Book Description
A multimedia collection of poems introduced by American readers, featuring a DVD including a video introduction by Robert Pinsky. For a reader unaccustomed to reading poetry, or who has fallen away from the custom, this collection offers an inviting way into the art, or back into it. For readers devoted to poetry, it offers illuminating examples of the infinitely various ways a poem reaches a reader. In both the book and the videos on the accompanying DVD, poems by Sappho, Shakespeare, Keats, Whitman, and Dickinson as well as contemporary poets are introduced by people from across the United States—a construction worker, a Supreme Court justice, a glassblower, a marine—each of whom speaks about his or her connection to the poem. Their comments are variously poignant, funny, heartening, tart, penetrating, and eccentric, showing some of the ways poetry is alive for American readers. An Invitation to Poetry will inspire a fresh experience of poetry's pleasure and insight.
About the Author
Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project during his tenure as poet laureate of the United States. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Maggie Dietz is the Favorite Poem Project's director. She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Together they have edited two other books in the favorite Poem Porject Anthology series, Americans' Favorite Poems and Poems to Read.
An Invitation to Poetry: A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology, with DVD FROM THE PUBLISHER
"A collection of 200 poems chosen by American readers, some of them appearing on the DVD, with a video introduction by Robert Pinsky." "For readers unaccustomed to reading poetry, this anthology offers a way into the art. For those devoted to poetry, it offers examples of the infinitely various ways a poem reaches a reader." The videos on the accompanying DVD feature 27 of the acclaimed Favorite Poem Project documentaries as seen on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Poems by Sappho, Keats, Rilke, Whitman, and Dickinson, as well as contemporary poets, are introduced by people from across the United States - a construction worker, a Supreme Court justice, a glass blower, a marine - each speaking about his or her connection to the poem. Their comments are variously poignant, funny, heartening, tart, penetrating, and eccentric, showing some of the ways in which poetry is alive for American readers.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
This third anthology from the Favorite Poem Project under Pinsky (former U.S. poet laureate) is designed to usher poetry back into ordinary people's lives, homes, and bookshelves. Testimonials from Americans of all stripes preface the poems, exploring that fertile crux between poetry and first love, marriage, divorce, war, alienation, and the sudden shock of death. The more difficult poems, therefore, come with their own entr es, which often include a clue to a successful reading or at least a possible reading in the form of these readers' notes. The poems come from dozens of countries, represent a diverse range of emotions and views, and include established poems and more recent aspirants to literary posterity. Readers may wonder whether poems were chosen on the persuasiveness of the testimonials or the enduring strength of the poems themselves. In most cases, the latter is the welcome answer. The accompanying DVD further demonstrates the intense emotional connection ordinary people have with certain poems connections they detail with inspiring candor. Overall, a fine collection of poets' voices that will serve readers well; recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/04.] Joel Whitney, Fordham Univ., New York Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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