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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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Poetrymagazine.org
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Audio files of poets reading their own work.
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329 Items found Print
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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)
$5.00
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
104 Poems of Whimsy and Wisdom
by Amy Lykosh (editor), illustrated by Summer Wilhour
from Avyx, Inc.
for 2nd-4th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
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 (6 in stock)
All the World's a Stage
by Rebecca Piatt Davidson, illustrated by Anita Lobel
from Greenwillow Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
AmblesideOnline Poetry Anthology Volume Six
from Ambleside Educational Press
for 5th grade
in Poetry Curriculum & Resources (Location: LIR-POET)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful
by Katharine Lee Bates
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by David S. Shields
from Library of America
for 11th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by Gay Wilson Allen, Walter B. Rideout, James K. Robinson
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$7.61
Another Book of Verses for Children
by E.V. Lucas (editor), illustrated by F.D. Bedford
from Macmillan
for 1st-5th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$20.80 (1 in stock)
Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose
by Arnold Lobel
from Random House
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Mother Goose & Nursery Rhymes (Location: PIC-MG)
$9.60 (2 in stock)
Best Loved Fairy Tales / Selections from a Child's Garden of Verses
by Walter Crane & Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith
from Grolier Publishing
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Big Ball of String
by Marion Holland
from Random House Books for Young Readers
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Beginner Books (Location: EAR-BB)
$3.60 (2 in stock)
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)
$9.34
Book of Americans
by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet, illustrated by Charles Child
from Farrar & Rinehart
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Booked
Crossover #2
by Kwame Alexander
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 5th-7th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$15.29
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)
$11.04
C. S. Lewis: The Poetry & Fiction Collection
by C. S. Lewis
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$129.97
Canterbury Quintet
by Geoffrey Chaucer
from Little Leaf Press
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Kolve V.A. & Glending Olson)
2nd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Peter Beidler)
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$5.09
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by David Wright
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$7.61
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Donald Howard
from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$5.91
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)
$14.41
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest L. Thayer & Patricia Polacco
from Putnam Juvenile
for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$5.94
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 $10.00 (1 in stock)
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 First Steps to Virtues
by Emily Hunter
from Harvest House
for Nursery-3rd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$16.99 $11.60 (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 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Eulalie
from Platt and Munk Publishers
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Cooper Edens
from Chronicle Books
for 1st-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
Arcadia
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Charles Robinson
from Princess House Books
Poetry for 1st-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Macmillan
for 1st-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from Weathervane Books
for 2nd-5th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Eulalie
Popular Edition from Platt and Munk Publishers
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Child's Garden of Verses - A Poetry Pop-Up Book
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Martin & Alice Provensen
from Golden Books
for Preschool-1st grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Introduction to Poetry
Books for Young Explorers
by Michael Driscoll & Meredith Hamilton
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 2nd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$14.00 (1 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
from Candlewick Press
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Classic Poetry
by Michael Rosen & Paul Howard
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$15.99
Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis
by C. S. Lewis
from Kent State University Press
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$37.00
Collected Poems of Robert Service
by Robert W. Service
1966 Edition from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$10.00 (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)
$30.00
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)
$21.25
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 and Selected Letters of John Keats
by John Keats
from Modern Library
for 11th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$19.00
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
Dover Thrift Editions
by Christopher Marlowe
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$2.13
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 7th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$23.99
Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$22.00
Complete Poetry of George Herbert
Penguin Classics
by George Herbert, edited by John Drury & Victoria Moul
from Penguin Classics
Lyrical Poetry for 11th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$18.70
Complete Sonnets
Dover Thrift Editions
by William Shakespeare
from Dover Publications
Lyrical Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$3.83 $1.60 (2 in stock)
Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems
by James Stevenson
from Avyx, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (4 in stock)
Dante's Inferno
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$13.60
Dante's Paradise
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$15.30
Dante's Purgatory
by Dante Alighieri (translation by Anthony Esolen)
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$13.60
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)
$15.29
Dime a Dozen
by Nikki Grimes, Illustrated by Angelo
from Dial Books for Young Readers
for 5th-8th grade
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri (translation by John Ciardi)
from New American Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$29.75
Divine Comedy
by Dante, translated by Joe Carlson
from Roman Roads Media
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$29.95
Divine Comedy - Dorothy Sayers trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers and Barbara Reynolds
from Penguin Putnam
Medieval Allegory/Poetic Epic for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$43.35
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)
$14.45
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)
$14.45
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)
$14.45
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)
$11.90
Divine Comedy Volume 2: Purgatory
by Dante, translated by Mark Musa
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$13.60
Divine Comedy Volume 3: Paradise
by Dante, translated by Mark Musa
Revised from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$15.30
Drat These Brats!
from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 1st-3rd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Dream Keeper And Other Poems
by Langston Hughes
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-9th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Early Poems
Dover Thrift Editions
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)
$5.10
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)
$17.00
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
Eric Carle's Animals Animals
by Eric Carle
First Edition from Philomel Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
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)
$4.00
Family of Poems
by Caroline Kennedy
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Favorite Poems for Children
by Holly Pell McConnaughy, editor
from Barnes & Noble
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
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)
$5.00
Favorite Poems Old and New
by Helen Ferris
from Delacorte Press
Poetry for All ages
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$26.99 $17.50 (2 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)
$7.64
First Caldecott Collection
by Randolph Caldecott
from Living Book Press
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
First Poems of Childhood
by Tasha Tudor
from Grosset & Dunlap
for Nursery-3rd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Flower Fairies of the Spring
by Cicely Mary Barker
from Frederick Warne & Company
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Flower Fairies of the Spring—A Celebration
by Cicely Mary Barker
from Frederick Warne & Company
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Fortune's Bones
by Marilyn Nelson, notes and annotations by Pamela Espeland
from Front Street
for 4th-8th grade
2005 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Four Quartets
by T. S. Eliot
from Harcourt
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$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
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