447 masterpieces by 150 poets

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Some poems are immortal because they live in people's hearts, others because they just won't die. ( )

I carried this book around the world in my backpack when I went to Japan as an exchange student in high school, and again when I travelled around the world, in college. It's a great book to have when traveling, with high literature-per-ounce value, and can be re-read many times. The collection favors older poems -- there's not much even from the earlier 20th century, but it's good for what it does. ( )

This is one of four poetry anthologies I own. I think I love my copy of A Book of Women Poets best, for it's international and historical focus--it opens with Enheduanna, a Sumerian Priestess who may be the earliest known name in written literature. But this book comes a close second, being perhaps the earliest book of poetry I ever bought. The focus of this book as the title suggests is the English Language. As stated in the cover, it includes "447 British and American Masterpieces by 150 Poets." It's organized chronologically beginning with Chaucer and ending with Dylan Thomas. All of the famous names are here: Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Blake, Burns, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Poe, Browning, Whitman. Favorites bookmarked include poems famous ones by the likes of Shakespeare and more obscure such Arthur Hugh Clough's "Say Not the Struggle." A lot gems from lesser known poets are included. Here's "Golf Links" by Sarah N. Cleghorn short enough to be quoted in its entirety:

The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play

From inspiring to disturbing this included wonderful, compact, intense works of verse to give you a taste of what poetry in our language can offer. ( )