100 Great Poems Of the Twentieth Century
edited by Mark Strand

100 Great Poems Of the Twentieth Century
(2005)
edited by Mark Strand.

100 Great Poems Of the Twentieth Century (2005) edited by Mark Strand.
100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.
Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Amy Clampitt. Anne Carson.
Babette Deutsch. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks.
François Villon. Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
Jack Gilbert. James Tate. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. Jorie Graham.
J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka). Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Len Anderson. Les Murray. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Louise Glück.
Mary Oliver. May Sarton. Nordic Skalds. Philip Larkin.
Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Richard Hugo. Robert Bly.
Sappho. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn.
Takuboku, Ishikawa. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin. Women: 100 poems.

100 Great Poems Of the Twentieth Century

Summary.

Poets.

Comment Summary

There is much to commend 100 Great Poems Of the Twentieth Century (2005) edited by Mark Strand.

Some statistics:

100 poems.
258 pages of poems, so on average 2.6 pages per poem.
Poems are by poets born before 1928 (except for 5 special-cased non-Americans).
Poets are from North and South America and from Europe; poets of Africa and Asia are not represented.
49 of the 100 poems are translations; 51 originally in English.
15 of the poems are by women: the intent was to have 16, but a last-minute denial of permission from the Mistral estate cut the number to 15.
8 of the 100 poems are by USA-born women born prior to 1928 and also appearing in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.
While most of the poems are very good, it seems that the majority are somber and about death. You have been warned.
24 pages of biographies.

Poets

Poets in alphabetical order

Akhmatova: Anna Akhmatova.
Alberti: Rafael Alberti.
Amichai: Yehuda Amichai.
Ammons: A.R. Ammons.
Andrade: Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

Andrade: Mário Andrade. His "Residue" (translated from the Portuguese by Mark Strand) is stunning, with these first and (partial) final stanzas:

From everything a little remained. From my fear. From your disgust. From stifled cries. From the rose a little remained. ... Still, horribly, from everything a little remains, under the rhythmic waves under the clouds and the wind ... under the ties of family, the ties of class, from everything a little always remains. Sometimes a button. Sometimes a rat.

Ansen: Alan Ansen.
Apollinaire: Guillame Apollinaire.
Ashbery: John Ashbery.
Auden: W.H. Auden.
Bachmann: Ingeborg Bachmann.
Berryman: John Berryman.
Bishop: Elizabeth Bishop. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Bogan: Louise Bogan. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Borges: Jorge Luis Borges.
Cavafy: C.P. Cavafy. His "Waiting for the Barbarians" (translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard) is a delight as always.
Celan: Paul Celan.
Cendrars: Blaise Cendrars. His "Menus" (translated from the French by Ron Padgett) is an interesting accretion of seeminly found poems.
Césaire: Aimé Césaire.
Christiensen: Inger Christiensen. Her "Poem on Death" (translated from the Danish by Susanna Nied) is an absorbing 8-page poem that ends:
as depth lifts water up to a spring death lifts the living up to drink
Clampitt: Amy Clampitt: "dense, rich language and an intricate style". [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Crane: Hart Crane.
Desnos: Robert Desnos.
Doolittle: H.D. [Hilda Doolittle]. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Dugan: Alan Dugan.
Duncan: Robert Duncan.
Eliot: T.S. Eliot.
Elytis: Odysseus Elytis.
Frost: Robert Frost.
Fuertes: Gloria Fuertes.
Ginsberg: Alan Ginsberg.
Gunn: Thom Gunn.
Hardy: Thomas Hardy.
Harwood: Gwen Harwood.
Hayden: Robert Hayden.
Hecht: Anthony Hecht.
Herbert: Zbigniew Herbert.
Hikmet: Nazim Hikmet.
Jacob: Max Jacob.
Jammes: Francis Jammes.
Jeffers: Robinson Jeffers.
Juarroz: Roberto Juarroz. His untitled poem starting "Life draws a tree" (translated from the French by W.S. Merwin) is an endlessly puzzling and delighting 2-page poem that starts:
Life draws a tree and death draws another one. Life draws a nest and death copies it. Life draws a bird to live in the nest and right away death draws another bird.
Justice: Donald Justice.
Koch: Kenneth Koch. Wisely, the entry is Koch's phenomenal 3-page poem "On Train May Hide Another".
Larkin: Philip Larkin. The entry (only one of his many high-caliber poems) is "Next, Please".
Lawrence: D.H. Lawrence.
Lihn: Enrique Lihn.
Lima: Jorge de Lima.
Lorca: Frederico García Lorca.
Lowell: Robert Lowell.
Merrill: James Merrill.
Merwin: W.S. Merwin.
Michaux: Henri Michaux. His " 'I Am Writing To You From A Far-off Country' " (translated from this Belgian's French by Richard Ellman) is a 6-page, 12-section prose poem.
Millay: Edna St. Vincent Millay. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Milosz: Czeslaw Milosz.
Montale: Eugenio Montale.
Moore: Marianne Moore. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Muir: Edwin Muir.
Nash: Ogden Nash.
Neruda: Pablo Neruda.
O'Hara: Frank O'Hara.
Oppen: George Oppen.
Owen: Wilfred Owen.
Pagis: Dan Pagis.
Parra: Nicanor Parra.
Pasternak: Boris Pasternak.
Pavese: Cesare Pavese.
Paz: Octavio Paz.
Pessoa: Fernando Pessoa.
Ponge: Francis Ponge.
Popa: Vasko Popa.
Pound: Ezra Pound.
Prévert: Jacques Prévert.
Queneau: Raymond Queneau.
Rilke: Rainer Maria Rilke.
Ritsos: Yannos Ritsos.
Roethke: Theodore Roethke.
Rozewicz: Tadeusz Rozewicz.
Seferis: George Seferis.
Snodgrass: W.D. Snodgrass.
Stevens: Wallace Stevens.
Stone: Ruth Stone. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Supervielle: Jules Supervielle.
Swenson: May Swenson. [Also in 100 Essential Modern Poems By Women (2008) edited by Joseph Parisi and Kathleen Welton.]
Szymborska: Wislawa Szymborska. Her "The End and the Beginning" (translated from Polish by Joanna Trzeciak) is a 2-page that begins:
After every war someone has to clean up. Things won't straighten themselves up, after all.
Thomas: Dylan Thomas.
Thomas: Edward Thomas.
Transtromer: Tomas Transtromer.
Tsvetaeva: Marina Tsvetaeva.
Villaurrutia: Xavier Villaurrutia.
Walcott: Derek Walcott.
Warren: Robert Penn Warren.
Wilbur: Richard Wilbur.
Williams: William Carlos Williams. His "These" is a 2-page poem in 3-line stanzas.
Wright: James Wright.
Wright: Richard Wright.
Yeats: William Butler Yeats.
Zanzotto: Andrea Zanzotto.
Zukofsky: Louis Zukofsky.

Books

Links and Books