Robert Kinsley (b. 1953)
A Walk Along the Old Tracks
Mark Turpin (b. 1953)
Before Groundbreak
Don Fargo & Sons
Jobsite Wind
Pickwork
Poem
Waiting for Lumber
Kevin Hart (b. 1954)
The Room
Molly Fisk (b. 1955)
Intrigue
On the Disinclination to Scream
The Dry Tortugas
William Roetzheim (b. 1955)
Response to Emily Dickinson’s “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!”
Fading into Background
Stretch Marks
Opera Season
Shadow Friends
Dean Young (b. 1955)
Only One of My Deaths
Mark Cox (b. 1956)
Geese
Style
Jim Daniels (b. 1956)
Wheels
Gu Gheng (1956 – 1993)
Ark
Li-Young Lee (b. 1957)
Eating Together
Persimmons
Julia Kasdorf (b. 1962)
What I Learned from My Mother
Ruth L. Schwartz (b. 1962)
The Swan at Edgewater Park
Patience Agbabi (b. 1965)
Transformatrix
Kate Clanchy (b. 1965)
War Poetry
David Berman (b. 1967)
Snow
Jackleen Holton (b. 1969)
American History
Free
Jane Flanders (b. 1984)
The House that Fear Built: Warsaw, 1943
Appendix A Notes on Meter
Index by Author
Index by Title
Index by Subject
Index to Translations
Index of First Lines
Index Pointing To Audio CD
Index Pointing From Audio CD
Acknowledgements
Introduction
This book started out as a flurry of yellow sticky notes. I was new to poetry and as I devoured hundreds of books of poetry over a four year period, I pasted yellow sticky notes on those poems I especially liked, along with jotted notes about my reaction to the poem. Eventually I decided to organize these into a single document to make it easier for me to find a particular poem I was interested in. It was a very small step from that document to this book.
A poetry book is commercially not the most practical book to write, and a broad based anthology such as this one is, perhaps, the least practical of the poetry books. So why do I think there’s a place for this book in the market? I see two primary readers for this book. I believe that for a reader relatively new to poetry (as I was a few short years ago), this is a great first book of poetry. It includes a broad cross section of poetry in terms of time written (classic versus modern versus contemporary), poetic form, and author nationality (although there is an emphasis on authors writing in English). In addition, because this book collects together many of the best loved poems of all time I view it as a good bedside companion for all poetry lovers.
I’ve included brief notes on many poems in the footnotes on each page. Each footnote includes the form of the poem, defines any unusual words, and where helpful for understanding, includes a brief note on interpretation. Poetic meter is covered in an appendix to this book, and the notes on form use terminology from that appendix.
The criteria for being included in this book are three-fold. First, I must have been exposed to the poem somewhere. I’m certainly aware that there are a large number of wonderful poems, and poets, not represented here simply because I have not yet had the pleasure of discovering their work. In those cases, I can only beg forgiveness and hold out the promise of future editions. Second, I must have liked the poem. There were no committees here, just a single editor. This means that the book will be filled with a lot of poems that are the style of poetry that I as a reader enjoy. To the extent that your taste in poetry is like mine, you will agree with my decisions. To the extent that your taste in poetry is unlike mine, you will disagree. Fortunately, my personal taste tends to be relatively broad so you are likely to find a good selection of poetic styles and subjects. Finally, the owner of the rights in the poem must have been willing to grant me the right to reprint the poem.
To better understand what I feel makes a poem good, and thereby to better understand my criteria for inclusion in this book, we need to turn to a document I wrote called “The Level Four Poetry Manifesto.”
Level Four Poetry Manifesto
Poetry can be thought of as operating at four levels.
Level One: A poem should communicate clearly to the reader at the denotative level. In other words, with even a casual reading of the poem, a non-sophisticated reader should understand this surface message. The poem should offer something to the reader at level one in payment for their time reading the poem. For example, this might be an interesting story, a memorable image, a surprise ending, or a shared emotion. Multiple readers of the poem should agree on the Level One message of the poem. Level One deals with the concrete. Level One makes the poem successful for the non-skilled reader.
Level Two: A poem should communicate subtly to the reader at the connotative level, creating a desired mood within the reader. This is accomplished through poetic techniques such as word choice with attention to connotative meaning, imagery, and music. Music may include meter, rhyme, consonance, assonance, and attention to the emotional message of various consonants, vowels, and phonemes. Level Two is focused on the skilled reader of poetry, but adds to the enjoyment for non-skilled readers as well.
Level Three: A poem may offer a separate, “hidden” message to the reader through the use of metaphor or similar techniques. In other words, all or part of the poem may represent something deeper in meaning than the surface description. The Level Three message should be recognizable to the skilled reader, and should be obvious to the non-skilled reader when it is pointed out.
Level Four: Level Four poetry uses a symbol to offer a separate, “hidden” message to the reader. Metaphors may be symbols, but symbols are not necessarily metaphors. The use of symbols in Level Four poetry has both literal and representative meanings and the representative meaning is flexible with the reader able to fill in the specific meaning that applies most closely to their personal life.
Let’s look at an example of a successful Level Four poem, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Here’s the poem.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
On Level One, it’s a pleasant story about a walk through the woods. It’s an enjoyable poem without delving any deeper into it than this. On Level Two he uses very clear descriptions of the woods and the paths (imagery), meter (iambic tetrameter), and rhyme. On Level Three the path and woods are a metaphor for the narrator’s life. Finally, on Level Four the fork in the path is a symbol representing (quoting HowardM2 on the Poetry Free For All Bulletin Board): “a choice between two equally desirable alternatives one of which must be given up in orde
r to have the other.” As a symbol, this would obviously apply to many readers and would be personalized to represent individual choices they have had to make during their lives.
Notice that the poem can be appreciated by a reader at any level without any awareness that it is operating at a higher level, but that the more carefully one studies the poem the more meaning is discovered. This is the mark of a successful poem within the Level Four manifesto. All of the poems in this book are successful at levels one and two, most go to level three, and many go to level four.
The heart of the Level Four Manifesto is that each level builds on the previous levels, and levels should not be skipped if a poem is to be successful. I say this fully recognizing that some very well known poets have intentionally skipped levels and that many well known poets and poetry journals gravitate toward poetry that skips Level One. For example, Gertrude Stein often skipped Level One and focused on Level Two. Many schools of poetry skipped Levels One and Two and jumped directly to Level Three. However, I would argue that this skipping of levels is exactly why the general readership of poetry shrank during most of the Twentieth Century. New readers of poetry need to begin reading and appreciating a poem at level one, then level two, then level three, and finally fully appreciating it at level four. I believe that all poems that last hundreds of years will operate on Levels One and Two, that most will also operate on Level Three, and that many will operate on Level Four. Similarly, I believe that poets should begin writing at Level One, then add level Two, then Level Three, then Level Four.
Meter is an important concept in fully enjoying poetry, whether you are reading it aloud or silently, but fully understanding and appreciating poetic meter can be somewhat intimidating to the new reader. I’ve included notes on meter in Appendix A for those readers that are ambitious.
Organization of the Poems
The poems are sorted by author date of birth, then alphabetically by author, then generally alphabetically by poem title. In some cases where poems are related somehow or have a natural order, I’ve adjusted the order of the poems for a given author. I elected to group them by author date of birth rather than grouping them by subject or author last name for the following reasons:
• It is easier to read a group of poems all written in a single writing style based on the century when written, rather than jumping back and forth between modern English and 16th or 17th century English.
• It is helpful to see the evolution of different schools of poetry over time. Just observing different poetic styles come into and go out of favor over the centuries is insightful.
A Note on Meter
In Appendix A I provide guidance on poetic meter that may be of interest to the advanced reader, however a quick note here is relevant for all readers. For many of the earlier poets writing in English, poetic meter requires that an archaic pronunciation be used for certain words ending in “ed”. For example, the work “banished” would be pronounced today in two syllables, or beats— ban-ished, however in Middle English it would be pronounced in three syllables, or beats—ban-ish-ed. Using the modern pronunciation will throw off the rhythm of these poems. To help the reader, in cases where the “ed” should be unnaturally pronounced as a separate syllable I have spelled it thus: “ëd.”
A few terms (slightly simplified here) will be especially helpful in reading the footnotes to the poems:
• Iambic: characterized by the pattern da-DUM;
• Dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter: Having lines with 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 feet (e.g., iambs) per line;
• Ballad: alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter lines;
• Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter; and
• Sonnet: Iambic pentameter, 14 lines.
A Request for Understanding and Assistance
Although I’ve worked hard on this book, it still contains errors. Any work of this size must have errors. I humbly request that you maintain a tolerant attitude toward these errors, and further request that you bring them to my attention so that I can fix them in future printings of the book. I can be reached care of Level 4 Press at 13518 Jamul Drive, Jamul, CA91935, or email at [email protected].
I hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as I’ve enjoyed compiling it!
William H. Roetzheim
Editor
Poems
Unknown (possibly 4,000 BC)
Ishtar1
Translated from the Babylonian Cuneiform by Lewis Spence
The unconsecrated foe entered my courts,
placed his unwashed hands upon me,
and caused me to tremble.
Putting forth his hand
He smote me with fear.
He tore away my robe
and clothed his wife therein;
he stripped off my jewels
and placed them upon his daughter.
Like a quivering dove upon a beam
I sat.
Like a fleeing bird from my cranny
swiftly I passed
from my temple.
Like a bird
they caused me to fly.
Archilochos (circa 700 BC – 650 BC)
Will, lost in a sea of trouble1
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
Will, lost in a sea of trouble,
rise, save yourself from the whirlpool
of the enemies of willing.
Courage exposes ambushes.
Steadfastness destroys enemies.
Keep your victories hidden.
Do not sulk over defeat.
Accept good. Bend before evil.
Learn the rhythm which binds all men.
The Bible
Address of Ruth to Naomi2
Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee:
for whither thou goest,
I will go;
and where thou lodgest,
I will lodge.
Thy people shall be my people,
and thy god my god.
Where thou diest, will I die,
and there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
if ought but death part thee and me.
Mei Sheng (Circe 140 BC)
The Beautiful Toilet1
Translated by Ezra Pound
Blue, blue is the grass about the river
and the willows have overfilled the close garden.
And within, the mistress, in the midmost of her youth,
white, white of face, hesitates, passing the door.
Slender, she puts forth a slender hand;
and she was a courtesan in the old days,
and she has married a sot,
who now goes drunkenly out
and leaves her too much alone.
Horace (65 BC – 8 BC)
The young bloods come less often now2
Translated from the Latin by James Michie
The young bloods come round less often now,
pelting your shutters and making a row
and robbing your beauty sleep. Now the door
clings lovingly close to the jamb—though, before,
it used to move on its hinge pretty fast.
Those were the days—and they’re almost past—
when lovers stood out all night long crying,
“Lydia, wake up! Save me! I’m dying!”
Soon your time’s coming to be turned down
and to feel the scorn of the men about town—a
cheap hag haunting alley places
O moonless nights when the wind from Thrace is
rising and raging, and so is the fire
in your raddled loins, the brute desire
that drives the mothers of horses mad.
You’ll be lonely then and complain how sad
that the gay young boys enjoy the sheen
of ivy best or the darker green
of myrtle: dry old leaves they send
&nbs
p; as a gift to the east wind, winter’s friend.
Norse Myth (circa 50 BC)
from The Longbeards’ Saga1
Translated by Charles Kingsley
Out of the morning land,
over the snowdrifts,
beautiful Freya came
tripping to Scoring.
White were the moorlands,
and frozen before her;
green were the moorlands,
and blooming behind her.
Out of her gold locks
shaking the spring flowers,
out of her garments
shaking the south wind,
around in the birches
awaking the throstles,
and making chaste housewives all
long for their heroes home.
Loving and love-giving,
came she to Scoring.
Petronius Arbiter (27 AD – 66 AD)
Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short2
Translated from the Latin by Ben Jonson
Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short;
and done, we straight repent us of the sport:
let us not rush blindly on unto it,
like lustful beasts, that only know to do it:
for lust will languish, and that heat decay,
but thus, thus, keeping endless holy-day,
let us together closely lie, and kiss,
there is no labor, nor no shame in this;
this hath pleased, doth please and long will please; never can this decay,
The Giant Book of Poetry (2006) Page 3
