Customer Reviews (6)

such loveliness
this book is a sensitive, strong slice of the poet's life. As a critic, Daniel Gioia shines, and to read his poetry is indeed a priviledge!

a dark collection, but one you should definitely read
Dana Gioia has made a name for himself as both a poet and a critic. And I've heard both sides of the argument, but if you have read _The Gods of Winter_ than you cannot deny his excellence as a poet (and if you haven't read this collection, then you definitely should go and buy it now). The book is divided into five sections. Section I contains seven of his better poems. "All Souls'", "The Gods of Winter", and "Planting a Sequoia" are here. The poems in this first section are about loss, even "Planting a Sequoia" which is also about life. Section II contains the longer poem "Counting the Children." The poems in Section III are poems more about place rather than the loss of sections I & II. Section IV is the long narrative, "The Homecoming." It's a dark poem, Frost-like in its nature, about a troubled boy and what happens when he goes home to his family. The final poems, in Section V, while still dark, leave us with a bit more hope than found in any of the other sections.

Gioia's use of language and choice of words is exceptionally beautiful in this collection. And the heartbreak of losing a child if felt throughout. This collection leaves the reader a little sad, but with much to think about.

Heartfelt poetry
Although there are a couple of poems I did not enjoy much, the majority were so touching.You can feel the pain of the loss of Gioia's small son.Planting a Sequoia is my favorite.His writing is simple to understand and straight forward.I am in college to be an English teacher and I plan to use some of Gioa's poetry because there are connections that I feel high school students can understand. I love the book.

Winter is a Dark Season, But Lovely, Dark and Deep
For those misguided reviewers who expect all poetry to be Summer and Spring, or Autumn leaves in wonderful color, God has given the planet one other crucial season, Winter, of which the poet Dana Gioia so eloquently speaks. Having experienced personal tragedy, he tries to portray his attempts at making sense of the dark seasons of life that God allows to be sent our way. While not perhaps quite at the level of prowess or majesty as Hardy, Yeats, Housman, de la Mare, Frost, Robinson, Masefield, Auden, Wilbur or Santayana, nonetheless Gioia remains one of the world's finest poets. The fact that he has the courage to face unpleasant subjects head on as he does shows his boldness as a poet. Veterans Cemetary is a classic treatment of passing on. If you enjoy rhyming poetry that makes sense with a mostly plain, conversational style not too erudite or sophisticated, you've come to the right place. I look forward to his next collection to be released April 2001. A must-have addition to the home library.

Grace and Individualism
The previous "reader" from New York does make valid points regarding Mr. Gioia's work, but he or she fails to realize the entire impetus for Gioia's work.The book is SUPPOSED to be dark.After having corresponded with Mr. Gioia himself about the book, I ascertained that it is some of his best work.Because he lost his first son, Michael Jasper, of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, his poetry is justifiable dark and probes the abyss of the psyche and of despair. Imprecise language and confusing syntax?Not on your life!While a few of his poems, such as the title poem, do get verbose, their diction is nonetheless vivid:"The world is annihilated/ and remade with only us as witnesses" ("The Gods of Winter").One of his long poems, "The Homecoming," is especially provocative.After all, isn't that what good poetry should be?His is powerful and meditative verse, his skill at meter adept.Though his style of rhyme and metrics goes against the grain, I admire him for that.He is one of a few beacons shining in the light of contemporary poetry's relative obscurity from the general public, the very people poetry wishes to impact. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1991, Dana Gioia's provocative essay "Can Poetry Matter?" was published in the Atlantic Monthly,and received more public response than any other piece in the magazine's history. In his book, Gioia more fully addressed the question: Is there a place for poetry to be part of modern American mainstream culture? Ten years later, the debate is as lively and heated as ever. Graywolf is pleased to re-issue this highly acclaimed collection in a handsome new edition, which includes a new Introduction by distinguished critic and poet, Dana Gioia.
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Customer Reviews (4)

Worth One's Time!
The title essay wasn't the best thing about this book on matters poetical, in my view.Whether poetry does matter or whether poetry can matter are two different questions, but Dana Gioia treats these two as one and the same and, in the end, doesn't answer it, except incompletely.Yes, poetry CAN make your life happy . . . . he weakly suggests at the end of the piece.

The essay on Robert Bly (the "successful poet") was stunningly vicious and blessedly beautiful at the same time: highly insightful.

The two separate essays on Weldon Kees and Robinson Jeffers ("Strong Counsel") were perfection in analysis and appreciation of these poets' works (except for one mistake: the author is wrong in stating that Robinson Jeffers never won any award in his lifetime.Mr. Jeffers won many awards - seven that I know of.Mr. Jeffers was not partial, however, to receiving awards, and he wrote a poem about how one should avoid all publicity.).

I felt deep gratitude as well for one essay entitled "Short Views" in which the reader is teased with the pleasures to be found in the poetry of Tom Disch (now deceased as of July 4, 2008 by suicide), Radcliffe Squires, and Theodore Weiss.

The essay "Business and Poetry" never answers the question why poets do not write about business in their poems, though the author gives hints feints here and there.

Ted Kooser was pleasingly and carefully examined as a minor regional poet.

Two essays devoted to the New Formalism did not themselves contain any major ideas to blow one away with insight or appreciation particularly.They merely do the job of showing that it exists on the contemporary scene, and Dana Gioia himself is a practitioner (though he carefully omits to say).

No mention either is ever made of Stephen Dunn or James Wright in any of these essays. I can only wonder why Dana Gioia mentioned other poets less well-known than these two men.But he does not even mention Cavafy, and Dana Gioia published a poem referencing this poet's name in the title.It may be simply the author could not include these poets in these essays out of an embarrassment of riches.

These essays are seriously worth your time.

Poetry Saved My Life!
DOES POETRY MATTER?YES! Yes! Yes! Without poetry, I may have ended up like Plath, Sexton, Woolf, or who the hell knows! Poetry nutured me, comforted me, fed me, loved me......the flowing words of Oliver, Gluck, Lee, Keats, and yes, Sylvia Plath's gorgeous confessional poetry-- entered my mind and body like a medicine of vowels, syllables, metaphor, and music.

Dana Gioia's book "Does Poetry Matter," was an eye opener.
"People who support the arts, who attend foreign films and serious
theater, opera, symphony, and dance; who read quality fiction
and biographies,; who listen to public radio and subscibe to the
best jounals.(They are the parents who read poetry to their
children and remember, once upon a time in college or high
school or kindergarten, liking it themselves.)No one knows
the size of this community, but even if on acceps the con-
servative estimate that it accounts for only TWO PERCENT of the
United States."---CAN POETRY MATTER?

This blew my socks off!I realized I was in the minority, but this is completely unbelievable. Is poetry really dead? If so, I am mourning her exisistence."In a better world, poetry would need no justification beyond the sheer splendor of its own existence."

Does Poetry Matter?Yes!But we need to make poetry available to everybody, not only the intellectual, rich, and culturally fortunate---We need to make the words mean something for everybody, everywhere.Dana Gioia continues speaking of the intellectual community as though they are the the chosen few; the saviors of lost verse; the people who can resurrect the promised land...

But isn't this the reason poety has died in the first place?--because the aloofness of the so-called "True Poet" will not allow anybody else inside their worlds; that being the world of intellectualism and academia.

They say that poetry is dead.I don't believe it!I wont believe it!But if Gioia thinks that the only people who can possibly appreciate poetry are the literary intellectuals, he is dead wrong. Gioia says, "These conventions may once have made sense, but today they imprison poetry in an intellectual ghetto."

THE GHETTO!!---Yes!! a perfect place to begin displaying the words of Li-Young Lee, E.E. Cummings, Anne Sexton, Robert Bly, etc...
Lets get out there--and change the world for everybody with words, color, metaphor, similie, rhythum...I don't give a damn if they can interpet it or understand it---Just read it! Love it!Appreciate it! And allow the vocabulary to pour through your body like liquid music!

An insightful book
The title essay in this book is by far the most important.It's well worth at least checking this book out from a library just to read that first essay.As a poet in an MFA program, I am currently experiencing the severance from the rest of society and alienation from literary criticism that Gioia describes so well.He's right on target.I'm not sure about some of his prescriptions for moving poetry back into public interest (i.e. reading from the work of other poets at one of your own readings), but the fact that he is able to articulate poetry's problems so well should at least get writers thinking about our own solutions.Incidentally, the rest of the essays do decline in quality through the course of the book, but I nevertheless found the final essay on New Formalism worthwhile.I actually didn't know much about the movement other than some mildly disparaging remarks made by various professors during workshop, so Gioia's perspective was refreshing.

opening essays of book are essential reading for our age
The Kirkus review of "Can Poetry Matter?" is pretty much right on target.The opening essays of the book are a necessary (and necessarily condemnatory) critique on the current state of poetry in America.The articles on Kees, Jeffers, etc., are less impressive, and the review reprints which end the book are even less so.Still, the strength of the first few essays outweighs these drawbacks. ... Read more

Product Description
Winner of the American Book Award

Dana Gioia, an internationally known poet and critic, is notably prolific with his essays, reviews, translations, and anthologies. But like his celebrated teacher, Elizabeth Bishop, Gioia is meticulously painstaking and self-critical about his own poems. In an active 25-year career he has published only two previous volumes of poetry. Although Gioia is often recognized as a leading force in the recent revival of rhyme and meter in American poetry, his own work does not fit neatly into any one style.

Interrogations at Noon displays an extraordinary range of style and sensibility—from rhymed couplets to free verse, from surrealist elegy to satirical ballad. What unites the poems is not a single approach but their resonant musicality and powerful but understated emotion. This new collection explores the uninvited epiphanies of love and marriage, probing the quiet mysteries of a seemingly settled domestic life. Meditating on the inescapable themes of lyric poetry—time, mortality, nature, and the contradictions of the human heart—Gioia turns them to provocative and unexpected ends.
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Customer Reviews (5)

Poetry
My bias is toward poets who are more direct in what they are saying.This workI found a mix of stunning and hard to grasp poems.Still, the poems that reached me were enough to make me want to read more of this talented poet.

A Craftsman
In my continuing (impossible) search for a poet whose every poem moves me, I read this collection by Dana Gioia.Gioia is known as a craftsman who publishes little because of his struggle bring every poem to the highest state of perfection.In fact, as one reads these poems, it is almost possible to sense how carefully every word has been chosen.In some cases, this almost becomes distracting, to the detriment of the poetry.

On the other hand, through his struggle Gioia is able to create some brilliant lines within poems whose overall effect is something less:"With eyes that have forgotten how to see/From viewing things already too well-known" from "Entrance." Or "The future shrinks/Whether the past/Is well or badly spent" from "Curriculum Vitae."Within poems like "Pentecost" and "Three Songs for Nosferatu" it is possible to find some wonderful work as well.

In this collection, however, there are two poems that I think are wonderful through and through.In "Juno Plots Her Revenge" Gioia takes us on a long rant as Juno lists her complaints against Jupiter's unfaithfulness and plans her final revenge against Hercules, one of Jupiter's bastards.Poems with classical references are often fun because the poet is able to let his hair down and be bold using a mythological goddess as a mouthpiece.There is more energy and engaging language in this longer poem than in almost all of Gioia's other poems put together.Wonderful!

But my favorite poem in this collection may be "My Dead Lover."In it, Gioia writes of a person mourning a great love ("Your body was the first I ever knew/Better than my own.") with whom he really didn't get along ("How miserable we were together, dear").And yet he mourns anyway despite the fact that he was abandoned in this final way, without being allowed a chance to regret.Finally, he realizes "Our rituals are never for the dead."The dead are beyond caring but he must still make his peace with it.It is a very well done poem to which most of us can relate.

All in all, this is a collection well worth reading.There is no denying that Gioia is a real craftsman, no matter how one may ultimately feel about some of the poems.And there are some gems here that a poetry connoisseur should be loathe to miss.

By a poet and critic of international note
Dana Gioia is a poet and critic of international note who has authored a profusion of essays, reviews, translations, and anthologies. Now his own poetry is available to an appreciative public with the publication of Interrogations At Noon. Divination: Always be ready for the unexpected./Someone you have dreamed about may visit./Better clean houseto make the right impression./There are some things you should not think about.//Someone you have dreamed about may visit./Is it an old friend you do not recognize?/There are some things you should not think about./Who is the stranger standing at the door?//Is it an old friend you do not recognize?/Notice the cool appraisal of his eyes./Who is the stranger standing at the door?/You sometimes wonder what you're waiting for.//Notice the cool appraisal of his eyes./Better clean house to make the right impression./You sometimes wonder what you're waiting for./Always be ready for the unexpected.

another great collection from Gioia
Gioia's latest collection is just as great as his first. He continues to show a wide range of skills (this time adding poems for music, including three songs from his wonderful libretto _Nosferatu_). The longer poem in the middle, Juno Plots Her Revenge, is a beautiful working of Seneca.

DANA GIOIA'S "INTERROGATIONS AT NOON"
New Formalist poet/critic Dana Gioia is known for his ground-breaking essay, "Can Poetry Matter?" This is his third book of poetry, and it is unlike anything produced by anyone else in America. Sicilian, Mexican and Native American in his ancestry, Gioia writes out of a "dark" Catholic sensibility--a sensibility which sees "the end of the world" in every sensuous detail around him. One of the advantages of Gioia's "formalism" is that it allows him to place deep personal experience within a form which, while deeply moving, simultaneously allows the reader to maintain a sense of esthetic distance. This tension between technical virtuosity and dark subject matter is reminiscent of the great nineteenth-century French poet, Charles Baudelaire--a Bohemian type who in other ways might be seen as Gioia's opposite. Full of strong poems by this native California--the strongest is probably "A California Requiem"--"Interrogations at Noon" is a fine introduction to one of the most thoughtful and original of American writers. Full of exquisite, mournful lines: "Think of the letters that we write our dead"; "We are like shadows the bright noon erases." ... Read more

Product Description
This affordably-priced collection presents masterpieces of short fiction from 52 of the greatest story writers of all time. From Sherwood Anderson to Virginia Woolf, this anthology encompasses a rich global and historical mix of the very best works of short fiction and presents them in a way students will find accessible, engaging, and relevant.The book's unique integration of biographical and critical background gives students a more intimate understanding of the works and their authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Greatjobandfast
I ordered and received this within two days.Amazingly quick and in great condition!Very happy costumer!

Crudloads of Stories Packed Together
I actually bought this book for a class I was taking in Short Fiction, but I still found some enjoyment reading this for myself. The book gives background information on the authors before the stories and then you get an excerpt of writing about writing from the authors in an Author's Perspective section. Some stories simply didn't catch my interest, but I'm sure they would catch the interests of other. Overall, a good book if you ever just want to read a few short stories.

Very Full Of Fiction
Wow - what a great volume of short fiction. I loved this anthology and I enjoyed the biographical and other information that is included with each story. It is physically a very dense and heavy book.

Great Book!!
I used this book for my 101 English class (College). The book has amazing stories from recognized writers. Also this book has short biographies of the authors at the beginning of each story.
At the end of the readings, the book goes over it with comprehension question, this helps a lot.
Great book, not only for students, but for anyone else who wants to expand their knowledge.

I recommend this book to every one who know how to read!! Honestly!!

the best anthology I own
This is the most-read and loved of my anthologies. In fact, it's the best I've ever glimpsed, skimmed through, picked up in a bookstore or library, or been given a reading assignment from. It provides the reader with a glimpse into the minds of some of the most well-known, and many obscure, short story writers, as well as providing wonderful pieces of literature. The stories themselves are varied, intriguing, and plentiful. ... Read more

Product Description
The Celebrated poet and author of Can Poetry Matter?offers another bold, insightful collection of essays on literature's changing place in contemporary culture

Poetry is an art that preceded writing, and it will survive television and video games . . . The problem won't be finding an audience. The challenge will be writing well enough to deserve one.

In Disappearing Ink, Dana Gioia stakes the claim for poetry's place amid American popular culture, where poetry in its latest oral forms -rap, slam, performance-is transforming the traditional literary culture of the printed page. But, as the seminal title essay asks, "What is a conscientious critic supposed to do with an Eminem or Jay-Z?" In a brilliant array of essays that test the pulse of traditional and contemporary poetry, Gioia ponders the future of the written word and how it might find its most relevant incarnation.

With the clarity, wit, and feisty intelligence that made Can Poetry Matter? one of the most important and controversial books about literature and contemporary American society, Gioia again demonstrates his unique abilities of observation and uncanny prognostication to examine our complicated everyday relationship to art.
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Customer Reviews (2)

We're lucky to have this guy as the head of the National Endowment for the Arts
I bought this book after attending a lecture by Mr. Gioia at the University of Texas.He impressed me with his courage in pointing out that Academic Intellectualism is killing poetry in America.He is a man with the courage of his convictions, a sensitive artist who hasn't lost his masculinity. We need more men like him. The book is a good reflection of the man. I think you'll like it... and him.

Intelligent, provocative, and well-reasoned.
Ever since the publication of "Can Poetry Matter?" the essayist and Formalist poet Dana Gioia has been one of the most polarizing figures in the current literary world. The controversy around Gioia redoubled when he accepted President Bush's invitation to become chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, causing more left-leaning poets to accuse him of "selling out." While I don't agree with everything Gioia says, and I'm certainly further to the left than he is, I think his opinions on the current state of poetry are never less than interesting and usually salutary. For instance, I couldn't agree more that poetry and music go well together on the same program, or that poets should mix their own work in public readings with favorite poems by others. Above all, Gioia has been a forceful advocate for poets in general and for the traditional craft of poetry in particular, and my hat is off to him for that. In "Disappearing Ink," his latest collection of essays, Gioia once again waves a red cape in the face of the academic establishment, banderilla at the ready. (Example: in the title essay, Gioia notes, "Attend an academic literary conference these days and you are more likely to hear, as I recently did, papers on the design of the Los Angeles freeway system as an expression of phallocentric power or gender-coding in breakfast cereal advertising than you are to find examinations of contemporary poetry.") The title essay, which discusses how the poetry scene is changing as the printed word gives way to the information highway, is a provocative yet common-sense examination of rap, cowboy poetry, performance poetry and other avenues poetry is taking toward survival in the 21st century. Gioia provides much reading pleasure in his discussion of various subjects, from the decline of San Francisco as an active literary center to the history of Italian-American poetry. He is at his most enjoyable when he comes to the defense of poets he admires, from misjudged classic poets (Longfellow, Frost) to underappreciated contemporary poets (John Haines, Samuel Menashe, Kay Ryan). He champions some poets you wouldn't expect him to defend, such as the late Jack Spicer, an openly gay San Francisco Bohemian who would be anathema to many in the Bush administration. His observations are nearly always astute, such as when he delineates the reasons why Elizabeth Bishop--whom he clearly reveres, but who doesn't really fit current poetic fashion--is a poetic god today: "During the bitterly divisive culture wars of the past quarter-century, Bishop could simultaneously appear on both sides of nearly every issue--the ally of both reformer and traditionalist, patron saint to both radical and reactionary--not to mention those beleaguered pilgrims traveling steadfastly in the middle of the road." Basically, Gioia just calls them the way he sees them, which is what a literary critic is supposed to do--except that too many have pulled their punches recently, to try and fit in with the tide of current opinion. Above all, Gioia believes in the art of poetry, and has faith that it will survive--in his words, "(m)ostly by being itself--concise, immediate, emotive, memorable, and musical, the qualities most prized in the new oral culture, which are also the virtues traditionally associated with the art." I wish I'd said that. ... Read more

Product Description

Literature, Compact Interactive Edition comes automatically with MyLiteratureLab, Longman's multimedia website.  MyLiteratureLab screen icons are found in the margins throughout the book.  An icon next to an author's name indicates that further resources about that author are available on MyLiteratureLab. 

Literature is written in an engaging style that reflects the warm personal voice of X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.  Some of the changes to the new edition include conversations between Dana Gioia and celebrated fiction writer Amy Tan, U. S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, and contemporary playwright David Ives; the addition of new writers including Naguib Mahfouz, Virginia Woolf, Sherman Alexie, Mary Oliver, Bettie Sellers, and Anne Deavere Smith; and every chapter concludes with a review of key terms for easy reference.  The Writing section has been thoroughly updated to reflect MLA’s latest guidelines.

Customer Reviews (17)

book review
I was surprised at how quickly I received the product. As the description said, the product was used, however, it was in a fairly decent condition. Overall, I was very satisfied with my purchase.

What? You call that good?
I don't know who listed this book in good condition, but they must have been smoking something!

First, this took the longest to arrive of a few books ordered at the same time on Amazon.com (although through different people/companies).

Second, when it arrived, this book - listed in good condition - appeared to have lived its previous life in the bottom of someone's backpack. It doesn't appear to be missing any pages, but one page is almost ripped out and a grouping of pages in the front and back as well as the front and back cover (this is a paperback) are mangled, extremely wrinkled, and far from in "good" condition.

That said, this is a text book, and will accomplish what it was purchased for.

My experience with Amazon was awesome
This was the first time i have ever ordered off the internet.I was kind of scared at first to pay for something like this over the internet.It is wonderful how technology allows us to do this now.This book was in the exact condition that amazon stated it was.I was very pleased

Great book for teaching or tutoring teens
Great book on style, narrative literature, novels, short story, poetry. Wonderful information to impart on teens!

ok
the book was in good condition although the seller did not inform me that the book had writings with pen in the front cover. but overall the book was good ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (37)

Very Awesome!
Book was in excellent condition. I am a college student and am currently using it in my English class. Very interesting short stories and different examples of literary works. VERY COOL!

textbook
book was taken care, not torn or highlighted. came to my home earlier than estimated delivery, will continue to purchase all my textbooks from amazon. VERY REASONABLE PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!11

Overall good experience
Amazon did an exelent job delivering the book in exelent condition in a timely manor. I was skeptical about buying a used book online but it turned out to be a good investment at a fraction of the price of my school bookstore.

Awesome service!!!
I got the book super quick and it was in VERY GOOD condition!!! Thank you =]

horrible
i ordered and paid for a book from this seller after waiting 2 weeks to get my book i contacted him and he informed me, he "sold it awhile ago." ... Read more

Product Description
CALIFORNIA POETRY is the first historical anthology toprovide a comprehensive survey of California poetry. Thisgroundbreaking new book presents the work of 101 authors across twocenturies, and includes poets as diverse as Ambrose Bierce, YoneNoguchi, Robinson Jeffers, Josephine Miles, Charles Bukowski, IshmaelReed, Francisco X. Alarcón, and Marilyn Chin. With ample biographicaland critical notes for each author, California Poetry goes beyond thelimits of the ordinary anthology and provides a detailed and oftenintimate account of the Golden State's rich but often neglectedcultural history.

"California...constitutes a separate and distinct literaryregion—one that can only be genuinely understood by reading workswritten by authors whose imaginations have been shaped by the state'sunique geography, history, and culture." —Dana Gioia, in theIntroduction ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

California Poetry - an anthology
California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present was published last November as the latest entry in the California Legacy series of Heyday Books.It is an anthology of poetry by California poets compiled and edited by Dana Gioia, who is currently serving as Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts.Chryss Yost, a poet, and Jack Hicks, who teaches literature and creative writing at the University of California, Davis, joined him on the editorial team. Over one hundred poets (out of a group of thousands) are represented in the book, and the poems of each contributor are accompanied by detailed biographic profiles of the authors.In the introduction, Gioia explains that the purpose of the anthology is to provide the readers with a "comprehensive historic anthology of the state's poetry from the Gold Rush to the present."Indeed, the book is a work of literary history as well an anthology of poetry.
The criteria used by the editors in making selections included, literary excellence, historical importance, and representative range.To ensure the regional character of the work, the editors imposed a residence requirement.Contributors must have been born and raised in California or spent half their lives in the state.
The book is organized chronologically in four sections.The first three parts cover poetic eras the editors labeled, "Early Poets," "California Modernists," and "Mid-Century Rebels and Traditionalists."Familiar names are encountered, such as Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Ambrose Bierce, Edwin Markham, Yvor Winters, Josephine Miles, William Everson, Charles Bukowski, Thom Gunn, Richard Brautigan, and many others.Generally, the coverage is from the Gold Rush in the nineteenth century to the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance of the 1960s.The final section of the anthology is devoted to contemporary poets, most of whom have attained reputations as major literary artists.
In his seminal article in a 1991 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Gioia argued that modern poetry could be more enthusiastically received by the public if, among other things, anthologists selected for their books poems that they truly liked and found qualified for further publication.It is apparent from the selections of California Poetry that the book's editors took Gioia's dictum to heart in compiling this excellent and historic anthology. ... Read more

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100 Great Poets provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the poetic tradition in English. Chronologically arranged, the book presents the major poets from Beowulf to the present with representative examples from each author. The headnotes and selections reflect the high notes of each poet¿s career—the classic poems that have earned an enduring place in the canon of English language literature.

Customer Reviews (1)

All a poetry anthology should be.
Of course, I am speaking in my title of the pure anthology, a collection without explanatory or exploratory texts. And that is all this is: a collection of poems by 100 poets. But do not misread "all this is": "a collection" is all this book _needs_ be, and it is that quite exemplarily.

Now, no poetry anthology that is not 5000+ pages in length is going to leave you without any sense of "Oh, they really should have included such-and-such," and this anthology is not exempt. Of course, there are poems and poets that I think would work better than others included toward expanding representation and variation without thinning out the collection. And there are some contemporary poets that Gioia includes that I see little reason behind beside their being popular to someone. And there are contemporary (or late 20th century) poets not included that I believe would have done the anthology well as examples of the art. But as a broad anthology, this exceeds my expectations. Most of the major names are included, and there is enough offered to give a decent sampling of their artistic identities. As well, there is enough breadth to offer examples that would contribute to most any discussion about poetry and poetics. It would be an easy thing to teach poetry simply by opening this book, and exploring what you find.

As someone who has become rather despondant about the abundance of poorly conceived and executed anthologies out there, this one has pleased me (and is pleasing me) to no end. A well put together collection, and worthy of any classroom -- not to mention an excellent sampling of poetry for any curious reader.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Live Gloriously In A Suicide's Brain (from Ahadada Books)
In a former incarnation, I lived together with a now-ex wife in a beautiful apartment that had been the home of my ex-wife's grandparents.I loved this place, because the decor, the coral base-lit floor lamps, the art deco radio, the wallpaper was 1940's and '50's vintage and some pieces quite possibly dated from a decade or two before.This is the America that the grown Weldon Kees inhabited, and the smells, the arabesques on the carpeting, the tinny sounds of the radio are all replicated to perfection in these stories.In fact, reading these stories reminds me of climbing the back steps to that great apartment I once lived in and creaking open the door.All the things this tragic suicide knew are there: the Lucky Strike commercials, the tough guys saying See? See? over and over as they jabbed each other in the chest in the black and white movies Kees loved to watch.The short stories Kees writes are full of the telling details of a different, brasher, bolder, certain of itself America, but an America that could still drive sensitive people to despair.Some of these stories have the understated power of Kees' poems: "The Ceremony" with its nightmarish "petrified Indians" and a strange predicament right out of Kafka; the brother/pimp of "I Should Worry" who sits downstairs in his parts store while his deaf and dumb sister services a man upstairs in the same room in which their parents gassed themselves years before; an older spinster sister outraged by the sound of a couple next door having sex and struggling with the younger sister in a thwarted attempt to knock on the wall.There are memorable characters here aplenty and a clarity of language and vision that can be found in the best of Kees' poems.However, though I am mighty glad that Kees wrote these stories, I am even gladder that he abruptly stopped to write the often darkly exquisite poems, for Kees was obviously not a first-rate talent in his prose, mainly because he allows his lack of sympathy for some characters to portray them as one-dimensional cartoons.(Perhaps he lacked the "Negative Capability" that allows a great writer to love even the bad guys he or she creates.) Women, for instance, often appear in a totally unsympathetic,one-dimensional light.Indeed, in many of these stories women assume all the complexity of an "Our Miss Brooks" episode, stepping forth as carping harridans and frustrated, fire-spitting viragoes.Gays too are a problematic subject for Kees."A Trip to the Mountains" and "The Life of the Mind" present homosexuality in a stereotypical way.However, given these obvious flaws, this selection of stories introduces readers to yet more glittering facets of a dark gem of a writer who left us all too soon.

A Forgotten US Enigma
:
No one knows how, or when, or even whether, Weldon Kees died.Having talked both of fleeing to Mexico and of suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, his car was found near the latter on July 18, 1955. No hint of the man has since emerged.

But while he was active, Kees wrote fiction (initially), poetry, and cultural criticism of all kinds for major national periodicals; he painted (abstract expressionism), was a jazz musician, made films, and collaborated with anthropologists and behavioural scientists on various ventures.From his time of relocation to New York until his disappearance, he circled with many of the avant garde leaders in the New York art scene.Brief as his life was, it represents one of the most multi-faceted talents of his, or any, age.

Born in the plains (Beatrice, Nebraska, 1914) to parents operating a hardware store, Kees had several short stories published while in his twenties, but quit writing them altogether by the early forties when he moved east. They (43 in all) thus confine almost exlusively to glum-faced real-life depictions of common folks in depressed, small, mid American towns. Dana Goia has selected about a third of these, those deemed most successful, and includes an informative introduction.Kees, in this work, reflects clearly the social-conditions focus of the thirties throughout the US and presents his small gems in down-keyed, often unresolved, personal reflections and observations on everyday hum-drum existence by a generally undistinguished, often quietly frustrated narrator-protagonist.Generally these are finely edited, simple-language depictions of unfulfilled yearning and coping with material boredom and insignificance.

Stylistically, most are relatively brief and trenchant in their resolute resistance to unfounded optimism. But they are poignant within the simple, disciplined writing, and the reader is pulled gently and feelingly into the glum world of the however hapless, however compromised narrator.All presented in a gray climate unaccommodating of patriotic, religious, or familial panegyric.

Kees is a unique, if minor figure in American 20th century literature, and the thoughtful reader will be rewarded by giving him some time, likely reminded - nostalgically perhaps in the half-tone depression hues Kees uses - of the unadorned nature of the lives most of us lead. ... Read more

Product Description

Literature, Compact 4/e, the concise edition of the most popular introduction of its kind, is organized into three genres¤Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. As in past editions, the authors' collective poetic voice brings personal warmth and a human perspective to the discussion of literature, adding to students' interest in the readings.

An introduction to a balance of contemporary and classic stories, poems, and plays. Casebooks offer in-depth look at an author or clusters of works, for example “Latin American Poetry.” Authors Joe Kennedy and Dana Gioia provide inviting and illuminating introductions to the authors included and to the elements of literature. Coverage of writing about literature is also included.

For those interested in literature.

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Refresher--refers to the 6th Edition
This review refers to the 6th Edition. I read this book as a refresher of the basics and found it very helpful. I especially value the simple, easy to understand definitions of the Literary Elements and the examples that accompany them.

It would be nice if we can search inside the latest edition because first thing I'd like to check is the Table of Contents and if it reflects the expansion of the literary canon. More women, people of color and writers from other cultures please.
... Read more

Product Description

Kennedy/Gioia's An Introduction to Poetry, 13^th edition continues to inspire students with a rich collection of poems and engaging insights on reading, analyzing, and writing about poetry.  The authors of this bestselling book are the recipients of many prestigious poetry awards.  Features new to this edition include:

Customer Reviews (9)

Exactly what I wanted
I ordered this book for a class i took this semester at college. It gave a specific description of the condition of the book, and that's exactly what it got. No funny business here. Always better to get used books over new ones if you're looking to save some money. Old books need love too!

Great Textbook
I used thi book for my poetry class @ IUPUI,and found it an excellent book for the class. The pages have enough room by each poem so you can writ comment,and though of thoughts. I loved this book!!

Very good.
This is a very well written and easy to follow textbook.The different chapters introduce elements of poetry and provide great examples and questions to help the reader deepen his or her understanding. There is even a chapter of Spanish poems.Also, another great feature is that after some poems, the authors give the name and page number of a poem to compare with--allowing a person to integrate and synthesize information.It helps readers make connections and interact with the book. "Introduction to Poetry" is certainly aimed at helping the student.One of my only complaints is, like another reviewer mentioned, the sample essays could have been better.

Honesty is the best policy
First time I bought a used book that actually looked brand NEW!! Thanks for being honest.

A Good, but Conservative, Anthology
Much to like in this book; despite a lot of dreary examples of ancient poets writing drearily about dreary topics, there's actually a very good selection of vigorous, interesting stuff from the modern era.I can highly recommend the book as a whole, but do pity the beginning student trying to wade through the dry-as-dust academic treatment of some topics and poets.Despite the impeccable credentials and good intentions of the editors, they pick 'way too many pre-20th century poets whose intellectual milieu is totally lame, and they too often "academize" and make dull what could be lively, fresh, and compelling.I'd hope that X.J. and Dana would think hard about what it's like for a college freshman to be confronted with turgid, overly-long, and frankly unimaginative essays such as the one that launches this volume:"Reading a Poem," instead of sparking some real interest through any of thousands of current-day examples that might really hook post-literate teenagers, drags out a piece of road-kill by W.B. Yeats (Lake Isle of Innisfree), follows with a museum-piece by D.H. Lawrence, and then astoundingly unearths a bland piece by 22-year-old Adrienne Rich (written before she learned how to set a page on fire and leave nothing but holy ash behind).Too many of the introductory sections have this faded, trudging-toward-M.A. feel, which is too bad, since the overall selection of poems (setting aside the overrepresentation of dead white European males) is pretty darned good, and you've gotta know that these two editors do have more salsa on their burritoes than they're admitting to in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
The Longman Anthology of Short Fiction provides a comprehensive survey of the short story encompassing a rich global and historical mix in a way readers find accessible, engaging, and relevant.The selections present a diverse mix of classic, contemporary, and new voices. A unique feature, "Fact into Fiction" presents the factual account that inspired selected authors to write a particular work.For anyone interested in fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Thorough
This thick volume contains stories from the last century.Each entry begins with a profile of the author, including his or her major works and a short biography, then has between 1 and 3 short stories.Afterwards, many entries have an essay by the author about the work, or have extensive information about the historical context of the story.
This book strives to be complete, with selections of different styles of writing, various themes, and non-western as well as Western authors.It suceeds in this to a certain extant, but the majority of the stories are written by white American men.However, many other stories are included.
Because of the size of this tome, it may be difficult for the reader to discover the very good stories buried admist the mediocre.Even a dedicated reader might get bogged down in the dozens mediocre stories about rape and lust, never finding the great stories that are also present. ... Read more

Product Description
I am the past that feeds upon the present.
I am the darkness that daylight denies.
I am the sins that you must inherit--
The final truth in a world full of lies.

Based on F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire film--a classic of German Expressionist cinema--Gioia's Nosferatu creates a poetic version of the Dracula story in the form of an opera libretto. Written for the neoromantic composer Alva Henderson, the opera Nosferatu has been triumphantly showcased around the U.S. and will soon be staged in New York. Giogia's thrilling version of the vampire myth brings forth the terror of Nosferatu, "the undead," as seen through the eyes of the heroine, a gifted young woman trapped in a tragedy beyond her control.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vamp
This is a play- so if you are looking for a Vanmpire book, this isn't for you. But, if you are into plays, this is a good one.

What's opera without the music?
In this case, it's a remarkable dramatic poem, in which good vs. evil, light vs. darkness, need vs. greed and all the other Big Fights come evocatively wrapped in a vampire's cape. Despite the grand scale of the tragedy and the Gothic settting, or maybe because of it, you will find yourself identifying with the cursed and gifted heroine, her doomed goof of a husband, and the desperately lonely Orlock. The language is straight-forward and precise. How long will it take the Anne Rice crowd to find the anthems waiting between the covers of this undiscovered masterpiece? ... Read more

Product Description
A poet is a poet for such a very tiny bit of his life; for the rest he is a human being, one of whose responsibilities is to know and feel, as much as he can, all that is moving around and within him.
--Dylan Thomas

This unique volume celebrates poetry by providing a personal, intimate connection with the act of its creation. Based on an enormously successful exhibition at The New York Public Library, The Hand of the Poet draws the reader into the real world of the poet-- ink spots, tobacco stains, and all-- by presenting a wide range of working drafts, letters, diary entries, photographs, and memorabilia. One hundred writers from the seventeenth century to the present day are represented, from John Donne to Mark Strand, Samuel Coleridge to Anne Waldman, Lord Byron to Julia Alvarez, William Blake to Lorine Niedecker and Stanley Kunitz. Writers better known for their prose are included here as well-- Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov, among others.

This book records the place of poetry in daily life and how, exactly, we turn to it as, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, not "just pretty or just beautiful," but "basic to human existence." As Dana Gioia notes in his introduction, "The Magical Value of Manuscripts," contact with handwritten manuscripts speaks to the same desire manifest in the explosion of poetry readings occurring today nationwide.

Biographies and portraits of each poet-- alongside manuscripts of such legendary works as Yeats's "The Wild Swans at Coole" and W. H. Auden's "Stop All the Clocks"-- make up a mosaic that offers powerful and often surprising revelations of the person behind the poem.

Illustrated with over three hundred black-and-white photographs, The Hand of the Poet is for those new to poetry as well as those for whom poetry has been a life-long passion. Following both the inspiration and the labors of these writers, readers may find themselves in the position of Ralph Waldo Emerson following the travels of Henry David Thoreau: "It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own...."
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

For the aspiring poet, a good read
There is something magical about seeing well known and loved poems in the poet's own hand... this book provides an interesting insight into the works of a good number of well-known poets.A must-have for those who read poetry with more than just a passing interest, this book is also a good starting point for biographical information.Nice photographs, and, when necessary, captions transcribing the poets' sometimes illegible handwriting make this book a gem.Perfect for browsing.

Interesting, but is it worth it?
I bought the book, and interesting as it is, I'm just not sure what it's worth to me as a lover of literature and as a writer. I like seeing some of the original manuscripts, the various pictures, and such, but that really didn't enlighten me to anything. Yes, there is a small biographical introduction to each writer, but it's so short as to be almost pointless. This is the kind of book you check out of the library, not buy. I don't want anyone to think it's not a good collection. It is. But I can't in any good faith recommend someone spending this much money on something that really doesn't bring to light anything new or special about any one of these writers. It's just...well, it's just neat. If you want something special, then look elsewhere. If you just like spending money on neat books, then maybe this is for you.

from the exhibition
this was a nicely done book that helps show you the importance of the poet's original manuscript. all poets and poetry lovers should pick this one up.

a good representation of an excellent exhibit
This book is based on an 1996 exhibit in the New York Public Library which featured original material from one hundred poets, covering centuries of work, including poets as diverse as John Donne and Allen Ginsberg.Part of the appeal of the exhibit was seeing the actual original manuscripts, jotted notes, and correspondence right in front of you, and in that regard, the book can not live up. It is, nonetheless, excellent in its scope and interesting in its reproductions of the material from the exhibit. It would be particularly appealing to students or enthusiasts of poetry, that is, those with a prior background knowledge of the poets included.It would be of less value to someone looking for an introduction to poetry.I did thoroughly enjoy both the exhibit and the book and do strongly recommend it to any poetry enthusiast.

A nice gift book
Contains reproductions of original manuscripts, about one page each, of a wide range of well known authors. Nicely bound and wrapped, a good gift especially for aspiring authors or people very involved in literature. ... Read more

Product Description

Literature, Portable Edition, 11/e, features four lightweight, paperback volumes—Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing—packed in a slipcase.  The material is presented in a newly revised, easier to study format and inlcudes MLA’s latest guidelines.  Conversations between Dana Gioia and celebrated fiction writer Amy Tan, current U. S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, and contemporary playwright David Ives, offer students an insider’s look into the importance of reading to three contemporary writers.  A Latin American Writers casebook is new to Fiction and collects some of the finest authors from the region including Octavia Paz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Ines Arendondo.  A casebook on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is now featured as part of the Three Stories In-depth chapter.  Many new writers have been added including Naguib Mafouz, Virginia Woolf, Sherman Alexie, Mary Oliver, Bettie Sellers, and Anne Deavere Smith.  As always, editors X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring personal warmth and a human perspective to the Eleventh Edition of this comprehensive anthology.

Customer Reviews (10)

Ideal for any college student
As a College student, it is a fact of life knowing that with classes, come big, expensive, heavy textbooks. Lugging around three or four different textbooks is not only taxing for the student, but it is taxing for the student's bookbag. That is why this portable edition of introductory literature is a must have, because it is a sectionalized version of the regular text.The text is unabridged and super condensed into four separately bound sections: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.The pages are super thin so the books are lightweight and small.The greatest selling point for me was the fact that I can just take a section in to class instead of lugging the whole textbook. For example; when we are discussing poetry, I simply bring the poetry section and leave the rest at home. This text set is well worth the money.You will not regret your purchase.

Did Not Receive Item!
I ordered this book at least one month ago.
I never received this item

Excellent buy in a very portable format.
Great value and the three book set makes reading an actual book possible on the go.

The usual
Anyone needing this for a class will be happy to get it at a discount comared to their local college book store

Great collection.
Haven't read too much of it yet. It is the text required for me 'Into to Lit.' class. But after scanning through the tittles it seams to be a great collection of works, spanning many authors, genres, and times. Im not much of a story reader though, mostly read educational books in particular into computers/programming. But this is definatltly a great collection to have, in or out of school. Take care everyone! ... Read more