[.ca] The Oxford Book of English Verse (ISBN 0192141821)

From Amazon.com:
Let's get one thing straight. Christopher Ricks's 1999 version of The Oxford Book of English Verse contains some of the finest poetry the world has ever seen. Judiciously selected and beautifully produced, this anthology will reward both poetry virgins and over-versed roués with its canny, sometimes inspired conjoining of the familiar and the obscure. (It's also the first edition to let dramatic verse through the gate, meaning that some of the Bard's greatest lines have now made the cut.) From the medieval "Sumer is icumen in" through Seamus Heaney's "The Pitchfork," Ricks selects 822 poems from more than 200 writers. Not surprisingly, Shakespeare comes out on top. But Wyatt, Sidney, Jonson, Milton, Pope, Blake, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Hardy also make strong showings, as do such under-anthologized females as Mary Robinson, Jane Taylor, and Frances Cornford. In addition, the editor includes an assortment of mnemonically irresistible nursery rhymes. Anyone who cares about literature in the English language will want this on their shelf. Yet some of those same devotees may have serious reservations about what Ricks has done with this literary institution. When Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch wrote his preface to the first Oxford Book of English Verse in October 1900, his agenda was quite clear. He had tried to range over the whole field of English Verse from the beginning, or from the Thirteenth Century to this closing year of the Nineteenth, and to choose the best. Nor have I sought in these Islands only, but wheresoever the Muse has followed the tongue which among living tongues she most delights to honour. To bring home and render so great a spoil compendiously has been my capital difficulty. The metaphors of imperial colonialism spoke confusedly as the Muse followed the English tongue throughout the world and the anthologist brought back the rewards it wrought and wreaked. A century later, the project of "English verse" has lost its imperial certainty, and Ricks is no longer interested in exploiting the former colonies for raw material. Instead, he states categorically that his "does not seek to be a book of Anglophone verse, of verse in the English language whatever its provenance." This leads to some anomalies. He takes American verse only through the 1770s, but is happy to include verse from the Republic of Ireland. As for the linguistic products of the pre-independence Commonwealth: "I judged reluctantly that pre-independence poetry had not achieved poetic independence (freedom from diluted fashion), had not given to the world such poetic accomplishments as would constitute a claim to the pages of an anthology of the best in English poetry." Please discuss! Ricks's "English verse," then, is predominantly verse from England, and of a fairly senior variety at that--the juniors here are such golden codgers as Thom Gunn, Derek Walcott, and Seamus Heaney. Ricks admits that "most of us are not good at appreciating the poetry of those appreciably younger than we are." That's a shame, because it denies The Oxford Book of English Verse a role in disseminating the work of the younger generation (and we're talking under 60 here) from a diversity of backgrounds. What he has undoubtedly produced, however, is an invaluable record of the past glories of English poetry, which will continue to inspire both readers and poets--whatever their age, wherever they are. --Alan Stewart

great of course-- but just one thing...:
i own an earlier edition of the OBEV, published about 1940, and while i'm glad to see that some dramatic verse has made the cut here, i'm perplexed as to a couple of poets who have been left out this time around. . .in particular, the young yeats' contemporaries (the so-called the 'tragic' generation)--lionel johnson and ernest dowson. also, some of the anonymous scottish ballads from the 15th century of course this book compared to practically anything else gets 5 stars, 10 stars! i just knocked one off because of my preference for the earlier edition, and so that people would notice my humble review here. enjoy this book!

The most beautiful book I own:
This is a wonderful gift, not only for others but yourself. To have a significant fraction of western poetry in one book make this a timeless acquisition. Not only are the aesthetics of the prose attractive but the binding has a tactile quality too! No matter what your mood there is a poet waiting to speak to you in this book.

A Wonderful Collection of Great Breadth and Scope:
What a wonderful treasure this book is! Certainly one could debate what has been left out and why what is included here was chosen over some other verse, but there is a lot of beauty included here. For me, it is a wonderful place to visit again and again to dip into this and that and to notice things I hadn't seen before. I think that getting focused on what isn't in this collection is to cheat yourself of the beauty that is here. Not every work is to my taste, not every work is even what I think of as good, but the range and scope of works included is really wonderful. There are many works of great beauty and more of great worth. I think it is a fine collection. One of the nice things I have found is that something I didn't at first find attractive opened up to me after repeated visits. The breadth of the music created with our language is stunning to me and has given me a great deal of pleasure. There are 822 works in this collection that are arranged chronologically from the 13th century through the mid 1990s and grouped by poet. There is an index by author, by foreign authors in translation or imitation, and an index of works by first line. This organization makes it very easy to find a work that you might be looking for or to decide where to dip into the pool depending on how you feel at the moment.

An anthology of poetry to keep for your grandchildren:
After having studied with Professor Ricks many years ago, it was a joy to find that he had been tapped for the new edition of this book, the Oxford book of English Verse. (The permissions must have been a bear.) As you might know if you've ever read John Mortimer, previous editions have been appreciated by countless readers, including Rumpole of the Bailey (the fictional barrister), who enjoyed the Quiller-Couch edition like he did his cigars, lamb chops and port wine. This new edition from Oxford, handsomely published with a ribbon for marking the pages and the traditional Oxford blue binding, contains most of the poets we first-year undergrads students at Boston University used to hear about from Ricks: there's Stevie Smith, Phillip Larkin, William Wordsworth, Samuel Beckett, William Empson, and many others. It's a thoughtfully collected array of English poetry, chosen by one of the most perceptive critics active today. I hope you enjoy it.

An anthology of poetry to keep for your grandchildren:
After having studied with Professor Ricks many years ago, it was a joy to find that he had been tapped for the new edition of this book, the Oxford book of English Verse. (The permissions must have been a bear.) As you might know if you've ever read John Mortimer, previous editions have been appreciated by countless readers, including Rumpole of the Bailey (the fictional barrister), who enjoyed the Quiller-Couch edition like he did his cigars, lamb chops and port wine. This new edition from Oxford, handsomely published with a ribbon for marking the pages and the traditional Oxford blue binding, contains most of the poets we first-year undergrads students at Boston University used to hear about from Ricks: there's Stevie Smith, Phillip Larkin, William Wordsworth, Samuel Beckett, William Empson, and many others. It's a thoughtfully collected array of English poetry, chosen by one of the most perceptive critics active today. I hope you enjoy it.