Selected Poems 1957-1994

Author	Seamus Heaney
ISBN	0374258686

Heaney’s poetry is more a voice than a style.
It seems to have been written to be listened to rather than to be thoroughly dissected and scrutinized.

The evocative tinge of children’s ideals and the brutality of a land divided by history and religion pulsate underneath the serene,...

Author	Yusef Komunyakaa
ISBN	0819511641

Most days, I sit in a Center for Writing, reviewing papers for college students, and clarifying the proper formatting and style required by the Modern Language Association (MLA), as relates to scholastic writing. As I notice varying writing styles, I suggest books for students to read, based on their...

Author	Anne Sexton
ISBN	0618057048

Anne Sexton is considered both a religious and feminist poet, a product of her upbringing and the era in which she lived. Born in 1928 outside of Boston to descendants of Puritans, Sexton was the oldest daughter in a deeply Christian family. Although her family may have expected more from her, Sexton...

Author	Philip Larkin
ISBN	0571240062

Philip Larkin, the saddest heart in the post-war supermarket... from what we know him best by. But what is striking is the large amount of unpublished material from his early years which strikes another tone, as well as the light verse taken from his letters. The image of the dour faced and sparely written...

Author	Elizabeth Bishop
ISBN	0374514402

Second read. I haven’t the faintest recollection of writing the below review in 2014. .

Author

D.A. Powell

The first poetry collection by D. A. Powell since his remarkable trilogy of Tea, Lunch, and
Cocktails, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

so many of the best days seem minor forms of nearness
that easily falls among the dropseed: a rind, a left-behind
—from...

Author	Billy Collins
ISBN	0743257596

Billy Collins, one of our most beloved poets, has chosen poems of wit, humor, imagination, and surprise, in a range of styles and forms, for The Best American Poetry 2006. The result is a celebration of the pleasures of poetry.

In his charming and candid introduction Collins explains how he...

Author	Robert Frost
ISBN	0451527879

The publication of A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914) marked the debut of Robert Frost as a major talent and established him as the true poetic voice of New England. Four of his volumes would win the Pulitzer Prize before his death in 1963, and his body of work has since become an integral part...

Author	William Blake
ISBN	0140150269

This has additions. Better collection than other editions on my shelf.

The wild winds weep,
And the night is a-cold;
Come hither, Sleep,
And my griefs enfold! . . .
But lo! the morning peeps
Over the eastern steeps,
And the rustling beds of dawn
The earth do scorn....

Author

E.E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings, along with Pound, Eliot, and Williams, helped bring about the twentieth-century revolution in literary expression. He is recognized as the author of some of the most beautiful lyric poems written in the English language and also as one of the most inventive American poets of his time....

Author	Mark Strand
ISBN	0307262960

This eleventh collection by Mark Strand is a toast to life’s transience and abiding beauty. He begins with a group of light but haunting fables, populated by figures like the King, a tiny creature in ermine who has lost his desire to rule, and by the poet’s own alter ego, who recounts the fetching mystery...

Author	Rainer Maria Rilke
ISBN	0060907274

This selection includes the original poems in German with their translations and commentary.

Contents:
I live my life --
I have many brothers --
We don't dare --
I love the dark hours --
You darkness, that I come from --
I have faith --
I am too alone --
You see,...

Author	Kim Addonizio
ISBN	0393068528

A lyrically intense fifth collection from “one of the nation’s most provocative and edgy poets” (San Diego Union-Tribune).

With both passion and precision, Lucifer at the Starlite explores life’s dual nature: good and evil, light and dark, suffering and moments of unexpected...

Author	Aimé Césaire
ISBN	0520053206

I've come to a conclusion: surrealist poetry is not for me. Half-way through this large collection, I gave up. Cesaire's poetry is much too cerebral, so much so that I can't feel an iota of emotion. I'm busier trying to decipher the meaning behind his odd word choices dumped one after the other (ridiculously...

Author

Raymond Carver

What should I do?

Should I pretend that I'm not desperately in love with this book? With Raymond Carver's writing?

Should I reveal to you that other poetry readers would probably give this collection a 3 or 4 star rating, shrug their shoulders, and toss it carelessly back on the shelf?...

Author	Theodore Roethke
ISBN	0253299217

I'm originally from Pennsylvania, but then I got married and moved to Indiana. And even though Roethke was born in Michigan, I think of him as a Pennsylvania man since he taught at Penn State, and Lafayette College.

And then, I was visiting Pennsylvania and walked into a little used bookstore...

Author	Philip Rowland
ISBN	0393348873

Haiku in English is an anthology of more than 800 brilliantly chosen poems that were originally written in English by over 200 poets from around the world. Although haiku originated as a Japanese art form, it has found a welcome home in the English-speaking world. This collection tells the story for...

Author	Phillis Wheatley
ISBN	1557092338

“Some view our sable race with scornful eye, ‘Their colour is a diabolic dye.’ Remember, Christians... Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.”

This was a for-school-read that I really ended up enjoying. First published in 1770, Phillis Wheatley was...

Author	Sylvia Plath
ISBN	0375404643

I'm not sure if I'm being morbid but it is almost impossible for me to read any of Sylvia Plath's work without thinking about her suicide. I guess it's because her poetry is already so dark, and knowing that she suffered from depression and ended her own life, adds another element to it.

With that...

Author	Howard Norman
ISBN	0330370103

May 4th 2008: Upgraded to 5 stars.
An extraordinary novel by the author of "The Bird Artist".

There are certain things you can rely on in a book by Howard Norman: distinctly quirky protagonists, odd names, a relatively remote Canadian location, and a dynamite opening sentence -

"The...