Customer Reviews

A Treasury of Great Poems

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This hefty book (almost 1300 pages!) makes a wonderful addition to any library. In a surprisingly short space, author Louis Untermeyer covers the history of English-language poetry, starting with the Bible and ancient Anglo-Saxon verse, and then beginning with John Barbour (c.1316-95) he proceeds chronologically, author-by-author through to Richard Wilbur (b.1921). Each poet is briefly introduced, as is each poem.

As might be expected, to cover so immense a topic in one volume requires a great deal of pruning, so a great deal of what could have been included wasn't. But, that said, this is a great book, one that has filled many of my evenings with wonderful and yet informative reading. I consider the purchase of this book money well spent, and I highly recommend it to you!

I have been looking for this book for a couple of years. So glad to have finally found it. A wide variety of authors from pre-biblical times to within the last 40 years. Some great poetry that I have not been able to find elsewhere.
I wish I could it better because it deserves better.

The selections anthology are slightly more extensive than in most. But what makes this anthology especially useful is the brief introductory essays before each poetic selection and the interpretations given of each poem. Here is an example of Untermeyer's writing , this one from a poet who he was especially close to Robert Frost. " A poem " wrote Frost in a foreward to his COLLECTED POEMS " begins in delight and ends in Wisdom" . The figure is the same as for love." Later considering the quality of surprise in poetry, he added :"For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew." The sentence may well explain Frost's hold upon his readers.They have not only learned something new: they have recalled , with a new significance something old.They have remembered something they had forgotten they knew - and loved."
This is an anthology both rich in great poetry and in insightful commentary upon it.

I have loved this book since my high school days (Many years ago).

Recently, I gave it as a house gift to a friend and she is in love with it as much as I am.

Highly recommended!

This anthology has been a companion of mine for many years. It contains many of the greatest poems in the English language and has selections from all the major English poets. The biographical sketches Untermeyer gives are concise and interesting. Above all there is the great great poetry that continues to inspire. There are poets I would have had more of ( Hopkins for instance) and others I would have less of. But on the whole I find it difficult to fault an anthology that has given me so much pleasure through the years. Anyone who loves Poetry will truly take delight from this work.

No anthology can be complete, but Untermeyer provides a good overview of English language poetry. However, I cannot trust the accuracy of the anthology. Untermeyer uses the altered versions of Dickenson's poems. It is difficult to say what else he may have changed.