The Norton Anthology of Poetry

Pretty damn exhaustive anthology.

Got it for a college course, used it a ton for that course. Good quality book, well made, and well organized.

It's a little cumbersome, but it contains just about every significant poet and poem in the English language. Small print and thin pages a bit of a problem.

This review will necessarily be brief because it’s hard to properly review something that’s intentionally so broad and encyclopedic as this. It’s meant to be a cross-section of all of English-language poetry, going all the way back even to Old English (though with a greater emphasis on more modern works). With that in mind, there are going to be a lot of things any reader will love and a lot of things any reader will dislike. The purpose isn’t for every poem to be everyone’s cup of tea but simply to provide the reader with one of the largest collections of English verse in the world. And it succeeds in that admirably. Where I think I can offer some words by way of review and criticism has to do with the curation of the poems and the layout of the book. I was disappointed to find a lot of my personal favorites had indeed been omitted including some which had been included in prior editions of the same anthology, so while this most recent version is absolutely the one to get if you want to read the latest poems, readers might want to check the table of contents of each edition if there are specific poems you’re hoping to have in your copy. Beyond that, I do question the inclusion of some of what I consider to be inferior poems at the expense of what I consider to be true classics, but that’s just a matter of personal preference. Where I have a more objective criticism has to do with the layout. The poems are arranged by author, and the poets are arranged by date of birth. On some level, that’s as good a way of laying the book out as any. Arranging by publication date, for instance, would have necessitated flipping back and for the between poets rather than grouping all of a given poet’s works together. Fair enough. However, this layout does make it difficult to find poems the reader might be looking for. It would have benefitted greatly from indices cross-referencing the poems by poetic style or structure, by subject matter, or indeed by date of publication. Nevertheless, despite a couple minor complaints, this has already become a new favorite resource which I will keep readily at hand. Though I did read it cover to cover, that’s not really what it’s meant for. It’s meant to be a long-term companion, something to which you can turn for mental enrichment whenever you feel in a poetic sort of mood.

So grateful to find this expensive volume at a used book price. Is like new. Thank you!

Completely Engrossing. I could spend hours in bed, letting it fall open to a random page and going on an adventure. The paged are thin, so handle with care. Only time will prove how securely bound the pages are. But it's a perfect 5

I have not owned this volume for long but it already had many dog ears. Whenever I have a few moments I open it and discover a new treasure.

Good, heft selection of poems. It appears to be ordered by poet chronologically by birth year, if I remember correctly, which makes it frankly more difficult to navigate the Table of Contents. It has taken me 5 minutes to find the sought poet before.

Highly recommend this anthology of poetry. Fully comprehensive, with poets and poems you will have heard of and many you haven't. It is a very large and heavy book, but for the price it is a bargain when you look at what you get for your money.

Good book

Bought as a gift for a university student. Perfect for her literary studies

More poems than you can shake a stick at! A great selection

I can't write much of a review as this was bought as a gift. The recipient did report how happy they were with it, how it was the latest version and how brilliant it smelt. Don't ask! I'd say worth it!