The Penguin Book of English Verse

by John Hayward

Spanning four golden centuries of poetry in the English language. This classic Penguin anthology opens with Wyatt, Spenser and Shakespeare and concludes with Dylan Thomas. Along the way, in a kind of royal progress from the reign of the first Elizabeth to that of the second, it takes in metaphysical poetry, romantic poetry and war poetry; verse by the great Americans such as Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost; love songs and lyrics, odes, sonnets and elegies. it contains, altogether, some of the best, the riches and most delightful poetry written in the English language.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Reference, Language, British Literature

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Simon Mcleish]

Mostly, this covers similar ground to any other anthology of English language poetry. It covers over 400 years of poetry from the Tudors to Dylan Thomas, in almost 500 pages - so pretty much every well known poet who wrote in modern English should be represented.

But...there some distinctly sexist aspects to the selection and arrangement of the chosen verses. The first woman poet doesn't appear until almost two hundred pages in: this might be due partly to the higher barriers for women to become published poets, so could be excusable.

However, the weird thing about how the poems are organised is that male poets are designated with surname only, as though "Chapman" or "Sidney" would be enough to provoke recognition in the reader, but women poets are given full names, which has the effect of making their poetry seem almost alien. This is especially strange with "Rossetti" and "Christina Rossetti", which just looks weird. The layout leaves plenty of space for every poet to have their full name provided, and it would actually be helpful to the reader because they don't need to go to the list at the front of the book to remind themselves who a particular poet is.

[Georgie]

very good anthology: all the expected writers, plus some more (both English and American) obscure pics.

a bit annoying though is that the anthology is inconsistent in terms of how 'famous' the selected poems are per author: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is included, yet Shelley's A Lament or Poe's The Raven (e.g.) are not. not sure on the reasoning for that.

ps: my copy is from 1986 and has the price £3.00 printed on the back. god i wish books were so cheap today

[Michael C]

A substantial anthology containing poems from the reign of Henry VIII up to Dylan Thomas is the 20th century. This is one of those books I have returned to again and again ever since I used it in the sixth form in the 1960s. If you want to good overview of English poetry up to the mid 20th century, this will be a good choice.

[Luke O'Neill]

Bizarre choices in places, not a great selection.

[jasmijn]

meer gedichten van vrouwen pls🙄

[Michael Springer]

I purchased this book in 1991; no matter where I have lived or worked, it is always by my side.

[Chiemerie]

Sharp 🫴🫴🫴🫰

[Jason Rashid]

mostly good, disliked the old mediaeval stuff

[Jasleen Sehgal]

want to read

[Mike]

I started reading through this as part of the Bradbury Challenge (read a short story, a poem, and an essay every day). The poetry wasn't doing a lot for me, so I stopped.

[Jad Wannous]

In every corner of the world, on every subject under the sun, Penguin represents quality and variety _ the very best in publishing today.