The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Robert Frost

After a 35-year career of teaching every English course in the curriculum (including American lit), I've found no better representation of the breadth, depth and "character" of great poems in English than the present volume. In the past I've joined the chorus of those who are annoyed and even offended by Bloom's arrogance, elitism, volubility and numerous other problems that his kind of "genius" tends to attract. But he scores a triumph with this anthology--both in his selection of poems and in his concise, pithy and plain-spoken introduction to the poets.Let's look at perhaps the two most critical areas of an anthology such as this: 1. Does it "prioritize" the major poets in a way that is not self-serving favoritism and therefore inaccurate and misleading? 2. Does the editor show respect for the reader's time and edification, painting portraits that eschew the garrulous in favor of thoughtful assessment?Perhaps both questions can be addressed by a single example: Robert Browning. Bloom personally ranks Browning above all of the following: a. his contemporary Tennyson, b. his immediate mentor Percy Shelley, and 3. his modern proteges Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot. Yet a reader would never infer Bloom's preferences based on the number of pages allocated to the difficult poet who was, through most of his career, viewed as "the husband of Elizabeth Barrett."25 pages of the volume are dedicated to Browning's poetry. His more popular contemporary, Tennyson, receives almost 50 pages. Compared with Browning's achievement not only in the supreme volumes of his best dramatic monologs--"Men and Women" and "Dramatic Personae"--but in the daunting masterpieces--"The Ring and the Book" and "Sordello" (the inspiration for Pound's "Cantos" and a poem that has the reputation--perhaps justifiably--as the most difficult, challenging and daunting poem in English)--compared to such poems, Tennyson's reputation as "Voice of the Victorian Age" (he was poet laureate), is unearned. Bloom knows it--but he nevertheless gives over twice as many pages to the more "accessible" poetry of Tennyson.Having struggled for years to read read "The Ring and The Book" and "Sordello" with comprehension and understanding, I've arrived at a kinship with Browning bordering on the telepathic. Yet Bloom's concise and highly accessible 3-page introduction offered me more insights about Browning than complete books about his poetry.With some of Bloom's assessments of this poet there can be no disagreement: "Between 1840 and 1842...Browning accomplished a superb metamorphosis of his Shelley heritage, and emerged with his characteristic and triumphant form, the dramatic monologue."With others there will be objections raised, especially, by champions of the Irish and American modernists (the latter including Dickinson, Stevens and Frost): "Browning is the most considerable poet in English since the major Romantics, surpassing his great contemporary rival Tennyson and the principal twentieth-century poets, including even Yeats, Hardy and Stevens. But Browning is a very difficult poet, notoriously badly served by criticism . . " As a deep reader of all the foregoing poets, I see no grounds for disagree with Bloom's assessment of Browning's singular stature.Bloom offers thought-provoking insights into Browning that can only be pondered and expanded by the thoughtful reader of not merely difficult but exceptionally complex and "long" poems written in a dialect that is neither the King's English (Tennyson) nor the common person's (Frost). Bloom is not afraid of the "work" entailed in such laborious "labors of love," especially given the enormous yield.He concludes his introduction to this Victorian poet by challenging Browning's own categorization--"Dramatic Monologue"--and recharacterizing the poems as the most comprehensive expression of the potentialities of the "modern self": "Browning, in his uncanny greatness, is a king of psychological atomic... In his work, older conceptions of personality disappear, and a more incoherent individual continuity is allowed to express the truths of actual existence. ...his lovers learn that we can never embrace any one person at a time, but only the whole of an incoherence, the cluster of voices and beings that jostles in any separate self. ...His poems, obsessed with the obstacles to art, do more to remove them than any others of the last century."The reader is free to dismiss Bloom's judgments and to proceed to the necessarily limited sampling of any single poet in the present volume. But anyone who takes issue with Bloom's ordering of Shakespeare and Chaucer as the two most important poets in English, both of whom serve as the criterion by which all other poets are measured, probably has no business putting a book like this on their shelf. About Shakespeare's eminence there can be no disagreement. About Chaucer's claim to the place closest to Shakespeare there "should" be no protest.As one who has never tired of rereading both "The Canterbury Tales" and "Troilus and Cressida," I would only add that the first sentence of the "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" by itself proves that Chaucer is the rightful "father" of the English language, its literature, its inexhaustible variety and vitality, breadth and depth. That 18-line sentence establishes, with every re-reading or utterance, an ongoing connection between Chaucer's world and ours--or, of his moment in time and the present moment of any human being capable of reading a sentence that--besides setting in motion the journey with its diverse pilgrims and their tales--gives birth to the aspiring, imaginative self of each and every one of us who thinks in English.

I find myself picking up this anthology again and again, which I guess means that it is high time to give my 2-cents about it. I have found this anthology an absolute joy to use for a number of different reasons.From a book-lovers perspective: the pages are thick, and made with nice paper. I am reviewing the paperback edition, and even after toting it all across the United States for a year or two (I travel a fair bit) the integrity of the pages is still intact. The binding is not half bad, either. I did not make a point to break it in and I have not run into any problems as of yet. Also, (and this is a huge perk) the formatting of the pages is also very nice, making it possible to encounter these poets without having to battle with small font or bulky annotations. One will be surprised at the level to which certain poets speak to you once they have been liberated from the confines of onion-thin anthology pages and tiny, cramped fonts.From a poetry-lovers perspective: the book attempts to be the perfect collection, and in many ways succeeds. The old favorites are all here: Chaucer (well-glossed for those unfamiliar with Middle English), Milton (with an indispensable introduction and treatment of Lycidas by Bloom), Shakespeare (surprisingly well represented) as well as some more modern favorites like Dickinson (whom I finally feel I understand after reading Bloom's introduction to her poetry) and Hart Crane (for whose poetry Bloom make a passionate appreciation) are all here. Bloom makes a valiant attempt in the modern poetry section to sort out the poetry that he thinks will ultimately last over time. Unfortunately, one wishes that he would have gone beyond the death of Robert Frost. I would really have loved to hear his more detailed appraisals of W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and perhaps John Ashberry.For it is in the introductions and commentary (spanning sometimes nearly 10 pages) that this book's value is truly found. Mr. Bloom's criticism is eclectic, seasoned, funny (his comments on Poe are priceless), and often frustratingly opinionated. His section on Dickinson made me love a poet for whom I never thought I had any taste, and his section on Spenser makes a valiant effort at reinstating a now much-neglected poetic master. And yet, his section on T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are disappointing, seemingly limited by his (and their) polemics. Also, his choices of Yeats' poetry make absolutely no sense to me. On a more personal note (for me, a Christian), he seems to slightly depreciate the Christianity that so clearly influences many of these poets, which I found disappointing in a critic so fine as Bloom. Lastly, he spends a great deal of time discussing the psychological influence of poets on one another. However, whereas sometimes I find this a tiny bit tedious in his other works (being of a different critical persuasion), it is here done in a way that always makes one go back to the poems themselves. In the end, I always found myself wishing for more commentary on some poets, but am more than satisfied with what is already there.For all its shortcomings, this book is (in my opinion) Mr. Bloom at his best: allowing canonical poetry to speak with the depth and meaning that it has spoken to him. No anthology will include everything that we want (seeing Eliot's Four Quartets here would have been wonderful), but Bloom makes his favorite selections with no apologies, and in the end one is left with a breathtaking view of poetic history. His essay at the beginning underscores this effect admirably, and he comments on poetic theory in a way not found in many writings of contemporary critics. This was very refreshing.I am soon traveling overseas, and will be away from my library for several years. Not having the money or desire to invest in a kindle library, I am happy knowing that this will certainly be accompanying me in my travels. It is not to be missed, and has provided me with hours of enjoyment. Many thanks, Professor Bloom, for such a fine and respectable anthology.

Uma monumental antologia da poesia inglesa, acompanhada de pequenas notas sobre cada autor. Praticamente todos os grandes poetas da língua inglesa estão nessa antologia.

Harold Bloom's 'The Best Poems of the English Language' is a veritable treasure trove of poetic gems. It's a carefully curated collection that showcases the richness and diversity of English poetry. It's like a guided tour through a museum of fine art - enlightening, inspiring, and deeply satisfying. Can't beat a collection of poetry curated by Falstaff himself!

As somebody who collects books of poetry, and literary criticism, I recommend this book with no reservations. If you want to buy one anthology of British / American poetry, this is the edition to buy. Bloom has excellent taste, of course, and some of his selections are surprising. But his essays (introductory essay and lengthy essays on each poet, in some cases essays on individual poems and poetic phases in a poet’s output) are superb - incisive, detailed and never condescending to the reader. Highly recommended.

ジェフリー・チョーサーからロバート・フロストまでの英語圏の主要な詩人の作品を集めたアンソロジー詩集です。イギリス、アメリカの詩人が１０５人掲載されており、各詩人の章扉には、編者のブルーム氏による批評が載せられています。　チョーサー、スペンサー、シェイクスピア、マーヴェル、ミルトン、ポープ、ブレイク、ワーズワース、コウルリッジ、バイロン、シェリー、キーツ、エマソン、ロングフェロー、ホイットマン、ディキンソン、テニソン、ブラウニング、ロセッティ兄妹、リア、ルイス・キャロル、イエイツ、トマス・ハーディ、Ｄ・Ｈ・ロレンス、フロスト、スティーヴンス、Ｔ・Ｓ・エリオット、エイケン、アダムス、クレーンが、４作以上の作品を掲載されています。　Ｈ・Ｄ・ソローやエミリー・ブロンテ、キプリング、サミュエル・ジョンソン、エズラ・パウンド、ロバート・バーンズ、エドガー・アラン・ポー、ドライデン等は著名な方たちですが、作品の掲載数は３作程。　特に多いのはシェイクスピア、ワーズワース、ホイットマン、ディキンスン、テニスン、キーツ、シェリー、エリオットでしょうか。　不勉強で私は名前を知らなかったけれど、辞書で調べればちゃんと載っているという詩人も大勢収録されています。勉強になりました。　私はこの編者の方と割合意見と趣味が合ったので、この本を買って正解だったと思います。大好きなテニスンに対する評価が高かったので、心の中で「ですよねー！」と賛同しつつニコニコしながら批評を読みました（笑）。まだ全部の批評は読めていませんが、何人分か読んだぶんには、結構思い切りのいい批評をされる方だと思います。　　基本的に代表的な長編は部分訳収録ですが、詩人によっては掲載されていない場合があります。ロングフェローの『ハイアワサの歌』の収録はありません。　テニスンの『イン・メモリアム』やスペンサーの『妖精の女王』バイロンの『チャイルド・ハロルド』等は、部分収録になっています。また短編では、キーツの『ブライト・スター』や『ナイチンゲールへのオード』、シェリーの『西風に寄せて』等は収録されていますが、ワーズワースの『水仙』はありません。　原詩のアンソロジー詩集を買うのは初めてなので、詩人及び作品のチョイスの良し悪しや、作品量の比重の是非をはっきり意見できなくて、申し訳ないですが・・。

Para quem gosta de poemas e domina o inglês, um ótimo livro para ler. Poesias de temáticas variadas.