Poetry Books

This is a great book that I first remember checking out of my junior high school library (believe it or not) in the early '70s. Searched for years, found a copy, killed it with overreading, got another one, and that one's on its way out too.

The perfect bathroom reader.

The fountain pen joke is worth the price of admission (and the first six pages of the book!).

Thank God there are lots of these floating around -- I may have to get another soon...

I remember Mason Williams as one of the marvelous performers who found a nationwide audience on the Smothers Brothers CBS television show in the 60s. This little book includes lots of song lyrics, bits from the show, poetry and photographs. One of my favorites: " 'These Are the Times That Try Men's Souls:' / When Justice is over-ruled by Law / When Peace is attainable only by War / When Freedom is sabotaged by Organization / When God is only a device for Immortality / When Progress is stifled by Traditional Ignorance / And Baby, these are any old time." A most appealing blend of satire, folk wisdom and gentle humor.

Summer of '69
Sitting in a home for unwed mothers at seventeen, I borrowed this book from my roommate. When I left, the book came too. She didn't love it enough! The pages came loose from so much use but I didn't care.

I got to meet my birth daughter in 1995. So that she would know the state of mind I was in while pregnant with her, I gave her this book.

I miss it!

Get off me Get off me Get off me Get off me Get off me.

If you consider that amusing, you will like this book. If you do not, then you will not.

We had this book in our house at some point in the early 70's. At a time when we 5 teenagers were in almost daily conflict with our parents, this book was something that we all enjoyed and laughed about together. It helped us to make a connection with them at a time when connecting was not easy. The book disappeared somehow, and we have since tried many times to recall the words to all the "How 'bout them . . ." poems. Some we remembered, and some we debated. Amazon recently found a copy for me just after my father got out of the hospital after a stroke. His memory is spotty now, but when I showed him the book. He immediately started searching for "How 'bout Them Lunch Toters", his personal favorite. Once again, this book helped us to make a connection at a time when connecting was not easy. I've recited the poems to my daughter many times and now I'm glad I'll be able to get the words right.

I first read "Memoirs" several years ago and picked it up again a month or so ago before traveling to Chile. I was just as enthralled by Neruda's life and exquisite writing as I was on the first reading.

One of the highlights of my recent trip was a visit to La Chascona, Neruda's home in Santiago. The home (a series of buildings on the side of a hill) reflects Neruda's sense of whimsy and humor. It was a thrill to sit in the hillside cafe realizing I had walked in the footsteps of Neruda and his guests.

Yes, I am a fan of Pablo Neruda's poetry but even more so of his memior. He captures life, its details, his surroundings, nature and indepth feelings like no other.

It reads like music.

Pablo Neruda's "Memoirs" is not a comprehensive autobiographical document. It is a personal memoir, recounted as if the author was sitting around a table, with good friends and a bottle of excellent Chilean wine, telling tales of the people, anecdotes and incidents that were so important in his life. "Confieso Que He Vivido," means I confess that I have lived. And Sr. Neruda certainly did that...with zest, zeal and so much talent. The translation by Hardie St. Martin is a good one, but it does not do justice to Neruda's beautiful skill with the Spanish language. He romances the language, like no other, even with his prose.

Neruda was born, the son of a railroad worker, in the then frontier wilderness of Southern Chile in 1904. He led a bohemian lifestyle, dressing in black "like the true poets of the last century," during his university years in Santiago. His shyness, the "kink in the soul,"...especially of women, took him a while to overcome. He describes the people and places of that period with great 'carino' (love). His political ideology began to form at that time also, and politics became an integral part of his writing. The Student Federation, student demonstrations and the subsequent repression, had a great impact on the young intellectual.

Neruda led a rich and fascinating life. World traveled throughout his life, he served as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java. He was the consul in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and during this time "Nine Love Poems" from "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada" was published. It was at this time also, that his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was killed. Neruda was present in Paris to organize a worldwide anti-Facist congress of writers that would be held in Madrid. His writing about Spain during the war is heartbreaking. Returning to Chile in 1938, he found a burgeoning Fascist movement in his own beloved land.

I particularly enjoyed his account of the time he spent in Mexico, as consul. He tells of his encounters with the great Mexican painters there.

After returning home, Neruda ran for political office and was elected to Chile's Senate in 1945. He was later removed from his Senate seat after joining the Communist Party.

His friends included: Garcia Lorca, Ehrenburg, Picasso, Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and most sadly, Salvador Allende.

Pablo Neruda's death, just weeks after the brutal murder of Chile's President Allende, is something I will never forget. I was living in Colombia at that time, and remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Allende's death, and later heard of Neruda's passing. It called to mind, then and now, my recollections, as a young girl, when President Kennedy's assassination was announced. I always thought Neruda died of a broken heart.

This is an exceptionally good memoir, told with great charm, in a series of vignettes. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pablo Neruda's poetry - to my mind some of the most beautiful in the world. It also gives us a glimpse of the politics of the left from the point of view of a Latin American - not the usual perspective, and well worth while.

From very first pages, I was swept away into another world. You do not need to be familiar with Neruda or Chile to enjoy this book, but it helps. Neruda, while well known for his immense contribution to poetry, is a stunning writer of prose.

Memoirs by Pablo Neruda was simply the most beautifully written autobiography i have ever laid eyes on... Not only does he talk about his exceptional journey through life, from his childhood in the forest to his worldwide travels as a chilean diplomat (and encounters with famous personalities along the way), but his abundant observations and insights on life are an inspiration to anyone who has cruised through life while wondering where they are headed. Beautiful language and keen observations. Reading it made me wish I knew Spanish...

Here's my favorite quote from the book: "It lies not in our power to love or hate, for will in us is overruled by fate"

Moliere's leading characters often have one major negative trait which dictates their behavior throughout the play. In this they often seem to be mechanical stock characters and not flesh- and - blood living human beings. In 'The Misanthrope' Alceste believes he must tell the truth to everyone he sees. This is despite the advice of his best friend Philinte. Alceste alienates everyone. At the same time he is madly in love with with Celimene. He wants her to go away with him to retreat from hypocritical society. She however flirtatious and light - minded prefers society to him. The play closes with Philinte trying to persuade Alceste not to leave society completely.
In the second play in this volume the leading character is a religious hypocrite. He finds his way into the heart and mind of a wealthy gentleman Orgon and dominates his family life. Tartuffe steals his money , leads Orgon to disinherit his son and offer his daughter to Tartuffe in marriage. Tartuffe attempts to seduce Orgon's wife. Orgon is convinced to hide under a table where he overhears Tartuffe's entreaties. Orgon then decides to eject him from the family but cannot. It is only with the intercession of the king that the religious hypocrite is stopped. This play raised a furor in its day and the Church opposed its production. Moliere's patron Louis XIV allowed its production in private but only after five years allowed its public staging.
In both these plays Moliere viciously satires the human propensity to remain fixed and static in one's own character, and reaction to reality. He derides human folly but always with the redeeming grace of laughter.
For the contemporary reader of the work who does not feel the special force of the work in its original language there often may seem something forced and artificial in the work. Moliere's work it seems to me gain much from being staged and to know them truly reading alone is not enough.

Many people are turned off by the rhyming nature of Tartuffe. Personally I find myself so enthralled with the story that I often fail to notice that the story itself rhymes. Real belly laughs abound as we watch Orgon blindly walk through life, oblivious to the religious-hypocrite's misdeeds. It's an absurd story, but it's meant to be thus. It does miss something if you don't see it performed live but once you have, when you read it as it is presented here, you manage to get full enjoyment!

The Misanthrope exists in much the same credit. This work centers on the protagonist Alceste, whose wholesale rejection of his culture's polite social conventions make him tremendously unpopular. This manifests itself in the primary conflict of the play, which results from Alceste's refusal to compliment a sonnet by Oronte, a character who lacks Alceste's respect for unabashed sincerity.

I'm not as big a fan of The Misanthrope as of Tartuffe but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was very happy to be exposed to the text this way. This is an excellent rendering.

I rarely read plays (not counting Mr. S.) and rarely read poetry. I'm glad I broke with tradition and read these. I think I went to high school with some of the characters - and 45 years later some of them haven't changed. The plays are so funny that I found myself reading out loud (to myself) using different voices for the characters. I have never done that before and it added to my enjoyment to create a "play" while reading the script.

Most enjoyable - maybe I'll tackle some more plays.

Here they are. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe, arguably Moliere's two most famous plays, translated by Pulizter Prize-winner Richard Wilbur, the crown jewels of his poetic output. These translations are performed all the time, and have proved themselves on the modern stage. But the effect of them is not lessened by reading, as this bookshelf-ready edition shows. They are packed with hilarious observations about the pretentions in us all.

The Misanthrope is about a man who tells the harshest truth to everyone but himself; Tartuffe about hypocricy in religion. They read fast and funny, the rhyming couplets of the original faithfully reproduced. The language seems so natural and witty that you think perhaps these plays weren't written in the seventeenth century. But they were, this species of farce being extinct these days, except in rare places like The Simpsons. I can not only unhesitatingly recommend these, but also all of Wilbur's translations of Moliere. It is rare for a comic author to get such a seriously worthy treatment. Hooray!

In both these plays, Wilbur brings Moliere's true genius to real life. Previous translations of Moliere's work pale by comparison to Wilbur's brilliant translations. It was my feeling, that would Moliere by alive today, and writing in American English, he would write the way Wilbur translated it.

In comparison to prose translations in the past, Wilbur, past US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, truly gives the reader the real feeling of Moliere's "Balletic Comedy" style, as Moliere used his poetry and comedy to make complex and serious points about life of "regular" people, as opposed to royalty such as Shakespeare concentrated on, and so many other playwrites of the past.

In reading Wilbur's translations, one can virtually imagine the cast prancing and mincing across the stage as they humorously render these rhyming couplets at each other, and the audience. The true genius of both Moliere and Wilbur is illustrated most profoundly and strikingly in these translations. Any true lover of Moliere, and even those who have never read him before, should treat themselves to Wilbur's translations for a Moliere experience, that is unparalleled in any other versions previously published.

The book was insightful and refreshing in its approach. The depth of feeling peeked out in every page and word. The book brought a truly inspiring sentiment to me as I read it.

Mountain's Stillness~ River's wisdom is truly a book to behold.
I can't say enough about the poetic charm and deep wisdom Philip M. Berk is able to convey with such heartful comfort and solace.

This is a kind of book that you can take anywhere for a reminder of the beauty in stillness and the divinty in all of us...
It is a gift to the world!!!

In "Mountain's Stillness, River's Wisdom," Philip Berk transmits fundamental spiritual truths through the calm, reflective words of a true poet. Every passage is simple and direct, yet full of depth. I especially liked the chapter On Becoming because it is so empowering in its message of manifesting your dreams in reality and living up to your full potential in this life. Berk's writing is eloquent and his message is clear and brilliant. This book is perfect for a daily dose of contemplation and inspiration.

Mountain's Stillness is a nice change from other books on self-reflection because it is a small book with statements so enlightening that it makes it easy to pick up and read at any time. The text is so rich that most statements rest appropriately in their designated chapters. The flow of the book is calming, and it has the strength to bring a person to the present moment quickly with a feeling of warmth and security. I'd recommend this book highly to everyone.
I look forward to more books from this author.

Mountain's Stillness River's Wisdom brings me out of the noise of my daily struggle with life and back to my true being. Every passage in this book has a message for me. There is truely more peace in my life after reading just one page; it is my little salvation before and after each day. Thanks Philip M. Berk!

Written over forty years, MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS WITHOUT END is poet Gary Snyder's highest achievment. Here he has presented a perception of the world that has taken four decades of experience to put into words. The collection moves chronologically from Snyder's glimpse in the 50's of a Japanese scroll that gave the book its name, though his wanderings in the American West, and into senescene.

Decades of travel have exposure Snyder to so much of our planet, and this experience forms a major part of MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS WITHOUT END. Mixing ecological perspective with Buddhist metaphysics, these poems are a powerful description of Man's relationship with the planet. Snyder is supremely aware of how attached mankind is to the Earth, and how its ever-surrounding landscape influences peoples.

The final poem "Finding the Space in the Heart" is a moving retrospective of Gary Snyder's forty years as a writer, from his Beat poet days in the 1950's to the older man that he is now, using elements of Buddhism's Prajnaparamita-sutra, the so called "Heart Sutra."

While Snyder's poems sometimes do not succeed due to clumsy meter, a lacking that makes me give this work only four stars, they often move the reader with their sincerity and signifance. MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS WITHOUT END is certainly worth a read.

I have some ambivalence about giving Snyder 5 stars for this work. I come to this collection of poems after reading "Turtle Island", which I liked better overall. It had a bit more of the wide-eyed innocence that makes the poetry more heart-felt to me, even with that whole section at the end dedicated to prose on how to make the world a better place.

I found several poems in "Mountains..." that I like better than the ones in "Turtle Island" - particularly pieces like "Ma", which takes the form of a letter from a mother to son. What I didn't like so much was the pervasive use of East Indian and Oriental terms, much of which had little meaning to me. Recognizing a certain desire on Snyder's part to "disorient" a traveller through the literature helped somewhat. But often I felt Snyder was abusing his "superstar" status to make these foreign phrases seem more important than they actually are. How difficult can it be to just say what you want to say without resorting to another language? Snyder certainly has many tools at his disposal - the sum of which comes under the heading of "Poetic License".

Admittedly, languages are not solid, and new words creep in all the time. Perhaps Snyder feels he is just doing his part to force the issue with regard to some patterns of thought he wants insinnuated into western english. But I don't think it comes off that way all the time. Many times it just sounds like: "Aren't I clever to come up with this deep-meaning foreign phrase that you don't understand". This detracted some from the total effect in the book.

Ultimately, that's just me of course. One must do one's own thinking on these matters. And since I gave the thing 4 stars, it obviously still comes highly recomended from my viewpoint.

In this work of poetry, Snyder has presented a perception of the world that has taken four decades of experience to put into words. But, this is more than a simple philosophical oratory, because Snyder came to write this due to the influence of Nature. This is a powerful description of Man's relationship with the planet.

Gary Snyder's epic poem "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is an epic work from an American Zen Buddhist pioneer. From Kerouac to the millenium, it is all there. His history is our history. Read it and get wiser.

Golden nugget from Sierra streams. Gold never rusts.

I purchased this book for my new granddaughter when I found it on this site. This is the same book that I must have read hundreds of times to my daughter, her mother! It's a fun book, the illustrations wonderful, and made both my daughter and I a bit "misty" to see it again!!

The book arrived in perfect condition and we were all excited to see this "old friend".

This is a great ABC book. It is different from the usual format so it really gets kid's imaginations going. As a teacher I love to have a book that expands vocabulary. This book is good as a model for a class book. I also use it as a part of a first grade maps unit. We find all of these interesting places!

The format of this book is consistent for each letter of the alphabet. The letter being featured on the page is large and in color. The text length and layout is also consistent page to page. Also, the repeated structure for each letter helps the reader anticipate the same rhythm for each page.
This is an entertaining book but not one that would be appropriate for a very young child. It would be more appropriate for children that are five years or older. On each page, there is a lot of activity. Not only are there two characters, a place, item being sold, and two animals, the illustrations also convey confusion or chaos. For example, the W page says, "W my name is Winifred and my husband's name is William. We come from Wales and we sell whistles. Winifred is a WOLF. William is a WEASEL." The illustration shows the wolf and weasel blowing whistles as seven other animals fly through the air and cover their ears. There is also a clock shattering and two signs with fine print. With so much commotion on each page, it would be difficult for a child to focus on the intended words that showcase the letter for that page.
Another reason this book would not be a good choice for a very young child is that Bayer frequently uses animals, names, and places that might be unfamiliar to the child. For instance, "C my name is Clara and my husband's name is Claude. We come from Calcutta and we sell cakes. Clara is a COW. Claude is a CONDOR." On this page, the author could have chosen more well-known names (Catherine or Carl), place (Cleveland or California), and animals (cat or cougar). However, the author does include notes at the back of the book about some of the less familiar creatures.
All of the reasons that this would not be a good book for a child just learning the alphabet are the reasons as to why it would be extremely fun and entertaining for any child or adult past that developmental stage. The unusual words can provide an instant vocabulary lesson. The illustrations help support the text by clarifying any words that would be unknown to the reader.

I am a Pre-Kindergarten Readiness teacher in my school district for 5 year olds. This book was listed in my Fountas & Pinnell kindergarten phonics text to assist students in learning to read their names in print. I used this story to highlight my students names as we placed them on the word wall in my classroom. I found the text enjoyable and a great learning tool.

I think this is a book that could be enjoyed by anyone but really seems to speak to a woman's heart. As I read, I found myself thinking back on my own life experiences.

The author's strong spiritual sense comes through in her very entertaining takes on human relationships of all kinds. A very soulful lady!

Marilyn Dean is a gifted writer that sees far and beyond what first appears when dealing with life. We all should take a moment to enter her world, which will give you an omniscient view because we can all, relate to the positive and inspirational messages. Here are a few of my favorites... "God is", page 3, "Absentee Dad", page 73, "Please come in out of the rain", page 141 and "Final Wishes", Page 203. This collection is beautiful and breath taking. You will be happy you checked out her story, her way, her circle...

Mariyn comes to you from the heart,her experiences are in most cases yours. I had the honor of meeting with her and her sister Gwenn in Michigan during the month of 7/02. Again her style of writing relexs you and infuses you to try harder. Time has allowed her to be herself and to flow with her God giving talents.

Marilyn Dean writes poetic notes to herself that reveal beauty, spirituality and strength. My Way Living Life Full Circle reveals her divine spirit through a human experience. Her poetry transcends mundane thoughts, life's pains, and life's treasures whose words enlighten and entertain. This book is a perfect gift to yourself or any woman.

Marilyn Dean writes poetic notes to herself that reveal beauty, spirituality and strength. My Way Living Life Full Circle reveals the spirit through a human experience. Her poetry transcends mundane thoughts, life's pains, and life's treasures whose words enlighten and entertain. This book is a perfect gift to yourself or any woman.

My Walk with Jesus, by Christina R. Jussaume, is an inspired book of poetry written with skill and a grace filled heart! The poetry within blends the beauty of nature with the understanding nature is but one of the many gifts from God! Christina offers an oasis of serenity and peace for all who have experienced, or are now experiencing, one of life's many uphill climbs. From the distinct imagery of "The Cobblestone Bridge" to the reminder to the faithful of "Blessings in Abundance" ~~ the reader will find poems to treasure and reflect upon. This is certainly a wonderful gift for someone you care about. it is a gift I am most pleased I have given myself! I look forward to further poetic publications from this talented author!--Karen M Miner

Reviewed by Betty Louise Keck... By a naturally gifted writer, filled with the Holy Spirit as she shares her faith in Jesus Christ. Easy to read and understand, as this reader related to my own experiences. The imagery that Christina created, and the flow of her words, wonderfully done. Her poetry communicated everyday experiences, facing life with a sense of humor while sharing her thoughts of faith in God and love of nature. I especially enjoyed "God's Beautiful Gift" and "The Rainbow" The message in her work seems to be "listen to our inner voice" capturing the essence of what spirituality is all about! This beautifully written collection of poetry is a must have for anyone's poetic library! Betty Louise Keck, poet, Author..."Embracing Life's Melody" and "Whispers of the Heart" at fine book stores. This review was written by Betty Louise Keck....

This is a wonderful book of faith, Nature and everyday living with good
advice on all those facets of life. This book is also a vibrant collection of poetry styles.
It could be used as a reference book on poetry styles. Take this book and set for awhile
and read words of inspiration and story poems of life and faith.

If you are only a little spiritual or if you have a deep sense of spirituality you will feel blessed that you took this walk with Christina R. Jussaume. In the poem entitled "My Words of Faith" you will know what it is to have faith. There is a poem for father's and one for mother's days. Christina will give you the best advice you could ever receive. Ms. Jussaume will prepare you to meet with God. The different styles of poetry used will stimulate your mind. I treasure this book and will read it many times. I hope that you have the chance to walk with Christina. Highly recommended! Daveda Gruber (author of "The Blonde Who Found Jesus", "Castle of Ice", "A Blonde View of Life", "Tales of a Tiny Dog", "More Snapshots" and "Snapshots ...a Blonde View")

I personally found this book to be inspirational. I have been going thru a personal crisis and questioned the existance of God. Reading her poems about the beauty aound us in everday things brought me peace and rejuvinated my faith. I would reccomend this book to anyone especially those in a crisis to remind them that, yes God goes exist and walks with us.

This is a thin book (not the gift edition) but it's very deep. It expresses what modern poetry needs & that is a sense of place & a new historical perspective. I picked this up because of the first poem in the book, Theories of Time & Space & I am not disappointed in the least. This book seems to carve "place" & put you there where the author is experiencing "living."

This is a fascinating life story, told through intricate, strong poems. If you like poetry, or storytelling, this is a fine collection.

Native Guard
by Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard is a superb example of storytelling through poetry. Her seamless imagery flows like lyrical essays inviting you into her world of "southern living" as seen by a woman whose mother was black and father white; a product of the infamous unwritten law of the two races mixing in the 1950's.
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, there is no denying that Trethewey has a distinctive style and demands the attention of word artists. The title poem, Native Guard, is not only a poignant excerpt of Civil War history buried in the hidden archives of the south, Trethewey professes the contributions soldiers of African decent who served this country in the name of freedom for all men.
Native Guard opens with a story/poem of the disappointment of her mother at 16, who left "the dirt roads of Mississippi" on a train to California to meet her father only to find him nowhere in sight. Trethewey sweetly illustrates the torment of physical abuse by her stepfather, mourns the passing of her mother, the cross burning in her front yard, and the beauty of the South with all its degeneracy. Her stories flow in sonnets, a pantoum, and a verse form I have yet to identify illustrated in "Myth" (page 14) which left me awestruck. Her poetry exudes a gentle anger that is soothed with a balm of historical lessons.
Native Guard is familial history and southern history. Trethewey provides notes for the epigraphs she used as well as the sources used to create the title poem "Native Guard."
I highly recommend purchasing this book, if for no other reason, for the fact that the sister won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry! I only wish I counld have purchased the first edition!

As I read these poems, each offers a an insight which calls me to visualize the scenes that are portrayed. I've reread several passages to confirm their impact.

This book is great example of powerful modern poetry. I'll recommend it to many. it offers a profound mix of history and personal experience. Trethewey reveals her life and thoughts fearlessly.

Weighted with temperament and the presence of graveyards, Trethewey paints vivid images of a past aware of its own history and the death of loved ones:

"It rained the whole time we were laying her down:
Rained from church to grave when we put her down.
The suck of mud at our feet was a hollow sound.

I wander now among names of the dead.
My mother's name, stone pillow for my head."
(Graveyard Blues)

Finding portents in simple childhood acts, the more mature poet replays such impulses in a new light:

"how they'd dry like graveside flowers, rustling
when the wind blew- a whisper, treacherous,
from the sill. Be taken with yourself,

they said to me: Die early, to my mother."
(Genus Narcissus)

Bi-racial, the poet blends the spirit of her parents with the inevitability of their destinies and the legacy to their child:

"Already the words are changing. She is changing
from colored to negro, black still years ahead.
This is 1966- she is married to a white man-
And there are more names for what grows inside her."
(My Mother Dreams Another Country)

Recounting the discoveries of childhood with a history in the south- war and miscegenation- I am struck by the poet's embrace of time and place, the troubled years of war and the ubiquitous presence of race in daily life; yet she instinctively draws beauty where there is none, an intimate awareness of her parentage and position in a black and white world she treads so intuitively. There is much to be learned simply by listening to Trethewey's words, caught in the magic of her introspective nature. Luan Gaines/ 2007.

Richard Wilbur is a master of form. His poems are incredibly stately, balanced, intelligent, and beautiful, and then one notices that everything rhymes exactly where it's supposed to! Bonus points!

If you enjoy more than merely reading excellent poetry that rhymes and makes sense, but also composing some of your own, this is the master to be discipled by. Sitting at Wilbur's feet for years can't help but enable some of his craft to rub off by sheer delight or osmosis. Merely by associating with poetry the way it was meant to be written can permanently raise the bar of anyone's craftsmanship to new levels. There is a richness in Wilbur's best work that is unrivaled among his contemporaries and matched by few of his predecessors (Frost, Robinson, Yeats, Hardy, Housman). Also recommended: get your hands and mind on anything Wilbur has written in the form of Essays/Prose that describe what great poetry is and why it will always be core to the human condition. Although Auden once said 'poetry doesn't make anything happen' in his Sept.1939 tribute to Yeats' death, Wilbur's comes closest to making something happen at the spiritual, cognitive and affective level of the human psyche that proves his subject matter matters and always will. Other than the late Frost, no American poet would be more richly deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature than Richard Wilbur. But as a sincere Christian, he is laboring for no mortal pay; however, he humbly deserves all the accolades and tributes from what is past,or passing, or to come.

Richard Wilbur is undoubtedly the best poet of the last half of the 20th century. This book collects all his poetry other than Mayflies (published later) and a couple translations. Buy It!

This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection contains all of Wilbur (except his great translations of Moliere and Racine) in reverse chronological order of his books from 1989 to 1954. This is the opposite of most poetry collections, so it seems strange to have the poems get less confident as you read on. Still, the final poem, "The Beautiful Changes," is near-perfect and perfectly sums up Wilbur's paradoxical outlook: beauty is eternal and ever-changing.

Wilbur is old school. He is all about meter and rhyme and beauty. His command of sound and sense is second to none alive. (He has edited a collection of Poe's poetry and is famed for his accurate verse translations of Moliere's plays.)

As I read through this book, I put a star by every poem I liked. Flipping through it now, I see there is a star by almost every poem. I did not find Wilbur as deep or as challenging as Frost or Yeats, poets he is compared to by other reviewers on this site. I can, however, appreciate his mastery of the craft of formal poetry. This is not some bad pseudo-Shelley but really a poetry in the language of our time about the issues of our time.

If you detest rhyme, complex stanzas and short, potent lyrics, by all means avoid Mr. Wilbur. But if you find delight in the artful manipulation of language then you are depriving yourself of happiness in not reading this collection.

UPDATE: Wilbur has released a new COLLECTED POEMS in 2004 that supecedes this edition. It only adds a score or so of poems, but I recommend it because there are a few new ones like "Man Running" that no Wilbur fan should be without.

it's no wonder wilbur was once the poet laureate or that this collection won the pulitzer, the man is good. he uses the language beautifully (the way english was meant to be in poetry), he has tight control of the rhyme, meter, subject, and words in his poems. where he really shines is in his translations. wilbur is one of the best translators living today.