Customer Reviews

The Norton Anthology of Poetry

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Reading the new (5th edition) Norton Anthology of Poetry is like embarking on a voyage around the world: there is much that is familiar and much that is new and exotic. This a a mammoth book, one that a person can dive into and swim around in for ages and never come up. It is a vault of the best of humankind's poetic writings waiting to be unlocked and appreciated.

This text is improved over the fourth edition with the addition of an excellent essay on poetic syntax in addition to the essay on versification. The short biographies of each poet are welcome also.

It is the sheer volume of glorious poety that sets this book apart, however. There is something for everyone and every poetical taste. From Milton to Marianne Moore and even more contemporary authors, this book is a compendium like no other. It is not just a grouping of the "best" or "prettiest" poems, but rather a voluminous selection of what is most worthy of praise in our English literary heritage. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I got this anthology as a gift a few years ago, just after its release, I believe, and it has been with me ever since. This book is one of the few items that I must have with me no matter what my location, whether at college or at home.
Norton anthologies are great. As is the case with the ones I used in college, this book includes both footnotes and glossing in the margins, both of which help immensely when the reader is inexperienced or new to a certain period of literature (Norton is particularly helpful to students new to Spenser). The huge number of poets represented here makes the book indispensable to lovers of poetry.

The third edition, with a black cover, made the best of its slightly shorter space available by honing the reprinted poets and poetry down to the essentials. The fourth edition still includes most of that material, but the fourth edition is beginning to include too much chaff with the wheat, digging up obscure seventeenth and eighteenth century poets and placing them side by side with Donne, Milton, and Pope. The obscure figures are only going to suffer by comparison; there is not going to be any sudden Eliot-like revaluation of these obscure poets' reputations. It's even worse in the contemporary period -- dozens of second-rate poets, sampled with one or two poems apiece, which only takes away from the space that could have been granted to Wilbur, Ashbery, Geoffrey Hill, Derek Walcott, etc. -- not to mention Auden, who is still given too few poems to grasp his entire achievement. It's too bad the third edition isn't available any longer.

Given the fact that the anthology is nearly 2000 pages long, it is quite difficult to quibble over substance in this wonderful anthology. Almost every poet of any significance and their seminal work is represented in the anthology.

There are two quarrels I do have over style. Though the anthology has biographical sketches of the authors, those do not appear with the authors' work but rather at the end. The other thing I would change would be the index. The index is one combined index rather than a spearate index of first lines and authors.

All in all, a great find and great buy.

The fourth edition is an excellent compendium, although the third edition was better even if it was shorter. The fourth edition errs in including too many fringe poets (from what Harold Bloom calls the School of Resentment) from the past and from the present. One would prefer to see more material from authors who must be read in quantity, such as Whitman, Pound, and Auden, rather than bits and pieces from a hundred recent poets. However, there are some welcome additions to the selection of contemporary British poets such as Peter Porter and R. S. Thomas.

When I saw some of the bad reviews this incredible volume received, I decided to add my opinion!

I've carried this book across 3 continents and loved it above all others. I've also bought it as gifts for all my closest friends in the hope of enriching their lives as this volume has enriched mine. In its 3rd edition, in 1985, it was prescribed as a set work in the 1st year of my English Degree at University. I've discovered many of the most beautiful poems in English literature and almost all of the famous poets within these pages. I keep discovering new poems, new favourites. I meet people who tell me their own favourite poets and poems and 99% of the time they are in this volume (and if the poem isn't, the poet is).

Here you'll find so many treasures; the Romantics (Yeats, Tennyson, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge), more feminist poetry (Adrienne Riche, A.D. Hope, Atwood), the modern poets (Cummings, Larkin, Meredith, Plath), other American poets (Longfellow, Whitman) ... even some of the ancients (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson).

If you love the art of poetry and appreciate the different styles and techniques over the centuries, buy this book. If you love poetry and want to find it all in one complete volume, this is the book for you! It's been MY close and constant companion for 18 years.

I have many books of poetry. If I were to only be allowed one (the desert island scenario) this would be the one to have. It is simply the best overall collection of poetry in the English language that is available. I do wish that it contained some Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowski though... But then I have heard from a reliable source Ferlinghetti often declined when asked to be included in anthologies of poetry, so this may not be Norton's fault. An absolutely wonderful collection of the best poetry ever written in our language.

It's a little tough to give this anthology a review. let's be honest, when you have about 2,000 pages to work with, you get a lot of good stuff. there are so many great poems in here i had to give it the full five stars. but there are a lot of obscure poets in here. there are some poets i felt that should have been included that aren't, as well as some poems. still, if you are a beginner in poetry or a more advanced reader, it's a good anthology. if the price and heft scare you, then check out r.s. gwynn's longman pocket anthology, which is a smaller, cheaper, tighter anthology.

This one is great book for the students who major in english literature.
I know this book is really heavy for carrying but it worth.
You can find most of important poetry and little explanation.
You can find short history about english poetry and every poet in the book, too.
Every thing is perfect but I can't give 5 stars.
Because binding is'nt good enough. of course I know this one is paper back. But it's too weak binding for heavy one like this.
And there's another reason.
There's a lots of differnces between each edition.
I couldn't find some of my favorite poem.
So, I gave 4 stars.

Anyway I love this one.

I have studied, taught, loved this book for over thirty years. When it came time to find a gift for my grandchildren who were graduating from high school, I searched through book stores for hours before I found my original Norton on line. The new Norton is heavy, paperbacked, cumbersome. The 1975 edition deals with the best of the classics and with the best of the newer poems that will become classics. I am so glad to find the original hardcover, and I hope my grandson--the most recent to receive it--loves it as much as I have loved it.