I found this book in the library called The 100 Best Poems of All Time, edited by Leslie Pockell. Warner Books, 2001.
Ambitious, yes, and no two people would have the same list (maybe I’ll try to make my personal list). But still, it has been a great joy reading through poems that, most of which have inspired me at one time or another. Somehow the book seems to avoid what so many poetry collections end up, one sappy, clichéd, overly exposed poem after another. I suppose because, while most of the 100 in this book are very famous, they are all of high quality, and somehow I ended up rereading them with a new ear. They are presented in chronological order by poet’s birth, so a sort of interesting progression develops.
By following the edicts of popularity combined with quality, the list of poems does what each of our personal lists probably would not: it stands up to critical scrutiny. A personal list would include emotional favorites or poems that have touched us at a particular point in life.
Not to say that personal favorites are somehow not worthy; certainly they are. And to me that is the power of this collection, that it can reawaken in our jaded contemporary eyes the pure joy of a poem as a piece of language, the awe of the poet, and the wonderful connection that a good poem can provide.
10/01/08
