Secondhand Poetry Bargain Book Box SP2862

Secondhand Poetry Bargain Book Box SP2862

Twenty-one poetry anthologies spanning the whole arc of English and Irish verse — from the Schools of Donne and Jonson through the Restoration, the Georgians, the Imagists, and the 1890s Decadents, all the way to the Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse. An extraordinary reference shelf for the serious poetry reader.

1. A Galaxy of Poems Old and New — A broad and welcoming anthology gathering verse from across the centuries — the kind of collection designed to introduce readers of any age to the pleasures of poetry.
2. Stevie Smith: Selected Poems — ed. James MacGibson — A generous Penguin selection from the poet whose deceptively childlike voice and dark wit made her one of the most distinctive presences in twentieth-century English poetry — utterly unlike anyone else.
3. The Penguin Book of Irish Verse — ed. Brendan Kennelly — Kennelly's comprehensive Penguin anthology of Irish poetry in English, presenting the tradition from its earliest manifestations to the twentieth century — essential for anyone who wants to understand the richness of Irish literary culture.
4. Poetry of the Nineties — ed. R.K.R. Thornton — A Penguin anthology of the 1890s Decadent movement — Dowson, Symons, Johnson, and their contemporaries — capturing a decade of exquisite melancholy and wilful excess at the turning point between Victorian and Modern.
5. Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems — Penguin — A selection from the poet who refused to modernise and produced, in that refusal, some of the most enduring verse of the twentieth century — the Poems of 1912-13 alone justify this book.
6. Imagist Poetry — ed. Peter Jones — Jones's Penguin anthology of the Imagist movement, gathering H.D., Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington, and their contemporaries whose programme of precise, image-based verse helped remake modern poetry.
7. The Penguin Book of Eighteenth-Century English Verse — ed. Dennis Davison — A comprehensive survey of the Augustan and later eighteenth century, from Pope and Swift through Gray and Goldsmith to the pre-Romantics — a period that has never quite received the attention it deserves.
8. Seventeenth Century Poetry: The Schools of Donne and Jonson — ed. Hugh Kenner — A scholarly anthology presenting the two competing modes of seventeenth-century verse — the witty, conceit-driven school of Donne and the classical, lapidary school of Jonson.
9. The Penguin Book of Restoration Verse — ed. Harold Love — Love's anthology of the poetry produced in the reign of Charles II — Rochester, Dryden, and their contemporaries — one of the raciest and wittiest periods in the history of English verse.
10. The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse — ed. Kenneth Allott — Allott's influential Penguin anthology of mid-twentieth-century British poetry, which helped define the canon of its era and remains a valuable document of what "contemporary" meant in the 1950s and 60s.
11. The Penguin Book of English Verse — ed. John Hayward — Hayward's comprehensive Penguin anthology spanning the breadth of the English poetic tradition — one of the best single-volume introductions to the whole sweep of English poetry.
12. The Golden Treasury of Longer Poems — ed. Ernest Rhys (Everyman) — Rhys's Everyman anthology gathering the great extended poems of the English tradition — a companion to Palgrave's Golden Treasury that rescues the longer forms from neglect.
13. An Introduction to British Poets 1300-1900 — Michael Schmidt (Pan Literature Guides) — A guide introducing the major British poets from Chaucer to the late Victorians, with critical context designed for students and general readers approaching the tradition for the first time.
14. The New Golden Treasury of English Verse — chosen by Edward Leeson — A new and comprehensive survey of English poetry from medieval to modern, claiming to be the most thorough available in paperback format — a useful complement to Palgrave's original.
15. A Book of Poetry — ed. W.M. Smyth — A wide-ranging anthology gathering poems across periods and traditions in a format designed for broad accessibility and lasting enjoyment.
16. Georgian Poetry — selected and introduced by James Reeves — Reeves's compact Penguin selection from the Georgian movement, presenting the pastoral, accessible verse that dominated British poetry in the decade before the Modernist revolution.
17. Browning: A Selection — W.E. Williams (Penguin) — A Penguin selection from Browning's extensive output, gathering the dramatic monologues and love poems that make him essential reading in the Victorian canon.
18. The Faber Book of Irish Verse — ed. John Montague — Poet John Montague's major Faber anthology presenting a tradition that encompasses Gaelic and English, ancient and modern — one of the most important anthologies of Irish poetry ever compiled.
19. The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse 1945-1980 — chosen by D.J. Enright — D.J. Enright's Oxford anthology surveying thirty-five years of poetry in English, capturing the full range of what the postwar period produced across Britain, Ireland, America, and beyond.
20. W.B. Yeats: The Last Romantic — Illustrated Poets, Aurum Press — A beautifully produced illustrated introduction to Yeats's life and poetry, combining biographical narrative with a selection of his finest verse and relevant images from the period.
21. The Penguin Book of Sick Verse — ed. George Macbeth — Macbeth's gleefully morbid Penguin anthology of verse about illness, death, hypochondria, and bodily decay — darkly funny, unexpectedly rich, and unlike anything else in the poetry anthology tradition.