The Norton Anthology of Poetry

Rating:
Summary: A usefull collection of poetry!
Review: Are you remotely interested in poetry then you should buy The Norton Anthology of Poetry by Margaret Ferguson(Editor), et al. This book is a wonderfull presentation into world of poetry and presents a wast array of poets, i.e., everyhting Anna Laeitta Barbauld to William Shakespeare. Being a fan of the older style of poetry, e.g., William Shakespeare, John Milton and Geofrey Chaucer, I was happy to see that these parts had the space that they righly deserve. The index is very well developed and it was an excellent idea to pu each poem under the name of poet since otherwise finding a particular poem would have ben almost impossible. The font selected is very easy to read. The only downside is the quality of the paper; being almost 2000 pages long in paperback the quality of the paper is so-so and next time I will buy it in hardcover.

Rating:
Summary: The politically correct anthology
Review: I have read the anthology and was very disapointed that John Donne's 'Down Wanton Down' was removed.Soon 'La Belle dans san Merci" will be deemed politically incorrect.

Rating:
Summary: great anthology
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not an especially good anthology
Review: It's hard to assign an appropriate number of stars to a book like this, since of course many of the poems are great ones. However, as an anthology of poetry this book fails in many respects.

First of all, nearly half of the book consists of relatively mediocre 20th century poetry. The book could be cut in two at the middle, and the first half sold as a meagre anthology of poetry up to the 20th century, and the second as a comprehensive collection of 20 century poems. The 20th century is one of the worst in terms of the poetry it gave to the world. Many of the poets in the second half are practically unknown now, and will have been entirely forgotten fifty years from now. Although the book dutifully includes many of the great poems of English literature and is therefore not entirely useless, the selection is otherwise a very curious one for a book intended as a general survey of English poetry. A large percentage of the poems in this book could be cut out and it would be as good as it is now, only a great deal lighter and hopefully cheaper.

Another irritating thing is the footnotes. The editors seem to have assumed that they need to define and explain the simplest terms and concepts. For example, on page 215, they give a gloss for the word "clod," defining it as "Lumps of earth or clay." That's all very well, but "clod," a common English word, does not require explanation. It's distracting to the reader that knows it to have his attention called to the footnote. One's reading of the poem is thereby interrupted. Anyone who does not know the meaning of "clod" could perfectly well turn to a dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: fourth edition still good, but third edition better
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Must have for every library
Review: The Norton Anthology captures the greatest voices in the history of poetry. I recommend this book as a reference guide to students learning and memorizing the great poets. Sometimes it is hard to know where to start and Norton is a great source. As a way to get new voices of poets on the web, www.canzone.com is a project started to get a poem online from every country in the world. It is a big task, and it would be interesting to compare the different voices of the Book Academy with the Online Academy once www.canzone.com is established and fully representative of all countries.

Rating:
Summary: Selection is very poor
Review: The selection of poems in this anthology, although it includes many of the great poems of English literature, is very poor. About a third of the book is devoted to relatively mediocre 20th century poetry, written by poets practically unknown now, who will be completely forgotten 50 years from now. The book could be much lighter and hopefully less expensive if it included fewer of these poems, which are not really appropriate in a book intended as a survey of English poetry (that is, poetry in English, of course). There must be better anthologies.

Another annoying thing is that the editors have given glosses to explain the simplest concepts and terms. These glosses interrupt one's reading of a poem, and for people who do not know the words explained, a dictionary would be much more useful.

Rating:
Summary: still a good anthology, but slipping
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Comes with politically correct message.
Review: This is more of a politically correct statement.
Why is it that some English academics see it as their job to display how politically right on they are regardless of the quality of the poetry? There are far too many twentieth century poets here who are of very little worth. There seems to be a quota for women poets and African-American/Native American/Asian American poets.
The implication being that John Donne is of equal worth to some obscure woman poet in the mid twentieth century just becuase women have been excluded from literature in the past.
This is an anthology for those who want to feel good about themselves about how tolerant and open minded they are.

Rating:
Summary: All about English Poetry!
Review: 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.