser known. Poetry is an American institution. --T. S. Eliot

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88762 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

KLIATT
"A great catch. I can't help picking it up -- even if it is for the hundredth time."

James Matthew Wilson in Contemporary Poetry Review
The two kinds of anthology--that of summary and that of advocacy--will suffice to define the type of Parisi's book.

Customer Reviews

A Dissapointing Anthology
Any poetry anthology is merely a reflection of the tastes of the editor. I must state the qualification that I am not an academic, and am very selective in my appreciation of poetry. I much prefer the anthologies by Czeslaw Milosz or even Garrison Keillor. Much of our poetry has become too abstract and introverted, and that would be my criticism of the selections in this anthology. In nearly 500 pages I found only 50 poems that could move me. Meaning, the emotive content or creative structure made me want to read it twice. The challenge of a good poem is that in a minimum of words must be conveyed a thought or emotion that shakes the world. Few of the selections found here fit that category.

a field of golden wheat
The Poetry Anthology presents works from the 90-year span of America's premier poetry magazine. This book contains gems by the acknowledged masters of the Twentieth Century (including every American figure you could likely name from that period), all of which appeared in Poetry's pages for the first time. Best of all, you shall find in this book countless remarkable specimens of the first rank by a host of lesser-known artists, many of whom are scarcely less deserving of accolades than Stevens, Moore, Pound or Eliot.

But one can only read so much. The editors of Poetry must be thanked for wading through the vast sea of mediocrity that constitutes the world of verse, and bearing back this hard-won treasure for us.

This collection is a pleasure to read and an affirmation of the great capacity of poetry to inspire, illuminate, and nourish that which is alive within us. Along with "The Rattle Bag", it is one of the finest poetry anthologies I own.

Providing the greatest poems of the last century
THE POETRY ANTHOLOGY gathers works from Poetry Magazine, providing the greatest poems of the last century from Yeats and Eliot to Millay, Hughes, and many more famous names. These are some of the greatest works by the greatest contemporary poets: if only one representative poetry anthology were to be part of a lending collection, make it Joseph Parisi and Stephen Young's THE POETRY ANTHOLOGY. The fact that its editors are also editors of Poetry Magazine only lends further authority to their selection choices.