19th Century

The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry

A new edition of the acclaimed anthology—the most comprehensive collection of twentieth-century poetry in English available.

"The most acute rendering of an era's sensibility is its poetry," wrote the editors in their preface to the first edition. Thirty years later, this thorough and sensitive revision freshly renders the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and voices in English-language poetry, from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late nineteenth century to Carol Ann Duffy and Sherman Alexie in the twenty-first century.

With 195 poets and 1,596 poems, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry richly represents the major figures—Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Hughes, Olson, Bishop, Larkin, Plath, Rich, Heaney, and Walcott, among others. It also gives full voice to postcolonial and transnational poets, ethnic American poetries, experimental traditions, and the long poem. Each volume concludes with a Poetics section that provides essential contexts for reading the poems.

With substantially new introductions, headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies by the award-winning scholar and teacher Jahan Ramazani, this anthology is indispensable for all who love poetry. Two volumes, slipcased.

Modern Poems: A Norton Introduction

Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America)

Contains the first and "deathbed" editions of "Leaves of Grass," and virtually all of Whitman's prose, with reminiscences of nineteenth-century New York City, notes on the Civil War, especially his service in Washington hospitals and glimpses of President Lincoln, and attacks on the misuses of national wealth after the war.

Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath (Book and 3 Audio CDs)

Poetry Speaks features the work of the most influential writers in modern poetry-written and performed-from 1892 to 1997. This book combines their most significant poems in print with the authors themselves reading their poetry on audio CD. Poets range from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Parker to Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath and Gwendolyn Brooks.

The power of spoken poetry is at the heart of Poetry Speaks. Poetry is a vocal art, an art meant to be read aloud. Listening to a poem read aloud can be a transforming experience. Poetry Speaks not only introduces the finest work from some of the greatest poets who ever lived, it reintroduces the oral tradition of poetry.

Poetry Speaks features over 40 poets in chapters each containing:
• The poems that are read by the poet on the audio CD
• Additional poems in print form to allow the reader to further explore the poet
• A short biography and photo of each poet
• Original manuscripts and letters for most of the featured poets
• An original essay for each poet written by today’s most influential poets, a veritable Who’s Who of poetry, including: Seamus Heaney on W.B. Yeats; Richard Wilbur on Robert Frost; Mark Strand on Wallace Stevens; Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop; Glyn Maxwell on Dylan Thomas; and Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson.

Poetry Speaks-combining the talents of great poets past and living, their words written and spoken-is the most ambitious, comprehensive and innovative poetry project to be published in years, and is sure to be the model for collections to come.

The Portable Romantic Poets: Romantic Poets: Blake to Poe (The Viking Portable Library)

Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work From Tennyson to Plath (Book w/ Audio CD)

"By the time you're done, your biggest problem may be that you wish there was more."
– WALL STREET JOURNAL

"The definitive anthology of poets reading their own work."
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"This grand immersion in poetry follows the best-selling Poetry Speaks (2001) and includes a never-before-published and truly thrilling recording of James Joyce reading "Anna Livia Plurabelle" from Finnegans Wake. Book and CDs work beautifully together, kindling deeper appreciation for the transmuting power of poetry, a practice of discipline, skill, and magic."
- BOOKLIST

"...The prose comes to life when read aloud, especially when you hear James Joyce read it himself."
– NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Jacki Lyden

"This tome is a reminder how the human spirit is capable of finding an outlet in oppressive times, how poetry can help explain why we do what we do as a thinking people...Certainly, in our struggle to make sense out of what we do not understand, Poetry Speaks Expanded helps on so many levels." – Carol Hoenig, THE HUFFINGTON POST

"...[A] bountiful experience: there is the thrill of discovery and re-discovery as with any good anthology, with an added emphasis on the poets' personalities and growth" – John Hammond, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"[An] accessible, beautifully executed collection guaranteed to offer poetry fans a memorable reading and listening experience" – WORDCANDY.NET

"...[A]s I savored these beautiful poems, it reminded me of French poet Charles Baudelaire who wrote, 'Any man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.'" - Norm Goldman, BOOKPLEASURES.COM

"Light[s] up a reader's eyes." - Frank Wilson, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Hear And Read All Of These Poets (And More)
244 Poems Included In The Book
107 Poems Read By The Poets Themselves On 3 Audio CDs

Robert Graves, E. E. Cummings, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, Ted Hughes, Robinson Jeffers, Philip Larkin, Wallace Stevens, Louise Bogan, Melvin B. Tolson, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Ogden Nash, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Allen Ginsberg Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Robert Frost, Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Randall Jarrell, Jack Kerouac, John Berryman, Dylan Thomas, Robert Lowell, Robert Browning, Robert Duncan, May Swenson, John Crowe Ransom

Poetry Speaks Expanded is a fusion of the poet's words with the poet's voice, including text and recordings of nearly 50 of the greatest poets who ever lived, ranging from Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot to Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.

"This book has the potential to draw more readers to poetry than any collection in years."
-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW

"Readers and listeners are guaranteed to hear poems in a new way after spending time with this book and CD set."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW

"Superb, accessible....A unique and essential purchase"
-SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

Poetry
--For the first time ever, James Joyce reads "Anna Livia Plurabelle" from Finnegans Wake alongside the original text from the book
--T. S. Eliot reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
--Sylvia Plath's anger and raw emotion as she reads "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus"
--Jack Kerouac reading from "MacDougal Street Blues," accompanied by Steve Allen on piano
--May Swenson rehearsing "The Watch" prior to a reading
--H. D. reading a part of "Helen in Egypt" from a rare recording made shortly before her death
--Ted Hughes reading "February 17" during a BBC interview
--A never-before-published recording of Alfred, Lord Tennyson reading "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
--W. B. Yeats explaining his reading style and why he chooses to read that way
--Robert Frost reading "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Essays Written By Today's Most Influential Poets, Including: W. S. Merwin on Robert Graves, Seamus Heaney on W. B. Yeats, Paul Muldoon on James Joyce, Robert Pinsky on William Carlos Williams, Sonia Sanchez on Gwendolyn Brooks, Galway Kinnell on Walt Whitman, Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson, Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop and Al Young on Langston Hughes

"The most ambitious, innovative poetry project to be published in years."
-QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB

A Book Sense Top-10 Selection

Edgar Allan Poe : Poetry and Tales (Library of America)

Poe's complete poetry and fiction, collected for the first time, including his remarkable and haunting poems, his classic tales of mystery, horror, and suspense, and his humorous sketches. Includes famous stories such as "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," along with his most popular poems such as "Annabel Lee," "The Raven," and lesser-known works, and his unusual prose-poem "Eureka." This volume displays Poe's extraordinary range and technique, as well as his gift for revealing the darker possibilities of human experience.

Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry

Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters

American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (Library of America College Editions)

This landmark two-volume anthology gathers over 1,000 poems by nearly 150 poets to reveal the remarkable beauty and astonishing diversity of the distinctly American tradition of poetry that arose in the nineteenth century. Includes generous selections by Poe, Whitman, Emerson, Dickinson, Melville, Whittier, and Longfellow, alongside poems only now achieving full recognition, like Jones Very's mystical sonnets and the exquisite fin-de-siecle verse of Trumbull Stickney. A special section is devoted to American Indian poetry in period translations. Throughout are favorite recitation pieces like "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," "Casey at the Bat," and "Little Orphan Annie," and popular ballads, hymns, and songs like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Contains newly researched biographical sketches of each poet, a year-by-year chronology of poets and poetry from 1800 to 1900, and extensive notes.