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The Echoing Green: Poems of Fields, Meadows, and Grasses
The Echoing Poems of Fields, Meadows, and Grasses is a unique anthology of poetry about the natural world.
The rich poetic history of grass spans the centuries, from the pastoral poems of ancient Rome to the fields and prairies of the New World. The rapturous idealizations of William Blake’s “echoing green” and William Wordsworth’s “splendour in the grass” stand in vivid contrast to the obliterating greenery on human battlefields in war poems such as John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” and Carl Sandburg’s “Grass,” or to the work of contemporary poets—Lucia Perillo, Harryette Mullen, Denise Levertov, and Gary Soto among them—who reflect on an age of environmental crisis. Here is a rich array of poets from around the world, including Virgil, T’ao Ch’ien, Bashō, Andrew Marvell, Robert Burns, Victor Hugo, Christina Rossetti, Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, Willa Cather, Ingeborg Bachmann, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Tomas Tranströmer, Sherman Alexie, and Derek Walcott, in a dazzling celebration of our complicated relationship to nature.
The rich poetic history of grass spans the centuries, from the pastoral poems of ancient Rome to the fields and prairies of the New World. The rapturous idealizations of William Blake’s “echoing green” and William Wordsworth’s “splendour in the grass” stand in vivid contrast to the obliterating greenery on human battlefields in war poems such as John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” and Carl Sandburg’s “Grass,” or to the work of contemporary poets—Lucia Perillo, Harryette Mullen, Denise Levertov, and Gary Soto among them—who reflect on an age of environmental crisis. Here is a rich array of poets from around the world, including Virgil, T’ao Ch’ien, Bashō, Andrew Marvell, Robert Burns, Victor Hugo, Christina Rossetti, Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, Willa Cather, Ingeborg Bachmann, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Tomas Tranströmer, Sherman Alexie, and Derek Walcott, in a dazzling celebration of our complicated relationship to nature.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 30, 2019
I read this through on a flight yesterday. Parks collected some beautiful pieces, many of which are 20th century. I delighted in reading some old favorites like Marvel's "The Ecchoing Green" and found some new ones like "To Be Fire" by Leigh Anne Couch. I do confess that some of the mid-century ones baffled me. Completely. I simply didn't understand them, let alone delight in their words.
July 14, 2023
A few stand outs but a lot of dross. John Clare shines as always.
March 6, 2017
Reader's copy courtesy Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets via Amazon Vine program
Beautiful, Inside and Out
Walt Whitman is here, as he ought to be, with two of his many passages about grass. So is John McCrae with his melodic and melancholy "In Flanders Fields," and Carl Sandburg and his elegantly simple "Grass."
And so too are Bashō, from the 1600s, and Ibn Iyad, from the 1100s, because sadly and inevitably grass has blanketed many a warrior over the centuries, and knows no side or philosophy other than the inevitable reclamation of trampled, furrowed scars, and a knitting together of the rents in the earth.
In assembling this anthology, Cecily Parks has pulled together representative samples from writers who may be familiar to you, as well as those whose words you will be reading for the first time. Style also runs the gamut from haiku to more modern forms. Because poetry can be both brief and powerful, this small-form anthology does not sacrifice impact for compactness. The excerpting from longer works seems on target: Of the longer works Parks has selected, I am most familiar with Whitman, and generally agree with her choices there. Tone and subject also vary quite a bit, which is prudent in an anthology.
I expected to find more new to me than known in this slender volume, and was surprised to see another childhood friend, learned and sung at campfires under the stars "... and the green grass grows all around, all around, and the green grass grows all around."
May it ever be so.
Beautiful, Inside and Out
Walt Whitman is here, as he ought to be, with two of his many passages about grass. So is John McCrae with his melodic and melancholy "In Flanders Fields," and Carl Sandburg and his elegantly simple "Grass."
And so too are Bashō, from the 1600s, and Ibn Iyad, from the 1100s, because sadly and inevitably grass has blanketed many a warrior over the centuries, and knows no side or philosophy other than the inevitable reclamation of trampled, furrowed scars, and a knitting together of the rents in the earth.
In assembling this anthology, Cecily Parks has pulled together representative samples from writers who may be familiar to you, as well as those whose words you will be reading for the first time. Style also runs the gamut from haiku to more modern forms. Because poetry can be both brief and powerful, this small-form anthology does not sacrifice impact for compactness. The excerpting from longer works seems on target: Of the longer works Parks has selected, I am most familiar with Whitman, and generally agree with her choices there. Tone and subject also vary quite a bit, which is prudent in an anthology.
I expected to find more new to me than known in this slender volume, and was surprised to see another childhood friend, learned and sung at campfires under the stars "... and the green grass grows all around, all around, and the green grass grows all around."
May it ever be so.
December 21, 2017
Excellent and broad collection of poems that in some way relate to grasses and meadows. Various time periods, sub-headings, and authors. Enjoyable to have by the bedside or to read a few poems while relaxing in the bath.
July 9, 2016
Generally, I'm not much into poetry but this is a very soothing volume of poetry.
August 28, 2025
I love the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets anthologies. This particular anthology of poems is about fields, meadows, and grasses. I was surprised at how good this collection was since you don't necessarily think that grass would inspire great poetry.
Like all anthologies, you will find poems you love, like, and dislike. For me, the stand-out of this collection is Louise Erdrich's "The Buffalo Prayer." It's sad and tragic and oh so beautiful as it's a prayer for bison lost on the prairie. Other poems in the top tier include Jericho Brown's "Odd Jobs." It's vivid with a nice arc of humor running through it. Angela Shaw's "Children in a Field" is evocative with wonderful verse, especially the last few lines. Elizabeth Bradfield's "Multi-Use Area" was wonderful as a poem describing our modern lives in the fields of the outdoors.
There are some clinkers, too. Lisa Russ Spaar's "St. Field" has too many obscure words and a contrived, stream-of-consciousness aspect causing the poem to fail miserably. Amy Clampitt's "Grasses" - weird and inscrutable - also fails. Carl Philipps' "A Kind of Meadow" I found difficult to read and understand.
Overall, there were many more poems in this anthology that I liked than I disliked. Recommended.
Like all anthologies, you will find poems you love, like, and dislike. For me, the stand-out of this collection is Louise Erdrich's "The Buffalo Prayer." It's sad and tragic and oh so beautiful as it's a prayer for bison lost on the prairie. Other poems in the top tier include Jericho Brown's "Odd Jobs." It's vivid with a nice arc of humor running through it. Angela Shaw's "Children in a Field" is evocative with wonderful verse, especially the last few lines. Elizabeth Bradfield's "Multi-Use Area" was wonderful as a poem describing our modern lives in the fields of the outdoors.
There are some clinkers, too. Lisa Russ Spaar's "St. Field" has too many obscure words and a contrived, stream-of-consciousness aspect causing the poem to fail miserably. Amy Clampitt's "Grasses" - weird and inscrutable - also fails. Carl Philipps' "A Kind of Meadow" I found difficult to read and understand.
Overall, there were many more poems in this anthology that I liked than I disliked. Recommended.
December 14, 2019
A few of the poems in this wide-ranging anthology have only slightly to do with fields, meadows, or grass, but all have some connection to nature. Probably every reader will find pieces that are moving and others that fail to resonate, since so many different poets, eras, and styles are featured. I really enjoyed dipping into this book on and off over several months, reading a few poems at a time.
June 10, 2020
I appreciate that this particular series of Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets is topical. Usually anthologies are by culture or time period or author. I also love that this contains a mix of classic familiar poems and modern 20th cent poetry. Perfect for throwing in my purse and reading anywhere at anytime.
July 27, 2021
I loved the Four Seasons collection in this series, so I expected to love the Echoing Green as well. Sadly, it was mostly okay, with just a few standout poems. You're telling me that with hundreds of years of British poetry, and their love of going on and on about landscapes, these were best poems we could get? C'mon...
Want to Read
December 4, 2021
October 25, 2020
An interesting collection of poems, a good variety. I didn't like all of them, but that's to be expected.
June 14, 2021
“the poet goes away into the fields”
May 31, 2022
3.5 rounded up
July 30, 2023
I was hoping for a little bit more heartfelt expressions of love for nature (à la Anne of Green Gables), but it's still a nice enough collection.
June 24, 2018
The poems in this collection do not stand out, delight or surprise, however, it is still a nicely packaged, and unified tribute to all the world's greenery.
October 1, 2025
I wanted to like this book because I love nature, but most of these poems were boring to me or didn't make any sense.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews