Louis Untermeyer

A collection of poetry by outstanding American poets of the 19th and 20th centuries (early years).

First published 1929. The 1950 edition contains the new poets, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, Robert Viereck.

“I do not love to wed, / Though I do like to woo,” wrote Robert Herrick, who died as a bachelor. His lyrical poetry, though containing many Classical allusions, is fresh and simple. The author of many love poems, he writes advice to virgins and descriptions of the type of mistress he desires.

John Donne, in contrast to Herrick, is the type of poet who married the woman he loved even though it meant having to go to jail because of his disapproving...

There is a remote quality about the personality of Rilke, even though, in some strange fashion, he seems to grow ever closer to us out of the distance, transcending himself, as it were. Over the years there have been many interpretations of him, on many levels. Here the voice of the poet himself rings out to us. Benvenuta's first book on Rilke was a document of quiet and reverent gratitude. The infinitely appealing picture she drew in it was irradiated...

A chronologically arranged anthology and history of poetry supplemented with biographies of the poets.