A Treasury of Favorite Poems

by Various

A Treasury of Favorite Poems celebrates the rich poetic legacy of America and England with more than 400 poems that span more than four centuries. The poets represented are acknowledged as among the world's greatest: William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Wallace Stevens, and more than fifty others.

In addition to a generous selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, this volume includes the complete text of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and such familiar classics as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," Edna St. Vincent Millay's "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."

There are poems here to suit all moods an interests: love poems from Christopher Marlowe and Andrew Marvell; meditative poems including John Milton's sonnet on his blindness and Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard"; politically charged poems such as Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" and William Butler Yeats' "Easter, 1916"; nonsense verse from Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll; poems of place such as Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" and Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"; and poems of passion including Emily Bronte's "No coward soul is mine" and selections from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese. There are even celebrations of the Christmas holiday in Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and of America's national pastime in Ernest Thayer's whimsical "Casey at the Bat."

For anyone who admires achievements in the poetic form and the skill with which poets capture in memorable phrases the emotions and experiences that speak to every reader, A Treasury of Favorite Poems is a bountiful collection of some of the world's best-loved and most popular poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

680 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Grover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic poems all over, and some lesser known ones. My Favorites are The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Elliot, People Liked Him by Edgar A Guest, and Chicago by Carl Sandburg

[Joel Morris]

I read from this volume of notable poems when I wake up at night and can't get back to sleep. I pick a poem at random and read it once, read it a second time slowly to make sure I picked it up. I try to get the meaning from the poem on my own with varying success and then go read some online analysis about it, then read the poem one last time. I've found this to be a rewarding way to spend the time it takes to get back to sleep.

[Patricia Stinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book as I recognized several authors, and I wanted to enjoy their poetry. Unfortunately, the first 400 plus pages were of death, dying, misery, loss, and speaking from the grave.
If a reader is suffering from depression, anxiety, grief, sadness, this is not the book for them. Toward the end of the book, there were a few silly poems and a few inspirational and nostalgic.

[Nathan Nicolau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, I just flipped through this as I bought this book a long time ago. I already had a lot of these poet’s individual volumes, so I thought I’d skim through. A lot of rhymed meter poems by the old titans of verse. William Carlos Williams is featured but with no “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Odd.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I didn't read every poem in this 600 page book. Poems are literary comfort food for me so I focused on the ones that were already favorites.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of lovely poems