100 Favorite English and Irish Poems

by Clarence C. Strowbridge (Editor)

This compact anthology contains many of the best works of 59 poets writing in English—from the complex rhyme schemes of Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser and lovely sonnets of the preeminent English poet and playwright William Shakespeare to William Blake's visionary works and John Keats' profound insights into the nature of beauty, art, and mortality.
Here also are beloved poems by Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Burns, William Butler Yeats, Rupert Brooke, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and 43 other great English, Irish, and Scottish writers.
In addition to a concise introduction, this volume provides brief commentaries on the poets represented. The result is a carefully selected anthology that will be studied and treasured by students and poetry lovers alike.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2006

Reviews

[Anima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonnet 75 - Edmund Spenser
"One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise...."

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope
"...
Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie."

Sonnet 6 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
Hence forward in thy shadow. Nevermore
Alone upon the threshold of my door
Of individual life, I shall command
The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand
Serenely in the sunshine as before,
Without the sense of that which I forbore—
Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double. What I do
And what I dream include thee, as the wine
Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes the tears of two."

Sonet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul. "

[Adriana]

All the poems are very good, naturally, but only two women?!?! In the WHOLE THING? smh

[Andrea Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful collection of some well-known gems: generally speaking, one or two poems by each author, with a brief, biographical sketch preceding … be sure to thank your Mother and/or your Teachers and/or your Drama Coach for introducing you to these masterpieces, and encouraging you to commit them to memory … when you are old and gray, your memory will kick in on the poems, even when you can’t remember what you had for lunch … absolutely stellar …

by A.A. Milne

[Ricki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely prefer the more modern poetry.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a big poetry person, but this book has really made me appreciate it much more! I love the plethora of different writers and themes they address, it was truly refreshing to read. :)

[jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

those 16th/17th cent white men really cooked w the metaphysical poetry

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the Dover Thrift collection of 101 Great American Poems, I read this in preparation for a class I'm teaching this fall. I liked this collection more than the American collection, if for no other reason than that I prefer British literature to American.

Many of my comments about this collection will sound similar to ones in my review of the American poetry collection. It is nearly impossible to have a really satisfying collection of 100 poems to represent a British/English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh poetic tradition stretching from the late middle ages to the mid-20th century, so while this is a decent collection, it is missing many poems I would consider more important than some that were included. For instance, I would rather have had Wilfred Owen's "Dolce Et Decorum Est" than his "Greater Love," and I feel Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill" (in addition to "Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night") should be included in every collection representing British poetry. But these are my own preferences, and, again, with only 100 slots to fill there had to be compromises.
Another limitation of both this book and the American collection is that they do not include much critical or explanatory material. Both present brief author bios, but no explanation of the context, content, allusions, forms, and so on of the poems included. This is fine for the casual reader, but for the purpose of my class this background info would be useful.
My critique of this specific collection--as opposed to the US collection--is that there is really no post-WWII poetry included. Even though this collection was published in 2006, the most recent poem in by Dylan Thomas, giving us nothing post 1950.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great compilation, going from the the Late Middle Ages to the 1950s. I love the way how the chronological arrangement of the poems allow you to see the development of English poetry (it's got a couple of Irish, Scottish and Welsh writers too, but very few). Every poems has a few lines describing the most important aspect of the authors and the name of the era they belong to. A very digestible introduction to English poetry.

[Roisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Dover Thrift Edition is a very good, small and short anthology of a range of romantic, political and social poets within British and Irish literature. It features a good range of poets, but sadly too few women. Loads more than the usual two suspects could have been added. Shame!

There are short (a few lines) biographies on each poet too.

[kiwi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course, being Irish, I preferred the Irish ones...

....WE'RE PROUD, OKAY?? IRISH PEOPLE ARE STUPIDLY STUBBORN AND PROUD.

[Dan Hickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice catalog of poems from Shakespeare to Dylan Thomas.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many classic poems are included here, but it is not my favorite anthology. I prefer Untermeyer's Book of Living Verse or 81 Poems (a nice selection from the Norton Anthology).