Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology Third Edition

Poems, Poets, Poetry by Helen Vendler is a great introduction to the world of poetry. It covers, step by step, a variety of styles of poetry, from a number of eras, written by poets of a collection of backgrounds. Note that she explicitly tackles only poetry written in English, as the challenges of translating poetry from a different language into English is an entirely separate (and quite challenging!) subject. So her focus is on the basics - how poetry is written in a given language, how it is interpreted, and what makes it "poetry". I do adore haiku and missed not having many Japanese classics in here, but I understand the reason why the focus was on single language.Vendler chooses a nice range of poems to present her explanations, and goes into them in detail. She lays out ways to examine poetry, ways to ponder their meaning and rhythm and style. She takes Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and diagrams it out, to show relationships. She discusses Yeats Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop, and examines why Yeats chose to wrote in the personae of an older woman.The poems are sometimes hauntingly beautiful - and sometimes they're painfully direct. She covers Hayden's Night, Death, Mississippi which is written about a lynching from the point of view of the racist whites. These types of poems can be hard to read. But they help make us aware of issues, and cover the issue in a way which has strong impact.The second half of the book is a library of poems she's chosen as worth reading and studying. One could say that many of these are available free on the internet - but it's also nice to have them all in one place, organized, and able to be read without batteries or plugs. Sometimes that paper in one's hand is the best option.Well recommended both as a book that provides a wealth of information on what poetry is all about, and also as a collection of meaningful, intriguing poems.I purchased this book with my own funds in order to take a college course.

There may be something ominous to potential, non-student readers in the fact that this is a "textbook". What a bizarre thing! "Text" book. How is it different from a book? Well, it's a form of book that is meant to be taken very seriously because it's "required reading" and because it may help you on some standardized test. It may help you be standardized. A textbook about poetry is perhaps an oxymoron. Is there a standardized test that quantifies stirring of the soul or soaring heart?This is an excellent "book" book on poetry and art in general. In fact, it's one of my favorite books. As soon as I finished it, I started at the beginning again. Except for the proposed questions for discussion or homework, there are very few "textbook" concessions. There is no talking down. It is intelligent and honest from beginning to end.If you want to understand the basic elements of poetry, how it works, what it does that is different from other arts, there can be no finer work.Helen Vendler has an extraordinary ability to see clearly the basis of a poem, working back through the words, rhythms, intonations,and references to the pre-verbal experience the poet had that required expression. She has an intuitive intelligence that is oddly contagious. Sensing her remarkable ability to listen, one's own power to listen is enhanced: I too can puzzle back to the heart of this poem and the experience at its core. Our personal experience has a deep commonality.Finally, of course, it is a book about life. Poetry only exists as a communicative tool for interpreting the precious raw material of life. One says Well, I'm alive so what do I need it for? Well, because we're not alive, we're a little bit alive, brutally familiar with a very small part of life. So this being a book about great poetry addresses the great questions of life itself.

I bought this book for a class that I am taking with Professor Vendler herself. Her love and deep understanding of poetry really come through in her writing, and makes you want to read more. She presents ideas that you may not have thought of yourself, and you eventually find yourself looking at poems in a new way (especially if you're a novice, like myself. The only con, I might say, is that the organization can seem a bit haphazard: she doesn't seem to address poems in any particular order within chapters, and the transitions between poems and their analysis is very abrupt, which can be jarring. I don't think that I will be selling this back at the end of the semester; this book is a gem worth keeping for pure enjoyment of poetry (there is a very healthy-sized anthology at the end of the book, as well as a mini one at the end of each chapter).

As a scholar, getting a clean copy is important to me so that I can make my own marks and comments.

The bookstore shelves (real and virtual) are full of volumes that purport to help novice readers become more perceptive, better-informed readers of poetry. For young people seeking guidance, this is one of the best resources currently available. Vendler is an extraordinarily sensitive and penetrating reader (try her volumes on Shakespeare's sonnets, Keats' odes, or her selection from Emily Dickinson if you think I am exaggerating). She has thought as deeply as anyone about what makes lyric poetry a distinctive genre. This is a marvelous book, full of lessons both for newcomers to poetry and long-time readers.

Arrived beautiful and on time.It's an added bonus that Vendler treats the subject so uniquely. There is some crossover in her explication and craft discussion, some craft elements must be universal by now, but the real power is in how she translates common teaching into accessible lists of "how to" for non-poets and readers that are always looking for ways to see the content more clearly--precisely. I am a H.V. fanboy now.I recommend this book with enthusiasm. It is the chief among my poetry craft books now. If you hate yours I will buy it from you ;) -- I can give these away to students and friends.Thanks, guys.

Great suggestions as to what a poem is about and how to approach understanding a poem. Also a very good selection of poems to introduce us to new poetry and also to remind us of the poems we have met before and liked or disliked.