100 Great Poets of the English Language (Penguin Academics Series) [Paperback]

Dana Gioia (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321198670 | ISBN-13: 978-0321198679 | Publication Date: September 17, 2004 | Edition: 1

100 Great Poets provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the poetic tradition in English. Chronologically arranged, the book presents the major poets from Beowulf to the present with representative examples from each author. The headnotes and selections reflect the high notes of each poet¿s career—the classic poems that have earned an enduring place in the canon of English language literature.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and teacher. Born in Los Angeles, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford M.B.A., thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published three collections of poetry: Daily Horoscope (1986); The Gods of Winter (1991); Interrogations at Noon (2001), winner of the 2001 American Book Award; an opera libretto, Nosferatu (2002); several anthologies; and an influential study of poetry¿s place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992). Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer, and Colorado College. He is also the co-founder of the summer poetry conference at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and a frequent commentator on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Mary, two sons, and an ever growing number of cats.

(The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for joy.)

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 1 edition (September 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321198670
• ISBN-13: 978-0321198679
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All a poetry anthology should be., February 24, 2005

By 

Andrew E. Baumann (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Great Poets of the English Language (Penguin Academics Series) (Paperback)

Of course, I am speaking in my title of the pure anthology, a collection without explanatory or exploratory texts. And that is all this is: a collection of poems by 100 poets. But do not misread "all this is": "a collection" is all this book _needs_ be, and it is that quite exemplarily.

Now, no poetry anthology that is not 5000+ pages in length is going to leave you without any sense of "Oh, they really should have included such-and-such," and this anthology is not exempt. Of course, there are poems and poets that I think would work better than others included toward expanding representation and variation without thinning out the collection. And there are some contemporary poets that Gioia includes that I see little reason behind beside their being popular to someone. And there are contemporary (or late 20th century) poets not included that I believe would have done the anthology well as examples of the art. But as a broad anthology, this exceeds my expectations. Most of the major names are included, and there is enough offered to give a decent sampling of their artistic identities. As well, there is enough breadth to offer examples that would contribute to most any discussion about poetry and poetics. It would be an easy thing to teach poetry simply by opening this book, and exploring what you find.

As someone who has become rather despondant about the abundance of poorly conceived and executed anthologies out there, this one has pleased me (and is pleasing me) to no end. A well put together collection, and worthy of any classroom -- not to mention an excellent sampling of poetry for any curious reader.