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Poetry

Trying to define poetry is almost a crime. One of its enduring appeals is that it defies definition, overturns convention, and reinvents words themselves to create meaning out of chaos. Ironically, the best poetry also exemplifies convention, submitting to forms and styles to evoke whatever it is poetry is supposed to evoke.

Pascal spoke of "reasons of which the reason knows nothing," and while he was describing his Christian faith, the statement almost perfectly describes good poetry. Bad poetry is just the opposite: it tells the reader too much, it's ungainly and unmusical, it broods in the corner or waves its arms around for attention. Good poetry communicates directly with the soul, whether or not the mind comprehends.

That's not to say poetry should be meaningless. A lot of contemporary "poets" string words together and call it art, but it's really just pretension, or (worse) obscenity. Some have gone so far as to write anti-poetry, a form specifically devoted to creating "poems" that are inherently unpoetic. None of this is poetry—call it self-aggrandizement, pseudo-intellectualism, or just dumb, if it doesn't look, sound or act like a poem, it probably isn't.

On the other hand, not all poems should look or sound the same. Opponents of free verse need to understand that the language grows and changes, and that free form poems don't abandon, they just reinterpret rhythm and cadence....just as free verse practitioners need to recognize the beauty and requisite skill displayed in more structured forms like sonnets and villanelles.

Typically, a poem uses the natural rhythms of language to conjure meaningful images for the reader. While poets in every age have been attracted to its form as a tool for intellectual or philosophical rhetoric, a truly great poem is one that imparts to individuals an attitude, emotion or idea without seeming to do so. More than writers in any other genre, poets must interest their audience if they're to impact them.

This isn't to suggest a poem means whatever any reader wants it to mean, or that it should merely delight. Far from it: without a definite (or at least, apprehendable) idea in mind, the poet ends up communicating nothing, just as he does if he simply intends to entertain.

What it does mean is that a poem should be universal to the extent that anyone can read it and get something out of it. Obviously, identifiying and understanding allusions, analogies and metaphors will heighten understanding (and enjoyment), but if an initial encounter ends void, the poet has failed to do what he or she set out to do.

Many of the world's greatest writers have been poets. The opportunity for a clever or brilliant turn of phrase in a poem is much higher than in a novel or treatise; poets often sweat for days over a single word, intent on using the language to its absolute potential. This is the paradox of poetry—even in its most primordial form, whispering to our deepest selves, poetry-making requires an active and agile mind.

But don't come to any poem primarily to learn in a cognitive sense; come first to enjoy, and then to learn what it means to love, to be human, to value and respect beauty, even to fear and mourn. Any novel can tell you how other people think, but few of them can unite all readers the way a poem can, to tear down barriers and speak where language is only a vague notion, and words are much more than their definitions.

Introduction by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Audio files of poets reading their own work.
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100 Best-Loved Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Philip Smith
from Dover Publications
Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$4.00 $2.50 (1 in stock)
101 Great American Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Paul Negri
from Dover Publications
Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$4.00
All the Small Poems and Fourteen More
by Valerie Worth
from Sunburst Book
Lyrical Poetry for Preschool-4th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$9.99 $5.00 (5 in stock)
American History in Verse
by Burton Stevenson
from Bob Jones University Press
Poetry for 3rd-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
$11.00
Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry
by Tony Barnstone & Chou Ping, eds.
from Anchor Books
for 9th-12th grade
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$17.00 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Annotated Milton
by John Milton
from Bantam Books
for 11th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$8.95
Bilbo's Last Song
by J.R.R. Tolkien, Illustrated by Pauline Baynes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Blue Birds
by Caroline Starr Rose
Dgs from Puffin Books
Narrative Poetry / Novel-In-Verse for 4th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$10.99
BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Michele Wood
from Candlewick Press
for 4th-6th grade
2021 Newbery Honor Book
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.99
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
2015 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award, National Book Award
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$10.99
Canterbury Tales
Penguin Classics
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Nevill Coghill)
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Poetry for 8th-12th grade
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$11.00
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Peter Beidler)
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$5.99
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by David Wright
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$8.95
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Donald Howard
from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$6.95
Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
for 7th-11th grade
2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.95
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest L. Thayer & Patricia Polacco
from Putnam Juvenile
for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.99
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest L. Thayer & Christopher Bing
1st edition from Chronicle Books
for 2nd-6th grade
2001 Caldecott Honor Book
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$19.99
Charge of the Light Brigade & Other Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Alfred Tennyson
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$4.00
Child's Book of Poems
by Gyo Fujikawa
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$14.99
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Tasha Tudor
from Simon and Schuster
Poetry for 1st-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99 $14.50 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Dover Publications
for 1st-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$4.00 $1.50 (2 in stock)
Child's Introduction to Poetry
Books for Young Explorers
by Michael Driscoll & Meredith Hamilton
First Revised Edition from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 2nd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
Children of Hurin
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Classic Poetry
by Michael Rosen & Paul Howard
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$15.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Collected Poems of T. S. Eliot
by T. S. Eliot
1st edition from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$25.00
Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Modern Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.00
Complete English Poems of John Donne
Penguin Classics
by John Donne
from Penguin Classics
Lyrical Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$21.00
Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti
by Christina Rossetti
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$22.00
Complete Poems of Christopher Marlowe
by Christopher Marlowe
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$2.50
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 7th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$23.99
Complete Sonnets
Dover Thrift Editions
by William Shakespeare
from Dover Publications
Lyrical Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$4.50 $2.00 (2 in stock)
Dante's Inferno
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Dante's Paradise
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$18.00
Dante's Purgatory
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night
by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen
from Houghton Mifflin
for 1st-4th grade
2011 Newbery Honor Book
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.99
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri (translation by John Ciardi)
from New American Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$21.00
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$35.00
Divine Comedy I
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Divine Comedy II
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$15.00
Divine Comedy III
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers & Barbara Reynolds
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Divine Comedy Volume 1: Inferno
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Robert Pinsky
Revised from Farrar & Rinehart
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$14.00
Divine Comedy Volume 2: Purgatory
by Dante, translated by Mark Musa
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$16.00
Divine Comedy Volume 3: Paradise
by Dante, translated by Mark Musa
Revised from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$18.00
Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$4.00
Early Poems
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$3.50
Eclogues and Georgics
Dover Thrift Editions
by Virgil
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$5.00
Edgar Allen Poe’s Pie
by J. Patrick Lewis
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for 2nd-6th grade
in Math Picture Books (Location: MATR-PIC)
$7.99
Elfin Knight
by Edmund Spenser & Toby Sumpter
from Canon Press
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$20.00
English Romantic Poetry
Dover Thrift Editions
by Stanley Appelbaum, editor
from Dover Publications
for Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$6.00
English Victorian Poetry
by Paul Negri, ed.
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$6.00
Essay on Man and Other Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Alexander Pope
from Dover Publications
for Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$4.00
Evangeline and Other Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$3.00
Favorite Poems of Childhood
by Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Emily Dickinson, Eugene Field, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sarah Josepha Hale
from Dover Publications
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$4.00 $2.50 (2 in stock)
Favorite Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$3.00
Favorite Poems Old and New
by Helen Ferris
from Delacorte Press
Poetry for All ages
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$26.99
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves
by Roy Maynard & Edmund Spenser
from Canon Press
Allegory/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$20.00 $9.00 (5 in stock)
Firefly July
by Selected by Paul B. Janeczko, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
from Candlewick Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.99
First Caldecott Collection
by Randolph Caldecott
from Living Book Press
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
Four Quartets
by T. S. Eliot
from Harcourt
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Fourth Caldecott Collection
by Randolph Caldecott
from Living Book Press
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
Frog Went A-Courtin'
by John Langstaff
from HMH Books for Young Readers
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$7.99
Goblin Market and Other Poems
by Christina Rossetti
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$4.00
God's Servant, Job
by Douglas Bond
from P&R Publishing
for Nursery-3rd grade
in Bible Stories for Kids (Location: BIBR-STO)
$9.99
Gone Fishing
by Tamara Wissinger, Illustrated by Matthew Cordell
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for 2nd-6th grade
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$6.99
Great Short Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
by Paul Negri, editor
from Dover Publications
for 9th-12th grade
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$3.00
Harp and Laurel Wreath
by Laura M. Berquist
from Ignatius Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$24.95 $15.00 (1 in stock)
Hiawatha
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1st edition from Puffin Books
Poetry for 4th-8th
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$8.99
I, Too, Am America
by Langston Hughes and Brian Collier
from Simon and Schuster
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.99
Inside Out & Back Again
by Thanhha Lai
Reprint from HarperCollins
Narrative Poetry / Novel-In-Verse for 4th-8th grade
2012 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Johnny Appleseed
by Reeve Lindbergh
from Little, Brown & Company
Poetry for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.99
Joyful Noise
by Paul Fleischman
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-6th grade
1989 Newbery Medal winner
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.99
La Vita Nuova
by Dante Alighieri
from Dover Publications
Medieval Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$3.00 $1.50 (2 in stock)
Language of Flowers
by Kate Greenaway
from Dover Publications
for all ages
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$6.95
Learning Language Arts Through Literature - British Poetry Anthology
from Common Sense Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
$8.00 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Lessons from Nature
by John Bunyan
from Back Home Industries
Lyrical Poems for 3rd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$24.00
Llama Who Had No Pajama
by Betty Fraser, Mary Ann Hoberman
from Harcourt
for Ages 5-10
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.99
Major Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.95
Major Works of Lord Byron
by George Gordon, Lord Byron
from Oxford University
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$18.95
Major Works of William Wordsworth
by William Wordsworth
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$18.95
Marshmallow Clouds
by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones
from Candlewick Press
for Kindergarten-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
May B.
by Caroline Starr Rose
from Yearling
Narrative Poetry / Novel-In-Verse for 4th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$6.99
Mentor Book of Major American Poets
by Oscar Williams & Edwin Honig
from Mentor Books
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$8.99 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Metamorphoses
by Ovid, translated by Charles Martin
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.95
Metamorphoses
by Ovid
Reprint from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$7.95
My Daddy Rules the World
by Hope Anita Smith
from Henry Holt and Company
for Preschool-4th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$17.99
My Uncle Emily
by Jane Yolen
from Philomel Books
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.99
Narrative Poems
by C. S. Lewis
Reprint from HarperOne
Narrative Poetry for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.99
Night Before Christmas - Coloring Book
by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by John O'Brien
81st edition from Dover Publications
for 3rd-5th grade
in Literary & Fantasy Coloring Books (Location: COL-LIT)
$4.99
Now We Are Six
by A. A. Milne
from Puffin Books
Poetry for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.99
Now We Are Six
by A. A. Milne
from Dutton Children's Books
Poetry for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$19.99
On the Wing
by David Elliott, Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
from Candlewick Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.99
Ordinary Hazards
by Nikki Grimes
from Wordsong
for 10th-Adult
2020 Robert F. Siebert Honor Book
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.99
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1998 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Owl and the Pussycat
by Edward Lear, illustrated by Jan Brett
from PaperStar Books
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.99
Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems
by Donald Hall
from Oxford University
for 2nd-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$12.95
Paradise Lost
Penguin Classics
by John Milton
2003 Revised from Penguin Classics
Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$12.00
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$10.00
Paradise Lost
A Norton Critical Edition
by John Milton
3rd revised from W. W. Norton and Co.
Formal Poetry for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$29.95
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
by John Milton
from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$7.95
Paradise Lost in Plain and Simple English
by John Milton
from CreateSpace
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$18.95
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