Rating: 
Summary: Great Gift Idea
Review: As the review title indicates, this is a great gift idea for someone who is a nonpoet or does not teach english. True enthusiasts who write their own poetry or actually teach it would probably desire more depth than can be accomplished in a summary compilation of the greatest poetry. Everyone has their idea of who the greatest poets were/are, and this book is as good of a cursory review of the greatest poets and poetry that can be put together. As a result this book has 3 drawbacks for the true enthusiast. 1) as has been noted by other reviewers, it only encompasses the English poets 2) this is someone elses' decisions on the "best" poetry and may leave out your particular favorite poem(s) (3) no depth to some poets but gives ample space to others, for example - Shakespeare 29 poems, Walt Whitman 5 poems, Edgar Allen Poe 6, Robert Frost 11, Emily Bronte 1, Geoffrey Chaucer 1. Given the above listed shortcomings that would apply to any attempt to aggregate the "best" poetry, this book does an admirable job. As such, it makes a great gift for your favorite aunt or a bedside companion for yourself. Just realize that if you are a Frost fanatic, you will have to seek something more comprehensive for your favorite poet. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Great Gift Idea
Review: As the review title indicates, this is a great gift idea for someone who is a nonpoet or does not teach english. True enthusiasts who write their own poetry or actually teach it would probably desire more depth than can be accomplished in a summary compilation of the greatest poetry. Everyone has their idea of who the greatest poets were/are, and this book is as good of a cursory review of the greatest poets and poetry that can be put together. As a result this book has 3 drawbacks for the true enthusiast. 1) as has been noted by other reviewers, it only encompasses the English poets 2) this is someone elses' decisions on the "best" poetry and may leave out your particular favorite poem(s) (3) no depth to some poets but gives ample space to others, for example - Shakespeare 29 poems, Walt Whitman 5 poems, Edgar Allen Poe 6, Robert Frost 11, Emily Bronte 1, Geoffrey Chaucer 1. Given the above listed shortcomings that would apply to any attempt to aggregate the "best" poetry, this book does an admirable job. As such, it makes a great gift for your favorite aunt or a bedside companion for yourself. Just realize that if you are a Frost fanatic, you will have to seek something more comprehensive for your favorite poet. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Better collections out there
Review: First, I must say that this book is essential to any poety lover's collection; however, I have seen and read bits of other- much older, however- collections of poetry that contain truly the best poems. Not to say that the poems contained herein are not great; however, I wonder about ranking a few of them in the top 500. I agree with one of the other reviewers about the commentary; I think it is quite poor.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignore comments from "reader from Boston, MA"
Review: Harmon's collection is not meant as an academic text, but rather an anthology of best loved poems for your reading enjoyment. If you want a text book, buy a textbook. Or, you could try thinking for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Compilation Of English-Language Poetry
Review: Harmon's edition of the top 500 poems of the English language is an excellent collection of work, spanning centuries of verse and highlighting many of the most prolific, original poets and writers of English and American literature. The selected works not only stand as fine pieces in their own right, but together they paint a rich and historic tapestry of English Literature.
Rating:
Summary: The best all-around collection in English, bar none
Review: I like to buy this book as a present for people I like because I know I can hardly go wrong. (Forget the Godiva chocolates or the Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon: this will last!) Whether one is a wannabe rap master from Watts or a distinguished professor of English lit at the Sorbonne, there will be something here to please, I promise. It should be emphasized that this is a collection of strictly English poetry, which means, for example, that none of verses from Edward Fitzgerald's very English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam appears even though some of those verses are among the most popular and the most anthologized. It should also be noted that this is not a contemporary collection (copyright date, 1992) so there's no Gary Soto or Rita Dove or Louise Glück or even Margaret Atwood. It should also be pointed out that if you're looking into Keats's, e.g., "Ode to a Nightingale," for the first time, perhaps this is not the best place to find it since none of the poems are explicated. Editor William Harmon does give a brief note as an introduction to each poet, and concludes each poem with a brief comment. The collection is popular of course and spans English poetry from Chaucer to Sylvia Plath but there's nary a ditty to be found. Although T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is here (hurrah!), there's nothing from his Book of Practical Cats (alas) and no Kipling's "If"! This is really high class stuff, quite simply the best. All the giants are here, Shakespeare, Donne, Pope, Burns, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Ezra Pound, Andrew Marvell, Frost, Yeats, Dickinson, etc., etc. Some moderns are represented, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Philip Larkin, etc., although notably absent is Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Harmon's method of selection was to peruse anthologies and include those poems most often making an appearance. Of course it's obvious that some editorial decisions were made. I have little doubt that Kipling's "If" really is among the 500 most anthologized poems, although it doesn't appear here, and ditto for Robert Service and his very popular, "The Cremation of Sam McGee." But perhaps this is just as well since those poems really are easily found elsewhere. The admirable point that Harmon is making with this collection is that one can include in a popular book the great poems of the language even though some of them are "difficult." In this category there's Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," W. H. Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts," T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and others. Harmon also does not shy away from poems often left out of anthologies because of length. Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is here in toto and so is Eliot's "The Waste Land" and Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Of course not everything is here, and one can indeed find fault. There can be differences of opinion, and it is very true that a collection based on other collections will indeed leave out some great poems and poets. Amy Lowell does not appear, meaning that her "Patterns," one of the great poems in the language, is not here. John Crowe Ransom's "Blue Girls," one of my personal favorites is apparently not much anthologized; at least it doesn't appear here. And I was surprised at only two selections from e. e. cummings (and neither one was "plato told him"!). But this is to nitpick. This is a great collection and more than that it is beautifully edited. The poems are presented chronologically, beginning with the anonymous "Cuckoo Song." There is an index of titles and first lines, which is the way it should be. (Some editors fail to include titles in such an index, but we think of both when trying to recall...) There is an index of poets, and finally the 500 poems are listed in order of popularity. William Blake's "The Tiger" is number one. (For some reason Harmon modernized Blake's spelling of "Tyger.") Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is the most anthologized poem by an American. Even Harmon's short introduction, which he titles "This is it!" is well worth reading. Therein one discovers that Shakespeare is the poet with the most poems included (29), followed by Donne (19), Blake (18) and Dickinson and Yeats (14). Here (as a public service) I was going to explicate Donne's charming but tricky (and a wee bit sexist) "Go and Catch a Falling Star" (an apt choice because Harmon has "I" instead of the poet's intended "If," a typo at the beginning of line nine) but I'm running out of space, and besides poets hate to be explicated.
Rating:
Summary: The best all-around collection in English, bar none
Review: I like to buy this book as a present for people I like because I know I can hardly go wrong. (Forget the Godiva chocolates or the Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon: this will last!) Whether one is a wannabe rap master from Watts or a distinguished professor of English lit at the Sorbonne, there will be something here to please, I promise. It should be emphasized that this is a collection of strictly English poetry, which means, for example, that none of verses from Edward Fitzgerald's very English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam appears even though some of those verses are among the most popular and the most anthologized. It should also be noted that this is not a contemporary collection (copyright date, 1992) so there's no Gary Soto or Rita Dove or Louise Glück or even Margaret Atwood. It should also be pointed out that if you're looking into Keats's, e.g., "Ode to a Nightingale," for the first time, perhaps this is not the best place to find it since none of the poems are explicated. Editor William Harmon does give a brief note as an introduction to each poet, and concludes each poem with a brief comment. The collection is popular of course and spans English poetry from Chaucer to Sylvia Plath but there's nary a ditty to be found. Although T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is here (hurrah!), there's nothing from his Book of Practical Cats (alas) and no Kipling's "If"! This is really high class stuff, quite simply the best. All the giants are here, Shakespeare, Donne, Pope, Burns, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Ezra Pound, Andrew Marvell, Frost, Yeats, Dickinson, etc., etc. Some moderns are represented, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Philip Larkin, etc., although notably absent is Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Harmon's method of selection was to peruse anthologies and include those poems most often making an appearance. Of course it's obvious that some editorial decisions were made. I have little doubt that Kipling's "If" really is among the 500 most anthologized poems, although it doesn't appear here, and ditto for Robert Service and his very popular, "The Cremation of Sam McGee." But perhaps this is just as well since those poems really are easily found elsewhere. The admirable point that Harmon is making with this collection is that one can include in a popular book the great poems of the language even though some of them are "difficult." In this category there's Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," W. H. Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts," T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and others. Harmon also does not shy away from poems often left out of anthologies because of length. Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is here in toto and so is Eliot's "The Waste Land" and Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Of course not everything is here, and one can indeed find fault. There can be differences of opinion, and it is very true that a collection based on other collections will indeed leave out some great poems and poets. Amy Lowell does not appear, meaning that her "Patterns," one of the great poems in the language, is not here. John Crowe Ransom's "Blue Girls," one of my personal favorites is apparently not much anthologized; at least it doesn't appear here. And I was surprised at only two selections from e. e. cummings (and neither one was "plato told him"!). But this is to nitpick. This is a great collection and more than that it is beautifully edited. The poems are presented chronologically, beginning with the anonymous "Cuckoo Song." There is an index of titles and first lines, which is the way it should be. (Some editors fail to include titles in such an index, but we think of both when trying to recall...) There is an index of poets, and finally the 500 poems are listed in order of popularity. William Blake's "The Tiger" is number one. (For some reason Harmon modernized Blake's spelling of "Tyger.") Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is the most anthologized poem by an American. Even Harmon's short introduction, which he titles "This is it!" is well worth reading. Therein one discovers that Shakespeare is the poet with the most poems included (29), followed by Donne (19), Blake (18) and Dickinson and Yeats (14). Here (as a public service) I was going to explicate Donne's charming but tricky (and a wee bit sexist) "Go and Catch a Falling Star" (an apt choice because Harmon has "I" instead of the poet's intended "If," a typo at the beginning of line nine) but I'm running out of space, and besides poets hate to be explicated.
Rating:
Summary: good, but could have been better
Review: I love _The Top 500 Poems_. Because it contains poems by e. e. cummings and Stevie Smith, I looked up both poets on my own and read poetry that wasn't taught at my middle school. Now I can skim the book and alight upon poems that were taught in high school or college English classes with a feeling of pleasant deja vu. However, the book is only good, when it could have been great. First, the editor claims in the introduction that "English-speaking people have produced one of the greatest bodies of literature," which does a disservice to all other bodies of literature. It sounds conceited, as does his editorial voice in some footnotes. Finally, when he defines, in the footnotes to various poems, words that may be unfamiliar to the reader, he often offers definitions for words that are not to be found in the poem or are misspelled. Is he trying to enlighten the reader or to confuse? I read that "whether" means "whithersoever," so I searched the poem in question for "whether" and found "whither" instead. One error would not have bothered me, but this occurs consistently. The poems are a treasure, the commentary, less so.
Rating:
Summary: A Keeper!
Review: I loved reading this book. It has a very good selection of poems. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Good collection but . . .
Review: I'm very disappointed with this editor. I bought the book as a present for someone who knows nothing of English poetry. The collection itself is very good, but the editor fails to do his job. Where are the footnotes? Rather than having any, the editor decides to simply, right at the end of each poem, explain one or two words. And for most of the poems he merely gives quick background and does not even bother explaining certain words or images. For example, I love the "Ode to a Nightingale," but if I had read it in this current edition, I would have been completely lost--what the heck is "Bacchus and his pards" or "Lethe-wards"? I expect every editor to have at least some footnotes for the sake of clarity. Also the lines are not numbered, which may seem insignificant, but when long poems such as "An Essay on Criticism" are included, it is ludicrous not to have numbers. The poems included in the collection are great; too bad the editor is awfull (otherwise this anthology would have gotten five stars).
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