From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-In all, 1596 poems by 195 poets are included in this exhaustive and meticulous labor-of-love revision. Now divided into two volumes, Modern Poetry and Contemporary Poetry, the anthology includes the works of such masters as Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Lucille Clifton, Louise Erdrich, and Allen Ginsberg. The editors broaden the international scope of the collection's older versions by the addition of newer poets, whose works reveal "a multinational influence and scope," such as Agha Shahid Ali and Christopher Okigbo. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance and African-American modernism are also represented, as are experimental and longer poems, and selections of "ethnic, national, and regional poetries." New, extensive, and beautifully composed introductions provide insight, observations, and historical context for the selections. There are also updated head notes, annotations, and bibliographies. This ambitious, highly successful work is a veritable tribute to the enduring power of literature and language.Hillary Jan Donitz-Goldstein, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Representing 195 poets and 1,596 poems (half new), this classic is finally big enough to divide into two volumes. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
A new edition of the acclaimed anthology—the most comprehensive collection of twentieth-century poetry in English available. "The most acute rendering of an era's sensibility is its poetry," wrote the editors in their preface to the first edition. Thirty years later, this thorough and sensitive revision freshly renders the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and voices in English-language poetry, from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late nineteenth century to Carol Ann Duffy and Sherman Alexie in the twenty-first century. With 195 poets and 1,596 poems, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry richly represents the major figures—Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Hughes, Olson, Bishop, Larkin, Plath, Rich, Heaney, and Walcott, among others. It also gives full voice to postcolonial and transnational poets, ethnic American poetries, experimental traditions, and the long poem. Each volume concludes with a Poetics section that provides essential contexts for reading the poems. With substantially new introductions, headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies by the award-winning scholar and teacher Jahan Ramazani, this anthology is indispensable for all who love poetry. Two volumes, slipcased.

About the Author
A professor of English at the University of Virginia, Jahan Ramazani is the author of three books on modern poetry, including Poetry of Mourning, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The late Richard Ellmann taught at Oxford and Emory Universities. The late Robert O'Clair was professor of English at Manhattanville College.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The most acute rendering of an era's sensibility is its poetry," wrote the editors in their preface to the first edition. Thirty years later, this innovative, cover-to-cover revision renders with fresh eyes and meticulous care the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and voices in English-language poetry. The newly titled Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry—now available in two paperback volumes—includes 1,596 poems by 195 poets (half of the poems are new), from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late nineteenth century to Anne Carson and Sherman Alexie in the twenty-first.The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry continues to be the most comprehensive collection of twentieth-century poetry in English. It richly represents the major figures, while also giving full voice to ethnic American poetries, experimental traditions, postcolonial poetry, and the long poem, eclipsing all other anthologies in scope, clarity, and balance.

Author Biography: A professor of English at the University of Virginia, Jahan Ramazani is the author of three books on modern poetry, including Poetry of Mourning, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The late Richard Ellmann taught at Oxford and Emory Universities. The late Robert O'Clair was professor of English at Manhattanville College.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This anthology is an extraordinary accomplishment by any standard. Now in its third edition, the two-volume Norton classic features 1,596 poems by 195 poets (approximately one-half of the poems are new to this edition). Beginning with the late 19th century, the first volume opens with Walt Whitman and ends with Keith Douglas; the second opens with Charles Olson and ends with Sherman Alexie. One of the great pleasures in perusing the anthology is in recognizing the breadth of poetry in the English language. The major, as well as the sometimes neglected, poets are represented here. All of the traditions in poetry-experimental, confessional, traditional, ethnic, formal, postcolonial, and the long poem-are included. The editors have concluded each volume with a "Poetics" section of influential statements by the poet, which provide context and depth to the reading of the poems. The introductions, headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies have been rewritten to add texture and depth to the reader's experience. The author of three books on modern and contemporary poetry, including Poetry of Mourning: The Modern Elegy from Hardy to Heaney, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Ramazani (English, Univ. of Virginia) has done an excellent job of "renewing the text" for contemporary readers. Essential.-Pam Kingsbury, Florence, AL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal