47. Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen
 

I'll put in Owen, whom I only recently began to read. (I have the C. Day Lewis--don't know if the newer edition is substantially different/better.)

The line that got me, the one that put him in my personal canon, comes in "The Send-Off":

So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.

That's the line that made me want to read more. The moments that resonate most with me have this kind of quiet savagery, phrases that seem to come through gritted teeth. All of the terror, the outrage, the despair--you'd think he'd be shrieking but he almost whispers it all in your ear.

Pat

I don't disagree with this at all, but it makes want to keep the Robinson Complete Poems as is. Children of the Night was a few years before the century started, but the influence of Robinson's poetry on the 20th Century started there. Plus, some of his stuff was in little self-published editions. The Complete put it all together and expanded his overall availability, plus it got him his first Pulitzer.

The Hugo collected might be another matter. But it might not be...

David R.

48. Selected Poems of Derek Mahon
 

Derek Mahon seems not to be in print at all on my side of the Atlantic. This little Penguin selected is only book of his I have ever even seen, although a quick search shows lots of things available here & there. Maybe someone who knows all of him better could pick an actual book, but since no one has yet...

These stanzas from "Dawn at St. Patrick's" broke my heart the first time I read it, and have broken it again each time I've reread it:

as I chew my thumb
and try to figure out
what brought me to my present state -
an 'educated man', a man of consequence, no bum
but one who has hardly grasped what life is about,
if anything. My children, far away,
don't know where I am today,

in a Dublin asylum
with a paper whistle and a mince pie,
my bits and pieces making a home from home.
I pray to the rain-clouds that they never come
where their lost father lies; that their mother thrives; and that I
may measure up to them
before I die.

Speechless,
Pat

How had John Betjeman escaped me? The shame! Yet, I’m delighted now we’ve found each other… thank you, Nigel.

I’m with David R., this really is a fabulous thread. I’m sure it will inform a part of my reading for some time.

Going back through the thread, I see that Chiago is right on Lorca -- he should get a heading and number, verdad ?

Hi All,

Well, you know, I think the Haiku Anthology is fine. After all, I put in Modern European Poetry, opening the door to anthologies, which, after all, show the taste and ability of the editor/translator(s). Collected and Selected poems aren't ideal, but if a poet's books are filled with, well, filler, then sometimes the Selected is necessary to make a good book, versus a book with some good poems.

Yes, at some point we're gonna have to simplify this thing, trim it to just the list of books. I wonder how to do that and maintain formatting?

The idea of the thing is great BOOKS, books that hang together, start to end, books that amaze you, dazzle you. What are the 100 books of poetry you should have on your shelf? They could be translations, could be anthologies, could be poetry/art collaborations, and so on.

I still have two left, myself, and am musing on how to spend my gold!

Best, Tony

Oh, and one more thing. If you've posted a poet and haven't given him or her a number and put it in the title of your post, the poet ain't on the list. Prove your love! Repost. The reason for this is that each post spawns discussion, and having a title and a number it makes it possible for the reader to scan down the thread and skip to each poet on the list. Without titles and numbers your fave poet is invisible!

46. Hoping it might be so: Kit Wright
 

Kit Wright is distinctive and very English. Those of you who do not know him should acquaint yourselves with his work immediately though this is not easy since his adult books are out of print - another triumph for the publishing industry.

The Orbison Consolations

Only the lonely
Know the way you feel tonight?
Surely the poorly
Have some insight?
Oddly, the godly
Also might,
And slowly the lowly
Will learn to read you right.

Simply the pimply
Have some idea.
Quaintly the saintly
Have have got quite near.
Quickly the sickly
Empathise
And prob'ly the knobbly
Look deep into your eyes.

Rumly, the comely
Will understand.
Shortly the oertly
Will take your hand.
Early the surly
Dispraised and panned,
But lately the stately
Have joined your saraband.

Only the lonely
Know the way you feel tonight?
Singly the tingly
Conceive your plight,
But doubly the bubbly
Fly your kite...

And lastly the ghastly
Know the way you feel tonight.

By God, I had to type that out. Download it and meditate.

50. The Uncelestial City, by Humbert Wolfe
 

I ordered a hardcover edition of this book on Amazon, not knowing that I was going to receive an edition that was printed in 1930. There are no later copyright dates anywhere in the volume. The pages are old and yellowed, or browned, however it is, and pages 253-255 were still uncut.

I've read the book once through and am now reading it a second time, to get a better grasp and appreciation of the work. It's not a collection of poems, but a single long Poem consisting of individual poems, some of which were published previously in several prestigious journals at the time: The Spectator, the Saturday Review, Harper's Bazaar, Punch, etc.

Anyway, I paid only a few dollars for the book. The postage was more expensive than the item itself. I had known of Wolfe's work only by way of a single anthology I own that includes a few of his poems. That anthology is called, Modern British Poetry, A Critical Anthology, edited by the very busy anthologist and poet, Louis Untermeyer. In this book there are several gems, one I really like is this miniature:

THE LILAC

Who thought of the lilac?
"I", dew said,
"I made up the lilac
out of my head."

"She made up the lilac!
Pooh!" thrilled a linnet,
and each dew-note had a
lilac in it.

~

Anyway, that little poem is not typical of the kind of work contained in The Uncelestial City, where the poet uses many meters and forms in various ways to build the entire work. The poem takes on serious moral and legal issues (and clarifies, at least so I think, the important distinction between the two terms), religious doctrine, theology, philosophy, etc.; but there is also human drama and even a hint of unspoken romantic love, melancholy, emotional suffering, everything, as well as classical hints of cosmic order, justice, retribution, attrition, atonement, all under the author's Christian belief system. He was of Jewish heritage and converted.

I know the work was well-regarded and all, but I don't think it got the attention it deserved, which is why I'm nominating it as my 4th choice in this thread. I've got one more! I'd nominate my favorite poet, Menke Katz, but the only book I've got by him is an edition of his Yiddish poems translated into English, by the Harshavs. That book came out in 2005.

I can think of about fifty or more names I'd want to include in this list.

I think maybe this was supposed to be #49? Which would make Wolfe's book #50?

51. These are not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women
 

I hope I have figured out the math. John W. dear, you should number your post for Kit Wright.

I am recommending this anthology edited by Marjorie Agosin.
Published by the admirable White Pine Press in 1994,

The reason for my nominating it being that it introduced to a broader public in the English speaking world, a wide selection of very fine women poets from Latin America who wrote in troubled times. Common to all is that they did not write in the expected "sweet" way, leaning on the religious themes that would not offend. Rather these women poets are political, erotic and critical of the roles to which they have been assigned. And their voices transcended both lingual and national barriers. The poets come from Costa Rica, Cuba, Uruguay, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colmbia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Guatemala, Niaragua, Eduador, Chile, Bolivia.

Does poetry matter? Can it change anything?

When she showed me her photograph
she said,
This is my daughter.
She still hasn't come home.
She hasn't come home in ten years.
But this is her photograph.
Isn't it true that she is very pretty?
She is a philosophy student
and here she is when she was
fourteen years old
and had her first
communion,
starched, sacred.
This is my daughter.
She is so pretty.
I talk to her every day.
she no longer comes home late, and this is why I reproach her
much less.
But I love her so much.
This is my daughter.
Every night I say goodbye to her.
I kiss her
and it's hard for me not to cry
even though I know she will not come
home late
because as you know, she has not come
home for years.
I love this photo very much.
I look at it every day.
It seems that only yesterday
she was a little feathered angel in my arms.

(By Marjorie Agosin, Chile) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Agos%C3%ADn

I could write a short essay on WHY this is poetry, about what tools are used here to make it so, but this is a smart bunch of readers, so you can do that analysis yourself.