{"product_id":"the-top-500-poems-by-william-harmon-323r","title":"The Top 500 Poems by William Harmon","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Top 500 Poems offers a vivid portrait of poetry in English, assembling a host of popular and enduring poems as chosen by critics, editors, poets, and general readers. These works speak across centuries, beginning with Chaucer's resourceful inventions and moving through Shakespeare's masterpieces, John Donne's complex originality, and Alexander Pope's mordant satires. The anthology also features perennial favorites such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and John Keats; Emily Dickinson's prisms of profundity; the ironies of Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot; and the passion of Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg. These 500 poems are verses that readers either know already or will want to know, encapsulating the visceral power of truly great literature. William Harmon provides illuminating commentary to each work and a rich introduction that ties the entire collection together.  Editorial Reviews  From School Library Journal YA-- A chronological compilation that tells the story of poetry in English. Harmon enhances each entry with pertinent information about the work and the poet; his insight adds much to the enjoyment of the collection. The selections are taken from the ninth edition of The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry , chosen because 400 contemporary editors, critics, and poets included them most often in their own anthologies. The Poems in Order of Popularity concludes the book. Easy-to-read print with a look of fine calligraphy on high-quality paper add to the appeal. - Arlene Hoebel, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.  Review If your library can buy only one volume of poetry, let this be it.  Booklist  The Top 500 Poems is intriguing in concept and management, and most of us will want to own it. And for this we are grateful. -- Gwendolyn Brooks, poet  A revealing snapshot of one aspect of Western civilization, even including a list of the poems in order of popularity.  Globe and Mail  The merriest poetry anthology of the past decade.... It's everything from 'Sumer is icumen in' to Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' with terse, plain, and rather wonderful commentary by Harmon.  Buffalo News  It is rare indeed to come across a book in which wisdom and love come together as powerfully as they do for William Harmon. -- John Frederick Nims, coauthor of Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry  About the Author William Harmon is the James Gordon Hanes Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the editor of A Handbook to Literature, The Classic Hundred Poems, and The Oxford Book of American Light Verse, and he is the author of several volumes of poetry, including winners of the Lamont Award and the William Carlos Williams Award.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41827884630090,"sku":"323r","price":16.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/9101\/8826\/files\/323r_163f99d5-20ed-4129-badf-2b7f1b2ae831.jpg?v=1764412238","url":"https:\/\/www.bookexpress.nz\/products\/the-top-500-poems-by-william-harmon-323r","provider":"Book Express","version":"1.0","type":"link"}