The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites [Abridged, Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

William Harmon (Editor), Sir Thomas Wyatt (Author), Sir Walter Ralegh (Author), Sir Philip Sidney (Author), Christopher Marlowe (Author), William Shakespeare (Author), John Donne (Author), Ben Jonson (Author), Robert Herrick (Author), George Herbert (Author), Thomas Carew (Author), William Waller (Author), John Milton (Author), Sir John Suckling (Author), Richard Lovelace (Author), Andrew Marvell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Highbridge Distribution | Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Imagine if Billboard compiled a list of the top 100 poems, chosen not by critics or professors but by the people themselves. That's the concept behind The Classic Hundred, and it works brilliantly. William Harmon found the 100 most anthologized poems in English, based on the ninth edition of The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry—the most objective measurement of greatness available, representing consensus among the editors of some 400 anthologies. Then he put them in order and prefaced each one with concise, erudite, often humorous commentary. The range of poets, subjects, and forms—from Shakespeare to Frost, from love and death to crime and punishment, from sonnets to odes—makes this an entertaining, enlightening, and indispensable aural guide to the finest verse in the English language.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Harmon (an extremely good poet in his own right) edited several similar collections, including The Top 500 Poems (1992), plus earlier versions of the current volume (with different selections) under the title The Top 100 Poems in English (1990). Poets represented here range from anonymous contemporaries of Shakespeare to Theodore Roethke and Randall Jarrell. Readers are also poets, such as Rita Dove, Philip Levine, Richard Howard, and the late James Merrill (though it might have been wiser to have poets whose voices have been recorded reading their own poems, particularly in the case of Dylan Thomas). What is most useful, perhaps, are the biographies and commentary Harmon provides for each poem. This title is being issued simultaneously on cassette, CD, and CD-ROM (for $175). Recommended for libraries with strong interest in older poetry, but all libraries will benefit from providng their useful selection.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Why did no one think of this before?" (The New York Times )

What a great idea. . . . First of all it's interesting to see which poems make it, and then . . . you've got all those great poems.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Highbridge Audio; Unabridged edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565112490
• ISBN-13: 978-1565112490
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,090,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Milton, John
  • #96 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Shakespeare, William

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Terrible Readings, June 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites (Audio CD)

I could not get this back to the store for a refund quickly enough. While the poem selection is great and the poem introductions are narrated well, the choice to use "modern poets" as the readers made this compilation utterly unlistenable. The only one that I found acceptable was Anthony Hect--the others were notably bad. In particular, I found Jorie Graham's "readings" to be abysmal. She reads each poem as if it were simply a string of unconnected words, giving equal stress to each, with halting pauses between them, never breaking out of a drowsy monotone. Other readers were not much better.

There are three major flaws in the readings:

1) The readers are no better than the average untrained person, and often much worse. (You've just got to hear them for yourself to appreciate how bad they are.)

2) Successive poems by the same poet are read by different "readers." It's jarring to hear 3 or 4 poems from Poet X, each in a wildly different voice.

3) No regard is given to matching the sex of the poet and reader. In general, it is really annoying to hear your favorite poet read by the wrong sex. In particular, making this mistake on "gender specific" poems (like having a woman read Poe's "Annabel Lee") is unforgivable.

Why is this all so upsetting? Because it is practically impossible to find poetry collections on CD, making this a serious waste of limited resources. If you are looking for a good collection on CD, buy "81 Famous Poems CD" by Audio Partners (ISBN 0-945353-82-0). It's a good collection on two CDs and is read by professionals: Alexander Scourby, Bramwell Fletcher, and Nancy Wickwire. In the meantime, we can only hope that the producers of this collection will eventually come to their senses and re-record the poems with the services of trained professionals.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I AGREE WITH THE PERSON BELOW, January 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites (Audio CD)

This collection is a travesty indeed. Great poems no doubt, but abysmally read. Furthermore they should have put all the introductions together separate and apart from the poems. It's nice to hear intros the first time around. But who wants to hear the intros everytime you listen to the poems? Sometimes I want to hear just a stream of poetry without any interuptions and this format makes that impossible. It's incredible that such a great concept could be so terribly executed.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars good poetry, very poor readers, June 4, 1998

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites (Audio Cassette)

The idea of this collection is fine, but a disastrous decision was made to have the poetry read by American poets. One of the readers, Anthony Hecht, does a good job, but most read no better than your next door neighbor, and some are dreadful, as for example, Jorie Graham. My advice is : save your money for audio poetry read by actors -- there are wonderful collections read by Richard Burton, Christopher Plummer, Alexander Scourby, et al. The Penguin English Poetry collection is also well read. Another problem with this collection is that there is more introductory material read on the tape than actual poetry. This material may be helpful the first time you listen, but will become increasingly annoying as you re-listen.