What do you think?
Rate this book
The Mentor Book of Major American Poets
A compact anthology of 3 centuries of poetry by 20 great American poets.
544 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1962
23 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 13, 2023
I first began reading this book because I was looking for a change of scenery. My normal genres include fantasy and nonfiction so I wanted to change them up. Alongside this book, I also read a book of 100 great poems. Of the two I preferred this one because the poems were sorted by the author so I read a lot of poems by authors I liked.
One of my favorite poets was Langston Hughes. His consistent rhyming scheme made his poems easy to read compared to some poems with no rhyming and inconsistent cadences. One of my favorite poems overall was The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Its use of repetition and clear plotline made it an interesting read. I liked how each stanza ended with something rhyming with “nothing more”. It gave the poem a sense of cohesiveness. Another poem I enjoyed was Mending Wall by Robert Frost. The poem was not broken up into stanzas but instead, read more like a story. The descriptiveness of the poem and the occasional bit of dialogue makes up for the lack of rhymes.
Something I enjoy overall in poetry is repetition. Repeating a certain sound at the end of each line or two is also rhyming which makes the poem easier to read. Connecting the beginning of a poem to the end, as Edgar Allen Poe often does, also makes the poem feel complete. Another bonus in poetry is when the syllables in each phrase form a natural rhythm. It makes the poem easier to read as well.
Poems I didn’t enjoy as much include Apple Picking by Robert Frost and Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. Apple Picking by Robert Frost was a very long poem and the rhyming was all over the place. There was no real feel of rhythm to the poem and it was too long for what it described. Many of Frosts’s poems are very long, like The Death of the Hired Man, which goes on for a few pages. On the contrary, Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams was very short and had no cohesive structure. The whole poem was one sentence broken up with no rhymes. One thing I did like about this poem however was the shaping, it looked like three wheelbarrows.
One of my favorite poets was Langston Hughes. His consistent rhyming scheme made his poems easy to read compared to some poems with no rhyming and inconsistent cadences. One of my favorite poems overall was The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Its use of repetition and clear plotline made it an interesting read. I liked how each stanza ended with something rhyming with “nothing more”. It gave the poem a sense of cohesiveness. Another poem I enjoyed was Mending Wall by Robert Frost. The poem was not broken up into stanzas but instead, read more like a story. The descriptiveness of the poem and the occasional bit of dialogue makes up for the lack of rhymes.
Something I enjoy overall in poetry is repetition. Repeating a certain sound at the end of each line or two is also rhyming which makes the poem easier to read. Connecting the beginning of a poem to the end, as Edgar Allen Poe often does, also makes the poem feel complete. Another bonus in poetry is when the syllables in each phrase form a natural rhythm. It makes the poem easier to read as well.
Poems I didn’t enjoy as much include Apple Picking by Robert Frost and Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. Apple Picking by Robert Frost was a very long poem and the rhyming was all over the place. There was no real feel of rhythm to the poem and it was too long for what it described. Many of Frosts’s poems are very long, like The Death of the Hired Man, which goes on for a few pages. On the contrary, Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams was very short and had no cohesive structure. The whole poem was one sentence broken up with no rhymes. One thing I did like about this poem however was the shaping, it looked like three wheelbarrows.
November 8, 2008
introduced me to the poetry of stephen crane and edwin arlington robinson at a very young age -- my copy of this is missing its' cover, and rather beaten up.
March 12, 2012
Many of the poets are great, and all have at least one or two great poems as well as at least a couple more worth reading, but much of this anthology was a slog for me.
I love Dickinson, and Whitman, and Pound, Stevens, Cummings, and Auden. I got my first taste of a selection of several of the poets, including Edna St. Vincent Milay, who I knew through one or at most two poems. She was another that I truly enjoyed. Many of the poets were hit and miss for me though, even as their skill with language was evident--Edward Taylor, (Why not include Bradstreet instead? I much PREFER her work to anything Taylor did, and I think it shows greater skill and a far wider range of interests while maintaining the same themes as Taylor for the most part) John Crowe Ransom, Vachel Lindsay, Edward Arlington Robinson, Marianne Moore, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow all fell into this category for me. I was surprised to find Emerson there as well I love his essays...guess I don't like his poetry nearly as much.
This is an interesting collection, and I think it accomplishes its purpose. I may disagree with the inclusion of a few of the poets, not because they aren't major American poets, but because there are others that I feel are better and more deserving of inclusion. What about Sandberg? Dunbar? Hughes? What about T.S. Eliot? I mean W.H. Auden born and raised in England makes Major American poets anthology and Eliot gets left out? Still the anthology shows a breadth of style and subject matter nearly as big as American poetry for the time period it covers and given that a condensed history of this sort is the stated goal of the editors I'd have to say they accomplished it. I guess there are just some aspects of American poetry--given the quirky, personal, and very, VERY subjective nature of poetry preferences--that are not going to provide me with much enjoyment however major or skillful they may be.
So read Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stephen Crane, Hart Crane, Stevens, Cummings, Williams, Pound, Milay, Macleish and Auden, and at least skim the rest. There's at least one poem worth reading by each author and you may enjoy some of the other poets far more than I did.
I love Dickinson, and Whitman, and Pound, Stevens, Cummings, and Auden. I got my first taste of a selection of several of the poets, including Edna St. Vincent Milay, who I knew through one or at most two poems. She was another that I truly enjoyed. Many of the poets were hit and miss for me though, even as their skill with language was evident--Edward Taylor, (Why not include Bradstreet instead? I much PREFER her work to anything Taylor did, and I think it shows greater skill and a far wider range of interests while maintaining the same themes as Taylor for the most part) John Crowe Ransom, Vachel Lindsay, Edward Arlington Robinson, Marianne Moore, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow all fell into this category for me. I was surprised to find Emerson there as well I love his essays...guess I don't like his poetry nearly as much.
This is an interesting collection, and I think it accomplishes its purpose. I may disagree with the inclusion of a few of the poets, not because they aren't major American poets, but because there are others that I feel are better and more deserving of inclusion. What about Sandberg? Dunbar? Hughes? What about T.S. Eliot? I mean W.H. Auden born and raised in England makes Major American poets anthology and Eliot gets left out? Still the anthology shows a breadth of style and subject matter nearly as big as American poetry for the time period it covers and given that a condensed history of this sort is the stated goal of the editors I'd have to say they accomplished it. I guess there are just some aspects of American poetry--given the quirky, personal, and very, VERY subjective nature of poetry preferences--that are not going to provide me with much enjoyment however major or skillful they may be.
So read Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stephen Crane, Hart Crane, Stevens, Cummings, Williams, Pound, Milay, Macleish and Auden, and at least skim the rest. There's at least one poem worth reading by each author and you may enjoy some of the other poets far more than I did.
May 21, 2019
Happy to have finally read this in it's entirety so many years after Honors English.
September 23, 2009
As collected anthologies go, this is one of the better ones. I use it quite a bit when selecting poetry for my 8th grade students. Most of the authors represented are given a nice mix of their most well-known work and some of their more obscure (but still good) stuff.
September 14, 2013
This is where I met my favorite poet, Stephen Crane. This is another book I give as a gift from time to time. Everyone should have some poetry in their lives. I fear reading it is becoming a lost art.
September 25, 2023
Just read Poe, Dickinson, Frost, and Whitman and you can skip/skim the rest.
Some poets in here have one or two good poems displayed but most are really dull... not sure if it's the poets themselves or the selection by Williams. The British (+ Yeats, *cough* Irish) version of this is much better.
Some poets in here have one or two good poems displayed but most are really dull... not sure if it's the poets themselves or the selection by Williams. The British (+ Yeats, *cough* Irish) version of this is much better.
June 1, 2025
Skating book cutesy lovely fab poetry yes yes yum
December 8, 2011
A great collection collection of poets en poems!
so inspiring to read..
so inspiring to read..
March 23, 2013
my copy:
copyright 1962, Tenth Printing
a gift from Atty Susanne AhTye
copyright 1962, Tenth Printing
a gift from Atty Susanne AhTye
Read
November 7, 2013$5.95
July 2, 2013
What a lovely compilation of great works by American poets.
April 29, 2017
This lovely collection introduced me to a number of new favorites, including Stephen Crane, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Marianne Moore.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews