100 Great Poets of the English Language / Edition 1

by Dana Gioia

Overview

100 Great Poets provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the poetic tradition in English. Chronologically arranged, the book presents the major poets from Beowulf to the present with representative examples from each author. The headnotes and selections reflect the high notes of each poet¿s career—the classic poems that have earned an enduring place in the canon of English language literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780321198679
Publisher:	Longman
Publication date:	09/07/2004
Series:	Penguin Academics Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.37(h) x 1.21(d)

About the Author

Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and teacher. Born in Los Angeles, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford M.B.A., thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published three collections of poetry: Daily Horoscope (1986); The Gods of Winter (1991); Interrogations at Noon (2001), winner of the 2001 American Book Award; an opera libretto, Nosferatu (2002); several anthologies; and an influential study of poetry¿s place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992). Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer, and Colorado College. He is also the co-founder of the summer poetry conference at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and a frequent commentator on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Mary, two sons, and an ever growing number of cats.

(The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for joy.)

Table of Contents

Preface.

BEOWULF POET (8th Century).

Grendel Attacks.

Battle with Grendel.

Beowulf's Burial.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400).

General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale.

Merciless Beauty.

SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503-1542).

The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love.

Stand Whoso List.

They Flee from Me.

Whoso List to Hunt.

EDMUND SPENSER (c. 1552-1599).

FROM Amoretti.

The Rolling Wheele that Runneth often Round (#18).

Like as a Huntsman After Weary Chase (#67).

One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand (#75).

Prothalamion.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586).

FROM Astrophil and Stella.

Loving in Truth, and Fain in Verse My Love to Show (#1).

With How Sad Steps, O Moon, Thou Climb'st the Skies (#31).

Come Sleep, Oh Sleep, the Certain Knot of Peace (#39).

Leave me, O Love.

My True Love Hath My Heart.

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593).

Elegia V.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.

Faustus to Helen of Troy (FROM Doctor Faustus.)

The End of Doctor Faustus (FROM Doctor Faustus.)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616).

When daisies pied and violets blue.

When icicles hang by the wall.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (#18).

When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes (#29).

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought (#30).

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments (#55).

That time of year thou mayst in me behold (#73).

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (#116).

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (#130).

When my love swears that she is made of truth (#138).

Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth (#146).

Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun.

Full fathom five thy father lies.

JOHN DONNE (1572-1631).

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You.

Death be not proud.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.

At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners.

The Ecstasy.

The Flea.

Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star.

The Good-Morrow.

Song: Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe.

BEN JONSON (1572-1637).

Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears.

On My First Son.

Still to Be Neat.

To Celia (Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes).

Song: To Celia (I).

MARY SIDNEY WROTH (1587?-1623?)

from Urania.

Am I Thus Conquer'd?

In This Strange Labyrinth.

When Night's Blacke Mantle.

You Blessed Stars.

ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674).

Corinna's Going A-Maying.

Delight in Disorder.

Upon Julia's Clothes.

To Anthea, Who May Command Him Any Thing.

To Virgins to Make Much of Time.

GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1633).

Affliction (IV).

The Collar.

Easter Wings.

Love (III).

The Pulley.

Virtue.

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674).

Lycidas.

On Shakespeare.

When I consider How My Light is Spent.

Methought I saw My late Espousèd Saint.

ANNE BRADSTREET (c. 1612-1672).

The Author to Her Book.

Before the Birth of One of her Children.

To My Dear and Loving Husband.

ANDREW MARVELL (1621-1678).

The Definition of Love.

The Garden.

The Mower Against Gardens.

To His Coy Mistress.

HENRY VAUGHAN (1622-1695).

The Retreat.

Peace.

They Are All Gone into the World of Light.

The World.

JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700).

Mac Flecknoe.

To the Memory of Mr. Oldham.

Song (FROM Marriage á-la-Mode.)

APHRA BEHN (1640-1689).

Song: Love Armed.

Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child.

A Thousand Martyrs.

To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagined More Than Woman.

ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA (1661-1720).

Adam Posed.

To Death.

A Nocturnal Reverie.

On Myself.

ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744).

from An Essay on Criticism: Part II.

Epistle II (FROM An Essay on Man.)

Epigram.

THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771).

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (c. 1730-1774).

When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly.

The Deserted Village (excerpt).

WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827).

The Chimney Sweeper.

Holy Thursday.

The Lamb.

The Garden of Love.

London.

A Poison Tree.

The Sick Rose.

The Tyger.

Auguries of Innocence.

And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time (FROM Milton.)

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796).

To a Mouse.

For A' That and A' That.

Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose.

Bonie Doon.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850).

Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways.

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known.

Composed upon Westminster Bridge.

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.

The Solitary Reaper.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

The World Is Too Much with Us.

Surprised by Joy–Impatient as the Wind.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834).

Frost at Midnight.

Kubla Khan.

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824).

When We Two Parted.

The Ocean (FROM Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.)

The Destruction of Sennacherib.

She Walks in Beauty.

So We'll Go No More a-Roving.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822).

Ozymandias.

Ode to the West Wind.

To–.

England in 1819.

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821).

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.

When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be.

Bright Star! Would I were Steadfast as Thou Art.

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad.

This Living Hand, Now Warm and Capable.

Ode on a Grecian Urn.

Ode on Melancholy.

Ode to a Nightingale.

To Autumn.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882).

Concord Hymn.

The Rhodora.

Brahma.

Days.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861).

Grief.

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.

I Thought Once How Theocritus Had Sung.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882).

Proem to Evangeline.

The Jewish Cemetery at Newport.

Snow-Flakes.

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls.

The Cross of Snow.

EDWARD FITZGERALD (1809-1883).

from The Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm of Naishàpùr

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849).

“Alone.”

To Helen.

The Haunted Palace.

The Raven.

Annabel Lee.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892).

Ulysses.

Break, Break, Break.

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal.

Tears, Idle Tears.

FROM In Memoriam.

Old yew, which graspest at the stones (#2).

Dark house, by which once more I stand (#7).

Be near me when my light is low (#50).

The Eagle.

Tithonus.

ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889).

My Last Duchess.

Porphyria's Lover.

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister.

Meeting at Night.

Parting at Morning.

EMILY BRONTë (1818-1848).

Remembrance.

Love and Friendship.

No Coward Soul Is Mine.

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892).

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer.

I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing.

A Noiseless Patient Spider.

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.

I Hear America Singing.

from Song of Myself (1891-1892 “Deathbed” Edition.)

I celebrate myself, and sing myself (#1).

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands (#6).

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul (#21).

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me (#52).

MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888).

Shakespeare.

Dover Beach.

COVENTRY PATMORE (1823-1896).

The Toys.

A Farewell.

Magnus est Veritas.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882).

The Blessed Damozel.

Sudden Light.

The Woodspurge.

Silent Noon.

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886).

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain.

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

I taste a liquor never brewed.

Wild Nights–Wild Nights!

The Soul selects her own Society.

This is my letter to the World.

Because I could not stop for Death.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.

Success is counted sweetest.

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894).

Song.

Uphill.

Amor Mundi.

LEWIS CARROLL [CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON] (1832-1898).

Father William.

Jabberwocky.

The Walrus and the Carpenter.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-1909).

When the Hounds of Spring Are on Winter's Traces.

The Garden of Proserpine.

Sapphics.

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928).

Hap.

“I Look into My Glass.”

Neutral Tones.

The Darkling Thrush.

The Ruined Maid.

The Convergence of the Twain.

Channel Firing.

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889).

God's Grandeur.

Pied Beauty.

The Windhover.

Spring and Fall.

No Worst, There is None.

A. E. HOUSMAN (1859-1936).

Into My Heart an Air That Kills.

Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now.

To an Athlete Dying Young.

With Rue My Heart Is Laden.

Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries.

RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-1936).

Recessional.

Epitaphs of the War.

Danny Deever.

“Cities and Thrones and Powers.”

Harp Song of the Dane Women.

W. B. YEATS (1865-1939).

The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

When You Are Old.

No Second Troy.

An Irish Airman Forsees His Death.

The Second Coming.

Leda and the Swan.

Sailing to Byzantium.

Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop.

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935).

Richard Cory.

Miniver Cheevy.

Eros Turannos.

ROBERT FROST (1874-1963).

Mowing.

After Apple-picking.

Mending Wall.

Birches.

The Road Not Taken.

Fire and Ice.

Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Acquainted with the Night.

Provide, Provide.

WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955).

The Snow Man.

The Emperor of Ice-Cream.

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock.

Sunday Morning.

Anecdote of the Jar.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

Of Mere Being.

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883-1963).

Danse Russe.

Queen-Ann's-Lace.

To Waken an Old Lady.

The Widow's Lament in Springtime.

Spring and All.

The Red Wheelbarrow.

The Yachts.

D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930).

Piano.

Snake.

Bavarian Gentians.

EZRA POUND (1885-1972).

Portrait d'une Femme.

The Return.

The Garden.

The Garret.

In a Station of the Metro.

The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter.

Salutation.

H. D. [HILDA DOOLITTLE] (1886-1961).

Oread.

Garden.

Sea Rose.

Sea Violet.

Storm.

Helen.

ROBINSON JEFFERS (1887-1962).

To the Stone-Cutters.

Shine, Perishing Republic.

Hurt Hawks.

Hands.

Rock and Hawk.

Carmel Point.

MARIANNE MOORE (1887-1972).

The Fish.

Poetry.

To a Steam Roller.

Silence.

The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing.

T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965).

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Preludes.

La Figlia Che Piange.

The Waste Land.

JOHN CROWE RANSOM (1888-1974).

Winter Remembered.

Blue Girls.

Dead Boy.

Piazza Piece.

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892-1950).

Time Does Not Bring Relief.

First Fig.

Second Fig.

Recuerdo.

Passer Mortuus Est.

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed.

WILFRED OWEN (1893-1918).

Anthem for Doomed Youth.

Dulce et Decorum Est.

Strange Meeting.

Futility.

E. E. CUMMINGS (1894-1962).

Buffalo Bill's.

next to of course god america i.

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond.

may i feel said he.

anyone lived in a pretty how town.

pity this busy monster,manunkind.

ROBERT GRAVES (1895-1985).

The Cool Web.

Down, Wanton, Down!

To Juan at the Winter Solstice.

Warning to Children.

Counting the Beats.

LOUISE BOGAN (1897-1970).

The Crows.

Medusa.

Knowledge.

Henceforth, from the Mind.

HART CRANE (1899-1932).

Praise for an Urn.

Chaplinesque.

My Grandmother's Love Letters.

Voyages.

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967).

Cross.

I, Too.

Negro.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

The Weary Blues.

Harlem.

Theme for English B.

STEVIE SMITH (1902-1971).

Mr. Over.

Not Waving but Drowning.

One of Many.

EARLE BIRNEY (1904-1995).

David.

From the Hazel Bough.

Can. Hist.

W. H. AUDEN (1907-1973).

“O Where Are You Going.

As I Walked Out One Evening.

In Memory of W. B. Yeats.

Musée des Beaux Arts.

September, 1, 1939.

The Shield of Achilles.

A Lullaby.

A. D. HOPE (1907-2000).

Australia.

The Lingam and the Yoni.

The Judgment.

Imperial Adam.

THEODORE ROETHKE (1908-1963).

My Papa's Waltz.

Elegy for Jane.

The Waking.

I Knew a Woman.

ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979).

The Fish.

Filling Station.

Questions of Travel.

One Art.

ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980).

Homage to the Empress of the Blues.

Those Winter Sundays.

The Whipping.

JOHN BERRYMAN (1914-1972).

from The Dream Songs.

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so (14).

I am the little man who smokes & smokes (22).

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart (29).

WELDON KEES (1914-1955).

For My Daughter.

Robinson.

Aspects of Robinson.

Round.

DYLAN THOMAS (1914-1953).

And death shall have no dominion.

Fern Hill.

In my craft or sullen art.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917-2000).

The Mother.

Sadie and Maud.

The Rites for Cousin Vit.

We Real Cool.

CHARLES CAUSLEY (b. 1917).

At the British War Cemetery, Bayeux.

I Am the Great Sun.

What Has Happened to Lulu?

ROBERT LOWELL (1917-1977).

Concord.

Mr. Edwards and the Spider.

Skunk Hour.

For the Union Dead.

RICHARD WILBUR (b. 1921).

The Pardon.

Love Calls Us to Things of This World.

October Maples: Portland.

The Writer.

PHILIP LARKIN (1922-1985).

Poetry of Departures.

Days.

Home Is So Sad.

Reference Back.

This Be the Verse.

DENISE LEVERTOV (1923-1997).

The Ache of Marriage.

Hypocrite Women.

O Taste and See.

Our Bodies.

LOUIS SIMPSON (b. 1923).

Early in the Morning.

The Man Who Married Magdalene.

My Father in the Night Commanding No.

The Unwritten Poem.

DONALD JUSTICE (b. 1925).

Counting the Mad.

On the Death of Friends in Childhood.

Men at Forty.

Psalm and Lament.

ALLEN GINSBERG (1926-1997).

America.

Howl (Part I).

JAMES WRIGHT (1927-1980).

Saint Judas.

Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio.

A Blessing.

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.

ANNE SEXTON (1928-1974).

Her Kind.

The Abortion.

The Truth the Dead Know.

Wanting to Die.

ADRIENNE RICH (b. 1929).

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers.

The Diamond Cutters.

Living in Sin.

Rape.

TED HUGHES (1930-1998).

The Thought-Fox.

Hawk Roosting.

Pike.

River.

DEREK WALCOTT (b. 1930).

A Far Cry from Africa.

The Virgins.

from Midsummer (XXVII).

Central America.

RHINA ESPAILLAT (b. 1932).

Aqua.

Bra.

Bilingual / BilingÜe.

Bodega.

GEOFFREY HILL (b. 1932).

The Distant Fury of Battle.

Funeral Music (#3).

Idylls of the Kings.

Lacrimae Amantis.

SYLVIA PLATH (1932-1963).

Metaphors.

Blackberrying.

Daddy.

Lady Lazarus.

SEAMUS HEANEY (b. 1939).

Digging.

Bogland.

Limbo.

Punishment.

LOUISE GLÜCK (b. 1943).

Mock Orange.

The Gold Lily.

Circe's Power.

Reunion.

WENDY COPE (b. 1945).

From June to September.

Lonely Hearts.

Rondeau Dedoublé.

KAY RYAN (b. 1945).

Paired Things.

Turtle.

Blandeur.

Chemise.