The Seagull Reader: Poems

by Joseph Kelly (Editor), Paul Allen (Contributor), Billy Collins (Contributor)

W. W. Norton proudly announces the Seagull Readers , a new collection of the most frequently taught poems. Ideal for genre or introductory literature courses, the Seagull Readers offer a compact and affordable alternative to larger anthologies. Each volume includes a wide selection of both classic and contemporary works, as well as a thorough introduction to each genre and biographies of the authors. An inexpensive and portable alternative to bulky anthologies, The Seagull Poems offers 154 poems, from time-honored classics such as T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and John Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci" to contemporary classics by Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, and Li-Young Lee, among others. The Seagull Poems is lightly supplemented by editorial apparatus, including an introduction to the major concepts of the genre, brief headnotes, annotations where necessary, a glossary of terms, and biographical sketches of each author.

Genres: Poetry, School, Classics, Fiction, High School, College, Anthologies

259 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[six · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my reading goals for 2012 was to read a book of poetry from cover to cover. This book, which I picked up for free at the local library discard shelf, seemed like a good place to start. It's clearly intended to be a primer for English poetry of the last 500 years or so. The introduction (which I mostly skipped since I was interested in the poems themselves) has some information about the structure and terminology of poetry. Having recently read an entire book on poetic meter and form, I felt safe in skipping that part.

The choice of poems was good. At least, it was as comprehensive as one can get in only 208 pages. There was a decent mix of old and new, male and female--though the female poets were more heavily weighted toward the 19th and 20th centuries. There were a few examples of African American poetry, a good deal of English and American and Irish.

For the purposes of getting an idea of what is out there, what poets I want to read more of and which are less engaging for me, this book did its job.

[Manda Dugay · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading this for cammy thomas' poetry workshop this semester. i like that it covers a lot of ground and doesn't weigh 90 lbs. also, it has two springsteen songs in it, and i've always said he was a magnificent poet, and the editor of this book obviously agrees! yay!

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously I didn't read the entire thing, but my English class is over and I probably won't read it any more. We'll see. If I get an a poetry mood, I'll pick it up

[Laura G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a library sale, and decided it would be good to read some poetry. I read many of these throughout my years of school, so it was interesting to read them willingly as an adult. A lot of great poems in this volume, but also it skews heavily to modern poets. Joseph Kelly’s introductions are mediocre, offering middling insight and a preference to the most modern poems. Kelly lost any remaining credibility when a Bruce Springsteen song (the only song) was in the collection. I still cannot account why that specific artist, and no other, was included. There was no shortage of poems from after 1950; as I said, it leaned very modern.

Criticisms aside, there were good poems in this volume. And the practice of reading a few poems at a time over the last six weeks gave me a different perspective on things. By doing something different from my usual, I saw the world a little differently. (I took a bad morning and a visit to the dentist to consider how it might play out in a poem…modern, of course, because that is what was featured. But still, it changed my perspective.)

[Beau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of these poems 25 years ago. They're classics for a reason. I anticipated many of the lines and images as if they were burned into my memory from just a couple of readings so many years ago.

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough."

"When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose."

"Let us go the, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table"

" in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring"

I didn't quite get moved by the pre-19th century stuff, but I was more impressed than I remembered by the Shakespearean sonnets.

This book makes an excellent introduction to poetry. There's a long introduction, about 150 poems, some with a couple of explanatory comments and a sprinkling of footnotes. There are biographies of all the poets.

[Luci · Rating 3 out of 5]

The included poems are great, but there is little information other than the intro and brief paragraphs about each author included. It is truly just an anthology and will need supplemental texts to teach survey classes.

[yen nguyen]

the copy I borrowed from the school library was so old and poorly maintained that the spine was taped together and like none of the interior pages were attached to the spine and weren't even attached to each other; they were just loose leaf at that point. the poems were cool

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of poetry. Most are short and easy to read. The intro by the author does an excellent job of instructing on how to understand, enjoy and write poetry.

[Ashley Bogner]

We read some of the poems in this anthology for my literature class.

[Emily Migliazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent compilation even if a bit obvious.

[Nav · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction is very basic, "Intro to Poetry: 101" stuff, so feel free to skip it. Regarding the poetry itself, it presents excellent, well-ranging material.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great selection of poetry. It is packed with fantastic work from multiple poets. A lot of the poems I had read before in other anthologies, but much was refreshingly unfamiliar. I also like the layout and size of the book. Wonderful introduction to poetry.

[Karen]

Satisfying Quick Reads for Short Attention Spans

Poetry is a natural place to start when you want to read something compact but still challenging. The Seagull Reader, which provides an overview of poetry from the first recorded ballads to very recent works, is a great place to start.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book if you want to familiarize yourself with all the major poets and poems like I did. From Shakespeare's Sonnets to Yusef Komunkaya. About 370 pages excluding glossary and other stuff.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a great collection--nice variety in the poetry.

[Gulsun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of poems from different eras and styles

[Allison Zink-McCormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of poetry enhanced by the short biographical and historical context provided for each poet.

[Kelly D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good variety of poems