(Part 2) Best poetry anthologies according to redditors

I'll do classical works, since those are what I know best.

Classical works:

Kojiki. One of the recent translations is highly readable. It contains the major native myths and legends, which you will see referenced over and over again in your modern works.

Manyoshu: Earliest surviving collection of native poetry. A partial translation done in the 50s is the one I recommend, as the final English was worked over by an actual English language poet, making it by far the most accessible one around. Poets and topics range far and wide, especially when compared with later classical works.

Tales of Ise: Another one with a recent translation. Provides a good look at the noble aesthetic, romance in classical Japan, etc.

Kokin Wakashu: There are no easy to find translations of this, unfortunately. However, if you were to ask a Japanese scholar what the definitive Japanese classic is, this would be it. All later aesthetics, from literature to art, derive in large part from it in one way or another. It is a collection of poetry from 905 (approx) that epitomizes the new noble aesthetic of the age, and as I said, sets the tone for the next millennium and beyond.

Tale of Genji: The definitive prose classic. Courtly love and romance, political intrigues, all that. There are several full-length English translations (and a few that aren't full length). There are still many adherents to the Arthur Waley version, despite its age. The newer Royall Tyler translation is more thorough and scholarly accurate, however.

Tale of the Heike: Several translations exist, but the recent one by Royall Tyler does a good job of projecting the lyrical quality of the original while maintaining accuracy. Several others exist as well, but the Tyler is probably the easiest to both find and read. Tale of war and upheaval at the end of the 12th century, showing the decline of the nobility and rise of the new warrior class. Probably hard to go from cover to cover with, as there are many names/events/places that are hard to follow for most readers. Spot reading recommended.

Confessions of Lady Nijo: There are a few translations, but the one I have linked is probably the easiest to find. Discusses the life of a woman who served in the imperial courts of the late 13th/early 14th C. and all the trials and tribulations she faced by receiving the favors of the emperor.

Hope this is a good start for you all.

In terms of anthologies, my best luck so far has been with "The Best American Poetry [year]" I also love the "Best New Poets of [year]" series.

They are absolutely amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-American-Poetry-2013/dp/1476708134


http://www.amazon.com/Best-New-Poets-2011-Emerging/dp/0976629666

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

There's the Giant Book of Poetry which is over 700 pages and basically spans all of written history (from years BC to poets born in the 1980's). There's bound to be something you like in there.

There's also The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry (vintage here refers to the publisher, in case you were thinking "vintage" and "contemporary" were contradictory lol). This book has a wide variety of poets that might be lesser known since they aren't American, but still includes some well loved poets including Pablo Neruda and Seamus Heaney. This is a great one too.

I've recommended this a few times on here but there is also the Best American Poetry Series. It comes out every year. Basically, a prominent poet is chosen as the editor each year and they choose the best (totally subjective, but still) poems that were published in literary magazines that year. While it's limited to American poets, it provides a huge variety of poets both established and emerging. Also, it comes out every year, so that's pretty awesome too. The most recent one is Best American Poetry 2013 whish was edited by one of my favorite poets, Denise Duhamel. Totally recommend it. Good luck, hope this was helpful!

Edizione Garzanti accompagnata dal volume di Santagata

https://www.amazon.it/Commedia-Inferno-Dante-Alighieri/dp/881181023X
https://www.amazon.it/Commedia-Purgatorio-Dante-Alighieri/dp/8811810558
https://www.amazon.it/Commedia-Paradiso-Dante-Alighieri/dp/8811810566

https://www.amazon.it/racconto-della-Commedia-Guida-poema/dp/8804673990

è il modo più snello per leggere Dante. Edizioni più commentate come quella della Chiavacci Leonardi hanno più note che poema col risultato di spezzare continuamente il filo della lettura: immagina leggere un verso e poi dover consultare mezza pagina di note.

Il santagata è una parafrasi canto per canto, utile per capire bene ciò che si è appena letto.

Learn how to write poetry. Lyrics comes from “lyric poetry”. Learning rhyme and meter and reading up on poetry writing books and poetry collections will help a lot.

The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry

And on second thoughts...re-release thine books. You've got me to question my own excuses, to be honest, not that you don't have good reasons. There are of course reasons and excuses; one is found in the world of what is reasonable and the other in that which is excusable. That brings in to question the moral.

So in the words of Spike Milligan... a ditty.

> Have A Nice Day
>
> 'Help, help, ' said a man. 'I'm drowning.'
>
> 'Hang on, ' said a man from the shore.
>
> 'Help, help, ' said the man. 'I'm not clowning.'
>
> 'Yes, I know, I heard you before.
>
> Be patient dear man who is drowning,
>
> You, see I've got a disease.
>
> I'm waiting for a Doctor J. Browning.
>
> So do be patient please.'
>
> 'How long, ' said the man who was drowning. 'Will it take for the Doc to arrive? '
>
> 'Not very long, ' said the man with the disease. 'Till then try staying alive.'
>
> 'Very well, ' said the man who was drowning. 'I'll try and stay afloat.
>
> By reciting the poems of Browning
>
> And other things he wrote.'
>
> 'Help, help, ' said the man with the disease, 'I suddenly feel quite ill.'
>
> 'Keep calm.' said the man who was drowning, ' Breathe deeply and lie quite still.'
>
> 'Oh dear, ' said the man with the awful disease. 'I think I'm going to die.'
>
> 'Farewell, ' said the man who was drowning.
>
> Said the man with the disease, 'goodbye.'
>
> So the man who was drowning, drownded
>
> And the man with the disease past away.
>
> But apart from that,
>
> And a fire in my flat,
>
> It's been a very nice day.
>


And read Puckoon.

I am reading the one included in Black's Readers Service.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Works-Dante-Alighieri/dp/B002CBKUTG
It uses the 1850 prose translation of John Aitken Carlyle, annotated by Herman Oelsner. (for every page worth of source text there is about a half page of notes) I switched to this one after trying to read the one included in the Harvard Classics, which was sparsely annotated and very difficult.

The place you should always start with this kind of thing is Homer, where I'm sure there'd be plenty on the dangers of love. In the Iliad, you might want to look at the conversation between Helen and Aphrodite in Book 3, where Helen complains about her being in love with Paris, as well as the seduction of Zeus by Hera in Book 14, where I'm sure you'd get some nice love as disease imagery.

One of the most direct influences on poets like Ovid, Propertius, Horace, et al. would be the lyric poets of ancient Greece, who write about lots of themes, but especially about love. M. L. West's translation of Greek Lyric Poetry is a good one. I'd start with Sappho (especially), but also Alcaeus, both of whom talk about the pain of (unrequited) love. But it's a common enough theme that I'm sure you'd find lots of it in other poets too. We know that Catullus was well-versed in Sappho: Carmen 51 is a direct translation of Sappho fr. 31.

Love and death is a recurrent theme throughout Greek tragedy. For a book-length discussion of the theme, see Rush Rehm, Marriage to Death: The Conflation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy (Princeton, 1994).

In Sophocles' Antigone, for example, you might think about the post-mortem consummation of the 'marriage' between Haemon and Antigone: Haemon stabs himself in the stomach and then 'ejaculates' blood over Antigone's dead body. In the same author's Oedipus the King, Jocasta kills herself on the marriage-bed, after which Oedipus takes her dress-pins and thrusts them again and again into his own eyes, again 'ejaculating' blood all over himself. Sophocles' Trachiniae presents love as a kind of sickness (see esp. lines 445, 5454).

Virgil was heavily influenced by Greek tragedy: the death of Dido in the Aeneid is a carbon-copy of Ajax's death in Sophocles' play of the same name. In that case, however, Ajax kills himself for honour. Dido kills herself for love. Virgil is also heavily influenced by Sappho. One of the most frequent images in the whole Dido-Aeneas affair is the 'fire of love'. Sappho uses this same imagery a lot. (Try to find it for yourself!)

Finally, you might want to look at that other group of poets who were enormous influences on the Augustan poets - the Hellenistic poets. This includes writers like Theocritus, Apollonius and (especially) Callimachus who lived in the third century BC. The Argonautica might be worth looking at to see the presentation of Medea's love for Jason (a strong influence on Virgil's presentation on Dido and Aeneas). What's more, these guys start bringing in the self-conscious literariness and the ironic humour that are familiar themes with poets like Catullus et al.

Hope this helps!

I'd try to find room for a good anthology of poetry: there's nothing like a beautiful setting—and solitude—to give new meaning to familiar lines. My own personal favorite is Immortal Poems of the English Language, edited by Oscar Williams—it fits in a pocket and gives enough pleasure for a lifetime.

Immortal Poems of the English Language is my usual go to. I think it has a great selection but I think it originally came out in the 1950s, or at least at some point in the mid point of the last century.

https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Poems-English-Language-Williams/dp/0671496107/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I saw a post on reddit a couple days ago for an anthology called Poems that Make Grown Men Cry. Some of the literary men who selected poems in the book (I'm still reading it so I don't know all of them yet) include Stephen Fry, Sir Patrick Stewart, Christopher Hitchens, etc. I had a credit on my account and I can't read anything lengthy right now because I'm swamped at school so I downloaded it. So far it's fabulous. I love reading the short bits before the poems about why people chose them and the reasons they found the poem moving.

In case you're wondering, only one poem made me tear up so far. It was written in 1740 by a mother who's son had died. It's so short I can just share it (it's a Hokku):

Dragonfly catcher,
Where today
have you gone?

-Fukuda Chiyo-Ni ~1740

The Rattle Bag is a good place to start (lots of bang for your buck).

"Happy Birthday Percy Blythe Shelley (1792)" from the Simi Valley Library.
https://twitter.com/SimiLibrary/status/761278860952342528
Percy Blythe Shelley - FB Page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Percy-Blythe-Shelley/110602082286115
The Essential Romantic Poetry Collection [Illustrated] Percy Blythe Shelley (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Romantic-Poetry-Collection-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B002VLZ0OC
“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” wrote Percy Blythe Shelley in the 1800s.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dporterfield/2015/10/21/college-students-tell-us-why-high-school-teaching-makes-a-difference/

Hi from London, coincidentally this is the book I am currently reading: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0765VR1JP/

I wouldn't say UK is a racist country as I can compare, but it certainly isn't colour-blind either. My own impression (which I admit, however, mostly comes from the media and social websites) is that the most xenophobic region is Kent, which is on the other side of the country (still unlikely for an average person to face some actual problems there, I believe, but not impossible either).

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

What do you think about the 101 Great American Poems? Bonus- it is on Kindle if you have one! :) or maybe 100 Best-Loved Poems?. I hope you like these! Thanks for the contest!

Possibly in this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-First-World-Poetry-Classics-ebook/dp/B002RI9XQ0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It's a bit late, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says here that the books were called "100 Modern Poems," "Reading Poems" and "Science and the Modern World."

The Amazon summary says "Science and the Modern World," written by Alfred North Whitehead and published in 1925, "shows how cultural history has affected science over the ages in relation to such major intellectual themes as romanticism, relativity, quantum theory, religion, and movements for social progress."

The other titles are very generic, but I'm guessing "100 Modern Poems" is this book, published in 1949. Amazon says it includes poems by Rilke, Rimbaud, Pasternak, Neruda, and Elizabeth Bishop, among others - so not exactly obscure or unknown. "Reading Poems" is a title that's impossible to Google successfully, so no help there.

All in all, the book by Whitehead seems to have been very well-known, so the books probably don't tell us much other than "this guy liked philosophy and poetry." At the very least, the fact that the poetry books were anthologies of well-known poets, the sort of thing you might grab off the bookshelf as you walked out the door, means they, in and of themselves, probably aren't evidence that the man committed suicide.

E.E. Cummings collection
100 Selected Poems https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GR6QKU/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_sRBCxbPS9CCYN

Here a reasonable cheap but good edition. https://www.amazon.es/dp/8467037482/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_d.l6AbVD5VV1J

Kann mit Gedichten eigentlich nichts anfangen, abgesehen von den Werken von Bukowski, die kommen selbst bei mir an.

https://www.amazon.de/Ende-Durchsage-Sammelband-Charles-Bukowski/dp/3462044095/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488038141&sr=1-1&keywords=Gedichtband

I would recommend this:http://www.amazon.com/The-Rattle-Bag-Anthology-Poetry/dp/0571225837 It's a great collection and is simple and has some great stuff.

Try reading Oxford's "Greek Lyric Poetry". These ancient Greek poets wrote about daily life among other things, and sex was a BIG part of that. Graphic descriptions of orgasms, all written in lyrical pentameter. Fun stuff.