The Classic Hundred : All-Time Favorite Poems

by William Harmon (Editor)

Paperback, 1990

Status

Available

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Description

Imagine if Billboard compiled a list of the top 100 poems, chosen not by critics or professors but by the people themselves. That's the concept behind "The Classic Hundred," and it works brilliantly. William Harmon found the 100 most anthologized poems in English, based on the ninth edition of The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry the most objective measurement of greatness available, representing consensus among the editors of some 400 anthologies. Then he put them in order and prefaced each one with concise, erudite, often humorous commentary. The range of poets, subjects, and forms from Shakespeare to Frost, from love and death to crime and punishment, from sonnets to odes makes this an entertaining, enlightening, and indispensable aural guide to the finest verse in the English language. "… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member kmjolley

The poems here are good, as is the paper they are written on. The commentary, however, can only be described as weird. The authors insistence on naming the rhyme scheme, for example, is strange and the random facts he chooses to note about the various authors are more distracting in places than

helpful. I certainly do not agree with the rankings that picked these poems for inclusion in this book of all-time favorites, but the book provides a engaging sample of poems and some are sure to be favorites.

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LibraryThing member themulhern

The Classic Hundred Poems are presented grouped by author; the authors are ordered more or less chronologically. I have no opinion on the choices made, but noticed that fragments of many of the poems were familiar to me; I must have encountered them, quoted, sometimes not explicitly, in other

works. The commentary on the poems and the lives of the poets often seemed shallow, while some of the readings seemed to me rather poor, almost irritating. I enjoyed the recording anyway, quite a lot. Even where I do not enjoy the poems, they have some historical interest. Sometimes, when I already knew the poem, but nothing much about it, I learned a bit more.

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