O.K., I'll cash in my second pick, with the expecation that Hardy and Robinson will be placed by others.
So, yes, this is a collected, but there are very few tracks I'd skip, and there are too many poems I love in different seperate volumes. So this is the right pick. And it actually reads well as a book -- almost like a sort of autobiography.
Hugo's metrically-informed free verse is rhythmic, musical, and well-wrought. His poems are thick with meaning, yet well aerated, and the have a durable quality I admire. And Hugo so often achieves a frank, matter-of-fact voice that never talks down to a reader, and always feels approachable and relatable.
His book
The Triggering Town would make my top hundre non-poetry collection, and probably my top five books about poetry. The unassailably humane teaching stance he maintains in that book is matched perfectly in his poetry.
David R.
Editing in to match suit with other posters by posting:
(1)
a link to the book at Amazon
(2) a couple links to sample poems:
"Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg"
"Death of the Kapowsin Tavern"
"Wheel of Fortune"