The Great Modern Poets: The Best Poetry Of Our Times

by Michael Schmidt (Editor)

An introduction to the works of the 50 greatest poets of our time.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Reference, Modern, Anthologies

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Michael Schmidt is a literary historian, poet, novelist, translator, and anthologist as well as an editor and publisher. His books include The Novel: A Biography and The First Poets. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he received an OBE in 2006 for services to poetry and higher education. He lives in Manchester, England.

Reviews

[P.J. MacNamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book if you appreciate poets and poetry. As has been said, each of the 50 poets gets a b/w photo and a full page biog, which are both most welcome. When I saw the word "Modern" in the title I really wasn't expecting to see Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and their ilk, but I guess it depends how you're defining "Modern", doesn't it?

Some of the people in here I studied as a schoolboy and they seem like old friends to me now - Auden, Graves, Betjeman, Frost, Yates, Pound, Owen.... And of course Eliot and Plath are both great heroes of mine.

But how heartbroken was I to see they could find no place here for the wonderful Christina Rosetti.

Oh yes, there was a free CD with this one too.

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Below is a list of the 50 different modern poets in this book, between them there are 159 poems. Each poet’s work follows a photo of good quality and takes one page and a short bio. Most poets work is printed across two pages, the space is used economically, it’s surprising how many they many to fit on some pages but the font is clear and sharp, making it easy to read the poem and follow the lines. On some pages there are captions in large lighter texts of extracts from the poem on that page. This does not make the page look crowded, it feels like a lot of thought has gone into how the poems in this book are arranged; the worse thing is a poor layout and low-quality print so I spend more time understanding how to read that poem than connecting with it, hence, this was a pleasurable read.

Over half the poets in this book were completely new to me, and of the ones I had their poems in this book were new to me. So, this was a brilliant start, you could call it a springboard, for me to be introduced to so many different styles and usage of language that we call poetry. Overall, the poems are delightful minus the handful that plodded and looked dull next to the dynamic and imaginative. I also found the intro and glossary helpful. More and more I am buying my books on kindle but this one reminds me why physical books will always leave their mark. As a whole, with the layout and photos of each poet, it’s a wonderful and thoughtful book which I am pleased to have discovered by complete chance.

The Poets in this book, in the order they are printed:
Thomas Hardy; A.E. Housman; Rudyard Kipling; W.B. Yeats; Charlotte Mew; Robert Frost; Edward Thomas; Wallace Stevens; William Carlos Williams; D.H. Lawrence; Ezra Pound; Robinson Jeffers; Marianne Moore; T.S. Eliot; Hugh MacDiarmid; Edna St. Vincent Millay; Wilfred Owen; E.E. Cummings; Robert Graves; Allen Tate; Basil Bunting; Laura Riding; Langston Hughes; John Betjeman; W.H. Auden; Elizabeth Bishop; C.H. Sisson; Dylan Thomas; Robert Lowell; W.S. Graham; Keith Douglas; Edwin Morgan; Donald Davie; Philip Larkin; James K. Baxter; Allen Ginsberg; Frank O'Hara; John Ashbery; Thomas Kinsella; Thom Gunn; Adrienne Rich; Kamau Brathwaite; Ted Hughes; Derek Walcott; Geoffrey Hill; Sylvia Plath; Les Murray; Seamus Heaney; Eavan Bolan; and James Fenton.

This review is based on:
The edition I am reading is a mix of what I could select from Goodreads. This review is of a paperback edition, 224 pages, printed in 2009 (originally printed in 2006), with a subtitle “The Best Poetry of Our Times”. The Photo cover is from this edition , mine did not include a CD so the photo takes more of the page. It’s edited by Michael Schmidt.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

20th century poet be a good partner challenge!! (impossible!!)

[Tara Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a great anthology, highly recommend for a brief and vast overview of the well-known greats.

[Julian Mirano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout my whole life I have always tried to be different. I think we all try to do that. We listen to a band and say this band is for me and it makes me who I am and I know something about it that you don't. We try to dress differently.
We create a persona on where we shop, what we eat, and the movies we like to watch. And yet, where is the matrix to this culture for the obtuse? It seems that it can be found in the poetry of the modernists. Where here, a love for what is new and what is different was found--and this new, this different, is a culture that even to this day has yet to become old.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected to like this. I ended up feeling fairly ambivalent. A bit over halfway through, I found myself thinking 'This is a very blokey collection.' I have read lots of anthologies with similar poor female representation without feeling that, and am still not sure why. The intros could have been much shorter, not interested in his analysis, though liked the biographical bits at the beginning. Though I was amused by his obvious disapproval of Housman's popularity. I appreciated reading poets I hadn't heard of, but wish he hadn't chosen to represent so many with one one long poem only.

[Aidan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The biographical bits of the introductions were interesting, but then tended to lapse into pretentious waffle. Also, very male heavy, surely there are more modern female poets than the few here!

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great introduction to many poets I had heard of but hadn't read. Annoyed by Author's insinuating his snide into his biography's. It's like he's saying there someone else's great modern poets, but apart of Auden, they're not mine.

[Attack Helicopter]

The book I chose to read for this month is The Great Modern Poets by Michael Schmidt. In short, this book brings together several of the best poets from the 1900s to the present day and some of their best works. Along with these poems, some text provides some insight into the poems. This insight includes some historical background information, a little about the author and their work, some observations, and more. I did not like this book; I would give it a one out of five stars. Not because the book was bad or anything it’s just not my kind of genre. I like action and fun storylines. This book lacked that; granted it was a book of poems, but still, not something I would read. Don’t recommend this book to anyone unless you’re weird and would rather read poems than stories.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is
what it says
on the cover:
some revelatory dis-
coveries for me...
the idle poetaster!...
with a potent taste
for wayward

words.

[Cyril · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect gift for anyone who loves poetry.

It is the perfect book to buy for yourself if you like Poetry :)

In it you will find ~
50 of the most important (English language) Poets
150 of their poems, an average of 3 per poet
A brief bio, and a conversation about the value/role of their poetry
A fine black and White photograph of each poet, something of a work of art in itself

This is a reference I think I will find myself turning to regularly; for all the reasons listed above.

[Cary Neeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twentieth century authors featured in this book are treated to a very useful biography that focuses on the way their lives impacted their writing and how that writing differs from other poets. Following each biography is a selection of several of the poet's poems. Michael Schmidt
does not date them, however, which would be a help in understanding a bit about why the poet wrote them. Schmidt recommends reading poems three times out loud in order to get the full impact of the work. Amazing what that does for a poem!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn't embrace multiculturalism (and I even mean white women poets) but it's a handsome volume that includes some of the familiar modern greats (Frost, Yeats, Stevens) with some much-less anthologized fine poets, such as Basil Bunting, Laura Riding, and the late, great Thom Gunn. It's great to see photographs of the poets next to their works; some of their lines are written on their faces.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved rereading old friends, and his one page combination biography and synopsis of the 50 poets he chose. Of course I disagreed with a few of the choices and omissions--but it would be impossible to make a list of 50 everyone agreed with. And a new discovery--I don't know the work of Charlotte Mew, but now I want to read more of her.

[Nancy Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I love language and assumed a love for poetry, reading this book felt incredibly tedious for me. I clearly lack education about "great poetry" and I felt utterly baffled by the inclusion of most of the selections. I've read many pieces I would consider superior to those in the book. It must surely be me!

[J.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: This is not what I think of the poetry itself! This is simply a terrific book for trying to find what poets you would be interested in reading, which ones are not as good, and maybe even which ones you may want to avoid. What makes it work so well at this is that Schmidt put in a great variety of topics and styles. Good (and bad) news: it helped me increase the size of my to-read list.

[Brenda Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classics--an anthology of the "best" English language poets since 1990. 50 of the greats and 150 of their poems. It also comes with an 80 min. audio CD of some of the poets reading their own work. Ahh. . .

[Richard Kinsella · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge of poetry from some of the great poets of the 20th. century, I would strongly recommend this book. Attached is a CD with the actual recorded voice of each poet.

[Paige White · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy reading about depressed and/or confused people, read this...

[Risa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Modern Poets by Michael Schmidt (2006)

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little light on great modern poets of color...

[Joe Loftus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anthology for dipping in and out of. Misses some great modern poets out and some even better poems, but then again - you can hardly cover everything in one book alone.

[Kodiak Trickler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book. It had a ton of good poems and cool poets.

[Ryan Gough · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it, though tbh it was around the time of Brexit and I mostly just read "The Second Coming" over and over again.