Paul Keegan - The Penguin Book of English Verse

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE

Wonderful perhaps the last great one-volume work of its kind Stephen Knight, The Times Literary Supplement

A wonderfully intelligent, adventurous, rich anthology, essential for confirmed and potential poetry addicts alike Hermione Lee, Guardian, Books of the Year

A treasure chest of the English poetic tradition Muriel Spark, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

Seems like the most interesting anthology of verse there has ever been. The principles of organization and selection make so many poems, and their provenance, newly startling. The book includes the reader in such a way that one doesnt have to bother about what has been left out Adam Phillips, Irish Times, Books of the Year

An extraordinarily fresh take on the whole sequence of English poetry a very well-chosen and generous anthology David Sexton, Evening Standard, Books of the Year

Compendious, judicious and eclectic, this collection will galvanize your appreciation of the canon again. Indeed, its choices are so compellingly well made that is, all the poems chosen are good that it almost creates a new canon by itself Nicholas Lezard, Guardian, Books of the Year

Keegan gives the twentieth century more space than any other, and his post-war selection crammed with Celts is eye-opening and bold He is exceptionally good at hearing the voices of women down the centuries Jim McCue, Evening Standard

Serious, wide-ranging, and sometimes surprising its a book you should buy Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Telegraph

The generosity of its inclusions dilates the canon. Discarding conventions, he serves the poetic tradition. It is as though accreted varnish has been carefully removed and the picture has regained a compelling luminosity an editor who is also a scholar with genuine literary tact Michael Schmidt, Independent

He has a quantity of poems by Irish authors born after as well as before 1922 and includes a good selection of poems in Scots, with a glossary Included for the first time in this anthology, and very properly included, is the category of poems translated into English Keegan has an excellent eye and ear. He includes poems that have to be there, adds some good new ones, and has produced a genuinely new book. That is quite an achievement Michael Alexander, Catholic Herald

The decision to print poems chronologically was an inspired one, heightening a sense of progression through time. This is a present to give any aspiring young person, opening their eyes to a whole world with something to suit every taste Sir Roy Strong, Daily Mail, Books of the Year

Radical and entertaining moving through the familiar territory of ancients, Anons, ballads, the famous dead and dead famous in a way that will take the most jaded curriculum-follower into unexpected corners and connections The Times Educational Supplement

Seven hundred years of language, distilled into its sharpest and brightest forms, are here to be discovered Again and again, the reader comes across thoughtful, and thought-provoking juxtapositions of poems The New Penguin Book of English Verse demonstrates that we have the good fortune to live in the English language, perhaps the richest, most supple, promising, sharp-tongued and rule-breaking playground for poetry Helen Dunmore, Observer

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Paul Keegan was formerly editor of the Penguin Classics and is now Poetry Editor at Faber & Faber. He has edited the Collected Poems of Ted Hughes (2003).

The Penguin Book of

ENGLISH VERSE

Edited byPaulKeegan

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published by Allen Lane 2000

Published as The New Penguin Book of English Verse by Penguin Books 2001

Published under the current title in Penguin Classics 2004

Collection and Preface xxxix copyright Paul Keegan, 2000

The acknowledgements on constitute an extension of this copyright page

All rights reserved

The moral right of the editor has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 9781101490648

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