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101 Great American Poems
Rich treasury of verse from the 19th and 20th centuries, selected for popularity and literary quality, includes Poe's "The Raven," Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," as well as poems by Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and many other notables.
167 pages, ebook
First published January 21, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
October 21, 2015
What a pity I waited so long to read this. As I expected, the small volume contains excellent poems of Cummings, Emerson, Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and Robert Frost.
But, the true delight was discovering unknown poets. Here are two of my favorites:
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The description notes she was a prolific author all her life and wrote her first novel at the age of nine!
Solitude
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills with anser;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink for voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's fall
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
-----------------------------
After reading this, I thought of the blessings of friends who make life so much easier by caring and sharing. So many difficult times in my life were/are shared by loving friends.
---------------------------
The real gem in this book of 101 Great American Poems took my breath away as I read and re-read the message.
I've never heard of Countee Cullen (1903-1946) but vow to find more of his works.
The descriptive sentences note that although he wished to be known primarily as a poet and not as a Negro poet. From 1943 until his death, he was a teacher in the New York City public schools.
Incident
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
-----------------------------------
But, the true delight was discovering unknown poets. Here are two of my favorites:
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The description notes she was a prolific author all her life and wrote her first novel at the age of nine!
Solitude
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills with anser;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink for voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's fall
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
-----------------------------
After reading this, I thought of the blessings of friends who make life so much easier by caring and sharing. So many difficult times in my life were/are shared by loving friends.
---------------------------
The real gem in this book of 101 Great American Poems took my breath away as I read and re-read the message.
I've never heard of Countee Cullen (1903-1946) but vow to find more of his works.
The descriptive sentences note that although he wished to be known primarily as a poet and not as a Negro poet. From 1943 until his death, he was a teacher in the New York City public schools.
Incident
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
-----------------------------------
July 27, 2015
Read ALL of it.... But I really did some thinking about "Shine, Republic" by Robinson Jeffers.
.....And you America, that passion made you. You were not born to prosperity, you were born to freedom. You did not say 'en masse', you said ' independence.' But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also.
Freedom is poor an laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.
That is only a portion of it. It's beautiful and so thought provoking.... Poetry is still the master.
.....And you America, that passion made you. You were not born to prosperity, you were born to freedom. You did not say 'en masse', you said ' independence.' But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also.
Freedom is poor an laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.
That is only a portion of it. It's beautiful and so thought provoking.... Poetry is still the master.
March 4, 2013
This is a collection of 101 poems by 39 different American poets. It begins with a poem by Anne Bradstreet in the 17th century and proceeds through to a work by W.H. Auden of the 20th century. In between are many poets that one would expect, such as Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Sandburg, and Cummings. There are others that might be unexpected such as Abraham Lincoln, Herman Melville, and Stephen Crane. While the poems aren't all jingoistic in nature, there is a recurring theme of celebration of America.
Most of the poems in this tiny anthology will be familiar to poetry readers. This is a $1 Kindle e-book of a Dover Thrift Edition, and so one won't find living poets represented, or poems that tap into the zeitgeist du jour-- at the risk of mixing loan words. However, most of these poems deserve to be read and reread.
A few of my favorites are below with title, author, and a fragment.
The Builders by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
O Captain! my captain! our fearful trip is done,
the ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
I'm nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickenson
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know
The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
"Give my your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,...
Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone
War is Kind by Stephen Crane
Do no weep, maiden, for war is kind
Sence You Wend Away by James Weldon Johnson
Seems lak to me de stars don't shine so bright,
Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Chicago by Carl Sandburg
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
Fog by Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird;
The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
The Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
it gives a lovely light.
Ars Poetica by Archibald Macleish
A poem should not mean
But be
I, Too by Langston Hughes
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
Little Old Letter by Langston Hughes
You don't need no gun nor knife--
A little old letter
Can take a person's life.
Most of the poems in this tiny anthology will be familiar to poetry readers. This is a $1 Kindle e-book of a Dover Thrift Edition, and so one won't find living poets represented, or poems that tap into the zeitgeist du jour-- at the risk of mixing loan words. However, most of these poems deserve to be read and reread.
A few of my favorites are below with title, author, and a fragment.
The Builders by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
O Captain! my captain! our fearful trip is done,
the ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
I'm nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickenson
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know
The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
"Give my your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,...
Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone
War is Kind by Stephen Crane
Do no weep, maiden, for war is kind
Sence You Wend Away by James Weldon Johnson
Seems lak to me de stars don't shine so bright,
Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Chicago by Carl Sandburg
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
Fog by Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird;
The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
The Love Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
it gives a lovely light.
Ars Poetica by Archibald Macleish
A poem should not mean
But be
I, Too by Langston Hughes
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
Little Old Letter by Langston Hughes
You don't need no gun nor knife--
A little old letter
Can take a person's life.
July 29, 2018
Great selection -- the 1st anthology compiled by the APL Project.
July 27, 2022
Miniver Cheevy lives within me indefinitely; bless him and Richard Cory
February 8, 2022
What a lovely collection of poets I was mostly unaware of; Eliot stood out together with Hughes, Frost, Longfellow, Moore and Teasdale
December 11, 2012
I bought this book years ago at a library sale in Poolesville. During high school, as a matter of fact, when I was a poetry-reading-and-writing fiend and wanted to better acquaint myself with old poems. You know, like you do. Well, this treasury of American poetry introduced me to the hilarious poem "Casey At The Bat" and the knowledge that my baseball loving boyfriend will look at me funny when I admit that I had never heard of the poem until yesterday. That was embarrassing.
Anyway, my true joy in this book did not come from revisting poems I used to know, or poets I had never heard of before, but from the fact that some (presumably high school) boy decided to write in it. A lot. And circle things like the word "breast" and page "69." In a bout of note passing he lamented the fact that Alex wouldn't dump her boyfriend for him until he promised to send her his picture. Though he wasn't "on the fone" with her.
Yeah, I love used books.
Anyway, my true joy in this book did not come from revisting poems I used to know, or poets I had never heard of before, but from the fact that some (presumably high school) boy decided to write in it. A lot. And circle things like the word "breast" and page "69." In a bout of note passing he lamented the fact that Alex wouldn't dump her boyfriend for him until he promised to send her his picture. Though he wasn't "on the fone" with her.
Yeah, I love used books.
November 2, 2013
As a novice to poetry, this was a great read for me. I began reading out loud so many of the poems and thoroughly enjoyed it. The collection is excellent. There were some of the popular ones that I recognized but there was also a rich diversity of style, era and genre. I recommend this to anyone wanting a good exposure to America's great poets.
May 4, 2018
There's more to the title of this collection than the number of poems included. Poetry 101: an introduction for those of us who paid little or no attention to the subject in school. Nicely done by the project organizers. A nice "find" in the Little Free Library in front of my house.
April 7, 2013
I enjoyed the poems that was included in this book, but missed those that were not.
September 26, 2021
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds
A poem should be equal to:
Not true
A poem should not mean
But be
Archibald MacLeish
As the flight of birds
A poem should be equal to:
Not true
A poem should not mean
But be
Archibald MacLeish
February 11, 2020
I’m certainly no expert here (most poetry is admittedly really tough for me to enjoy), but 5 stars because I appreciated that the editors included male/female/white/minorities/rich/poor poets in their “101 Great American Poems.”
I don’t get Gertrude Stein at all (just....what?); Longfellow, Dickinson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar were my favorites.
I don’t get Gertrude Stein at all (just....what?); Longfellow, Dickinson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar were my favorites.
March 5, 2024
My first introduction to poetry, one that took me through many seasons and places and that I always return to. These are the poems that are forever in my mind and heart; read them if you wish to understand me.
July 26, 2022
Miniver Cheevy is the greatest poem pen ever put to paper
Read
October 19, 2023Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?
I'm not cut out for all these cynical clones
These hunters with cell phones
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I've come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
I want auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
'Cause I haven't moved in years
And I want you right here
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it
While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
No, not without you
-TS
This is what I feel while reading this book.
I'm not cut out for all these cynical clones
These hunters with cell phones
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I've come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
I want auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
'Cause I haven't moved in years
And I want you right here
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it
While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
No, not without you
-TS
This is what I feel while reading this book.
October 16, 2023
Some of my highlights :
“So shalt thou rest - and what if though shalt fall
Unheeded by the living - and no friend
Take note of thy departure?”
-William Cullen Bryant
“And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone.”
-Edgar Allen Poe
“I could not sleep I’d I saw the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast,
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.”
-Frances E. Harper
“Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.”
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them,
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom-
A field where a thousand corpses lie.”
-Stephen Crane
“I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.”
-Langston Hughes
“And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
…
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
…
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—“
-T.S. Eliot
“And you, America, that passion made you. You were not born to prosperity, you were born to love freedom. You did not say 'en masse,' you said 'independence.' But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also. Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.”
-Robinson Jeffers
“Peace flows into me As the tide to the pool by the shore; It is mine forevermore, It ebbs not back like the sea. I am the pool of blue That worships the vivid sky; My hopes were heaven-high, They are all fulfilled in you. I am the pool of gold When sunset burns and dies— You are my deepening skies, Give me your stars to hold.”
-Sara Teasdale
“You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me.
I grow older.”
-Ezra Pound
“I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.”
-Carl Sandburg
“So shalt thou rest - and what if though shalt fall
Unheeded by the living - and no friend
Take note of thy departure?”
-William Cullen Bryant
“And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone.”
-Edgar Allen Poe
“I could not sleep I’d I saw the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast,
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.”
-Frances E. Harper
“Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.”
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them,
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom-
A field where a thousand corpses lie.”
-Stephen Crane
“I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.”
-Langston Hughes
“And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
…
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
…
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—“
-T.S. Eliot
“And you, America, that passion made you. You were not born to prosperity, you were born to love freedom. You did not say 'en masse,' you said 'independence.' But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also. Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.”
-Robinson Jeffers
“Peace flows into me As the tide to the pool by the shore; It is mine forevermore, It ebbs not back like the sea. I am the pool of blue That worships the vivid sky; My hopes were heaven-high, They are all fulfilled in you. I am the pool of gold When sunset burns and dies— You are my deepening skies, Give me your stars to hold.”
-Sara Teasdale
“You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me.
I grow older.”
-Ezra Pound
“I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.”
-Carl Sandburg
August 12, 2022
It starts romantic with Anne Bradstreet's poem to her husband:
"If ever two were one, then surely we"
and ends with the absurd W.H Auden's "The Unknown Citizen"
"Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."
My wife and I wrote daily letters to each other analyzing each poem (we wrote about the same poem so it was interesting to see how what we found was similar and different), which were all the way from being about being romantic from being absurd.
From the Bradstreet poem, I wrote:
"I like that Anne Bradstreet was a pilgrim and one of the earliest Americans from Europe! We too are explorers in our faith and immigrants journeying with God"
This book covers the American story with classic poem. It is well worth reading, memorizing, and writing about them!
Some of the poets covered:
Anne Bradstreet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Abraham Lincoln
Walt Whitman including "O Captain, My Captain" which is about Lincoln
Emily Dickinson
Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"
Stephen Crane who is wrong about war being kind in "War is Kind"
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of ex-slaves, who wrote the line "I know why the caged bird sings", the title of Maya Angelou's autobiography. He also wrote "We Wear the Mask".
Robert Frost
Carl Sandburg
Ezra Pound, who my father-in-law visited in the asylum when he was a teenager
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is here!
Claude McKay's "The Tropic of New York" which was my favorite poem I didn't already jibe about.
e.e. cummings
Langston Hughes
and many others!
The 2 biggest poetic themes is how our lives are short and racism, which are 2 universal themes that still reverberate in our 2020s ears.
I love you all!
Mark
"If ever two were one, then surely we"
and ends with the absurd W.H Auden's "The Unknown Citizen"
"Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."
My wife and I wrote daily letters to each other analyzing each poem (we wrote about the same poem so it was interesting to see how what we found was similar and different), which were all the way from being about being romantic from being absurd.
From the Bradstreet poem, I wrote:
"I like that Anne Bradstreet was a pilgrim and one of the earliest Americans from Europe! We too are explorers in our faith and immigrants journeying with God"
This book covers the American story with classic poem. It is well worth reading, memorizing, and writing about them!
Some of the poets covered:
Anne Bradstreet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Abraham Lincoln
Walt Whitman including "O Captain, My Captain" which is about Lincoln
Emily Dickinson
Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"
Stephen Crane who is wrong about war being kind in "War is Kind"
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of ex-slaves, who wrote the line "I know why the caged bird sings", the title of Maya Angelou's autobiography. He also wrote "We Wear the Mask".
Robert Frost
Carl Sandburg
Ezra Pound, who my father-in-law visited in the asylum when he was a teenager
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is here!
Claude McKay's "The Tropic of New York" which was my favorite poem I didn't already jibe about.
e.e. cummings
Langston Hughes
and many others!
The 2 biggest poetic themes is how our lives are short and racism, which are 2 universal themes that still reverberate in our 2020s ears.
I love you all!
Mark
December 16, 2016
101 Great American Poems is a great way to feel and share the American pride! This great book filled with outstanding poems written by some of the most known and famed poets ever, were written by authors that not only are great, but are originally from our great country of the United States of America! With 101 poems in one book it almost seems possibilities of excitement are limitless with stories such as Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, and so much more.
Throughout these stories there are so many great lessons and symbolic phrases to be read. In Walt Whitman's I Hear America Singing you learn of all the different jobs and responsibilities of everyone, but they all singing come together and show that even though their responsibilities are different they still can be united. In this poem it states "at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs." This shows that people when united, and friendly, will create something stronger than when apart, and in this case they will create a "strong melodious song." There isn't just great lessons and symbolism in this poem, but throughout all of these amazing poems, and with these symbols teach great lessons, the will help in the building of our great country's Patriotism and pride!
Throughout these poems you also get to see the different point of views from each author. Many of their point of views are so interesting and show off the freedom we share in America for each author to be able to write they're own way. Robert Frost in The Road Not Taken shares how he feels when it comes to life decisions, that you only have one chance to make for you probably won't get the chance to go back another day, so you have to choose wisely. Or in Langston Hughes' I'm Still Here, he sees that in the world there will always be things to knock you around, and bring you down, but he says you have to keep going and states, "Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin', But I don't care! I'm still here." These different points of views just show the spirit that America is all about, and these poems can inspire us to live truthfully, justly, and live the American way.
Throughout these stories there are so many great lessons and symbolic phrases to be read. In Walt Whitman's I Hear America Singing you learn of all the different jobs and responsibilities of everyone, but they all singing come together and show that even though their responsibilities are different they still can be united. In this poem it states "at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs." This shows that people when united, and friendly, will create something stronger than when apart, and in this case they will create a "strong melodious song." There isn't just great lessons and symbolism in this poem, but throughout all of these amazing poems, and with these symbols teach great lessons, the will help in the building of our great country's Patriotism and pride!
Throughout these poems you also get to see the different point of views from each author. Many of their point of views are so interesting and show off the freedom we share in America for each author to be able to write they're own way. Robert Frost in The Road Not Taken shares how he feels when it comes to life decisions, that you only have one chance to make for you probably won't get the chance to go back another day, so you have to choose wisely. Or in Langston Hughes' I'm Still Here, he sees that in the world there will always be things to knock you around, and bring you down, but he says you have to keep going and states, "Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin', But I don't care! I'm still here." These different points of views just show the spirit that America is all about, and these poems can inspire us to live truthfully, justly, and live the American way.
May 3, 2018
A good but by no means expansive collection of American verse. As I expected, many of the major moments and beats of American poetics are included. There are some more eclectic offerings, as well as some forays into more experimental authors, but in general this collection is a basic introduction to great American verse. It is diverse and carefully considered, while also providing a good view of the scope of American verse.
My one major complaint is that the collection does not go far enough into more current works of poetry. This could have been contentious and made the collection more divisive on the whole, but some major American voices are left out here (notably Allen Ginsberg, Hart Crane, and Richard Wright). I understand how bloated the collection could become with the inclusion of other authors, but there is a risk of glorifying only works of the past. While I think this collection is more inspirational, I did think often of where the good modern work fit in. This collection makes it seem like it doesn't, that the only works to be glorified were in our distant past. This is resoundingly not the case.
Otherwise this is a fine collection. It never reads as bland, and the verse is incredibly lively. Many of it reads with a resonance to our modern problems, anxieties, and joys.
My one major complaint is that the collection does not go far enough into more current works of poetry. This could have been contentious and made the collection more divisive on the whole, but some major American voices are left out here (notably Allen Ginsberg, Hart Crane, and Richard Wright). I understand how bloated the collection could become with the inclusion of other authors, but there is a risk of glorifying only works of the past. While I think this collection is more inspirational, I did think often of where the good modern work fit in. This collection makes it seem like it doesn't, that the only works to be glorified were in our distant past. This is resoundingly not the case.
Otherwise this is a fine collection. It never reads as bland, and the verse is incredibly lively. Many of it reads with a resonance to our modern problems, anxieties, and joys.
October 19, 2018
I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. (Paperback, Dover Thrift Editions, 2014 reprint)
I enjoyed it. It was a quick read and had a nice variety of poems in various styles.
Considering this book was originally published in 1998 and the content has not been changed, I believe the giveaway was for the sake of continuing the purpose of the American Poetry & Literacy Project to distribute free poetry books to the public. The project is talked about in the introduction.
The content of the book is well varied and I'm sure everyone can find a poem (or poems) within in pages to enjoy. It includes some of the obvious, like Poe's "The Raven" and Frost's "The Road Not Taken", but also offers some lesser known works. I found several poems in the volume that I had never read before but that I loved. There were also some that weren't quite to my personal preference, but the point of the book seems to be to provide a wide enough assortment of poetry to appeal to the most people. This serves as a good introduction to American poetry.
Only 80 pages long, and listed at a very reasonable price ($3), I would recommend this to anyone as a worthy light addition to their book collection. (Or an easy and cheap gift for most readers).
I enjoyed it. It was a quick read and had a nice variety of poems in various styles.
Considering this book was originally published in 1998 and the content has not been changed, I believe the giveaway was for the sake of continuing the purpose of the American Poetry & Literacy Project to distribute free poetry books to the public. The project is talked about in the introduction.
The content of the book is well varied and I'm sure everyone can find a poem (or poems) within in pages to enjoy. It includes some of the obvious, like Poe's "The Raven" and Frost's "The Road Not Taken", but also offers some lesser known works. I found several poems in the volume that I had never read before but that I loved. There were also some that weren't quite to my personal preference, but the point of the book seems to be to provide a wide enough assortment of poetry to appeal to the most people. This serves as a good introduction to American poetry.
Only 80 pages long, and listed at a very reasonable price ($3), I would recommend this to anyone as a worthy light addition to their book collection. (Or an easy and cheap gift for most readers).
June 26, 2013
I read this in preparation for a class I'm teaching this coming fall. While some of the poems really grabbed me, I'm basically not a poetry person (despite being an English literature doctoral student). Also, I'm a British lit person, so I appreciated this collection less than the companion English and Irish poetry volume I'm currently reading.
In terms of the collection itself, it is a decent cross-section of important American poetry, though as with any collection proclaiming itself "Great" poems of a nation, there are many notably missing poems. The collection has had to be very selective in narrowing the vast multitude of American poetry to just 101. This collection works as a decent overview of important American poetry without pretending to be exhaustive.
My other critique of this collection is that while it has very short author bios, the book contains no critical or explanatory material. For instance, many of the poems clearly refer to contemporary historical events, but for someone without a good knowledge of that particular moment of US history the references may not make any sense.
In terms of the collection itself, it is a decent cross-section of important American poetry, though as with any collection proclaiming itself "Great" poems of a nation, there are many notably missing poems. The collection has had to be very selective in narrowing the vast multitude of American poetry to just 101. This collection works as a decent overview of important American poetry without pretending to be exhaustive.
My other critique of this collection is that while it has very short author bios, the book contains no critical or explanatory material. For instance, many of the poems clearly refer to contemporary historical events, but for someone without a good knowledge of that particular moment of US history the references may not make any sense.
May 13, 2015
This is the second of four poetry anthologies from Dover that I'm reading / reviewing. As can be expected from that publisher, it's an inexpensive, easily portable book.
The 101 poems were written by 39 different poets, born between 1612 and 1907. Three were born before 1800, and three were born after 1900. So 33 were born in the 19th century. Each poet's section has a short blurb about the poet. The usual suspects are represented: Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Sandburg, Eliot, Cummings, etc. There's also a generous sampling from the Harlem Renaissance: James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen.
I've selected ten pieces to spotlight here. I could have easily selected twice this amount.
"Paul Revere's Ride" - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The Raven" - Edgar Allan Poe
"Casey At the Bat" - Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"The Road Not Taken" - Robert Frost
"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" - Frost
"Chicago" - Carl Sandburg
"Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird" - Wallace Stevens
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" - T.S. Eliot
"Dream Deferred (Harlem)" - Langston Hughes
"The Unknown Citizen" - W.H. Auden
The 101 poems were written by 39 different poets, born between 1612 and 1907. Three were born before 1800, and three were born after 1900. So 33 were born in the 19th century. Each poet's section has a short blurb about the poet. The usual suspects are represented: Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Sandburg, Eliot, Cummings, etc. There's also a generous sampling from the Harlem Renaissance: James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen.
I've selected ten pieces to spotlight here. I could have easily selected twice this amount.
"Paul Revere's Ride" - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The Raven" - Edgar Allan Poe
"Casey At the Bat" - Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"The Road Not Taken" - Robert Frost
"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" - Frost
"Chicago" - Carl Sandburg
"Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird" - Wallace Stevens
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" - T.S. Eliot
"Dream Deferred (Harlem)" - Langston Hughes
"The Unknown Citizen" - W.H. Auden
January 8, 2012
Eh. Some good stuff I already have that was hard to do backflips over. Not the book's fault. Lovely to see Langston Hughes in here, as he was truly talented. His poetry speaks to one's soul. He was so honest and raw and had the most beautiful way of saying anything. However, there were a bunch of folks in here I'd never head of who, after reading there poetry, I realized It's because they have no talent and were just more modern poetry writers who in my opinion just scribble bitterness and whinings on what had been perfectly good paper. Poetry should elevate. Not reinforce. Not wallow in despair. Elevate me, comfort me, bring some beauty into my soul. Reach out to me and connect with me despite all the sorrow and everyday ordinary misery known as the human condition. There, I'm done complaining now. So sorry, don't know what came over me. Send all complaint letters to my ex.
July 15, 2012
This book opened me up to some new favorites, namely:
*Frances E.W. Harper -Bury me in a free land.
*Claude McKay - The Tropics in New York.
*Edna St. Vincent Millay - Recuerdo.
This book also opened me up to some truly awful "poets." I would say that there's absolutely ZERO reason somebody like Gertrude Stein should be included in this work. It is absolutely detestable that so many writers don't get published, yet her nonsense ended up not only published, but within an anthology considered to be "great." I suspect that she might have had contracted Angiostrongyliasis from eating bad escargot in France. Why do I suspect this? Because only a parasite attacking the CNS could account for the awful writing that came forth from her pen.
The best thing about this anthology is that it's not rife with depressing poems about unrequited love. The political poems were very nice!
*Frances E.W. Harper -Bury me in a free land.
*Claude McKay - The Tropics in New York.
*Edna St. Vincent Millay - Recuerdo.
This book also opened me up to some truly awful "poets." I would say that there's absolutely ZERO reason somebody like Gertrude Stein should be included in this work. It is absolutely detestable that so many writers don't get published, yet her nonsense ended up not only published, but within an anthology considered to be "great." I suspect that she might have had contracted Angiostrongyliasis from eating bad escargot in France. Why do I suspect this? Because only a parasite attacking the CNS could account for the awful writing that came forth from her pen.
The best thing about this anthology is that it's not rife with depressing poems about unrequited love. The political poems were very nice!
February 8, 2017
In this collection of poems there are many great poems that are well known such as Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening by Edgar Allen Poe and Alone by Edgar Allen Poe. Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening is a great piece of literature that captures, ensnares, and puts people into the wood that he tells of in his poem. At the end of his poem he uses anaphoria to get the point across that his character has a long way to go. "And many miles to go before I sleep, And many miles to go before I sleep." (page 50)
Edgar Allen Poe's alone is one of the best of his even though it may be a little sad. The literary term used in this that I'd like to point out is personification in which he gives the clouds a personality were they take the shape of devils. "And the cloud of that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view.
Edgar Allen Poe's alone is one of the best of his even though it may be a little sad. The literary term used in this that I'd like to point out is personification in which he gives the clouds a personality were they take the shape of devils. "And the cloud of that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view.
January 11, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect mixture of poems and poets that everyone interested in poetry should by familiar with. There were poems about everything and having so many in one place was very convenient and fun to read. I especially liked the Emerson poems as I was always more familiar with his prose or longer works. I'm not a huge Poe fan so i found his section to be a bit lengthy, the longest in the book, and I would've liked instead to see some more contemporary--maybe some Allen Ginsburg or a little more e.e. cummings, but I still enjoyed reading what this book had to offer. It was compact and easy to take and read anywhere.
December 15, 2012
This book is a collection of poems from all the poetic greats of America. This collection could be used in conjunction with other collections of poems from other countries. Student could compare works from other countries to that of the tone, mood, style, voice, and figurative language used by American poets. Additionally, the works could be studied for tone, mood, style, voice, and figurative language during a poetry unit. At the end of the unit, students will demonstrate their knowledge of those elements by writing their own anthology or collecting other poems with simular elements. It could be a school wide Poetry Slam.
May 22, 2013
Another rescued book. I'll read and mine for trivia. The cover is different than pictured. Other editors are: Sunil Iyenegar, Henry LaBalme, Donald MacLean, Elizabeth Elam Roth. 1998...
Already(in the intro) a misuse of the term "beg the question". Doesn't anyone know what that means anymore?????
Now just into the "text", including a nice line from Emerson: "a swan-like form invests the hidden thorn..."
Moving along and having fun. Read "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven" - excellent!
Truth is I'm not really reading all the poems. I'm browsing for questions...
Finished with this slim but interesting collection. Plenty of trivia questions here!
Already(in the intro) a misuse of the term "beg the question". Doesn't anyone know what that means anymore?????
Now just into the "text", including a nice line from Emerson: "a swan-like form invests the hidden thorn..."
Moving along and having fun. Read "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven" - excellent!
Truth is I'm not really reading all the poems. I'm browsing for questions...
Finished with this slim but interesting collection. Plenty of trivia questions here!
September 3, 2013
While not hitting all "Great American Poets" and missing anything from the last 60 years, I do think this book gives a nice overview of America through the eyes of some of its greatest linguists. There are only one or two poems for most poets, with more given to Frost, Hughes, and a few others, but it does include several very famous poems and many others of rich quality. And for those who want to travel through American history and language, I find it a great, quick resource.
February 4, 2013
I wasn't a fan of how this book edited classic poems. They also included a lot of selections from Dickson, Frost, Longfellow and a few others when I think more of a verity of poets would have been nice, including stepping into modern poetry. But this is a decent overview of American poetic traditions. It's a good review for people who haven't taken an Am Lit class in a long time, but it's not going to make anyone a lover of poetry.
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