Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Anthony Hecht on Alfred, Lord Tennyson ; Ulysses / Alfred, Lord Tennyson ; Bugle song / Alfred, Lord Tennyson ; Charge of the Light Brigade / Alfred, Lord Tennyson Tithonus / Alfred, Lord Tennyson ; Crossing the bar / Alfred, Lord Tennyson --
Robert Browning (1812-1889). Edward Hirsch on Robert Browning ; My last Duchess / Robert Browning ; Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister / Robert Browning ; Meeting at night / Robert Browning ; How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix / Robert Browning --
Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Galway Kinnell on Walt Whitman ; from Song of myself / Walt Whitman ; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry / Walt Whitman ; Bivouac on a mountain side / Walt Whitman ; Last invocation / Walt Whitman ; America / Walt Whitman --
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Seamus Heaney on William Butler Yeats ; Lake Isle of Innisfree / William Butler Yeats ; Adam's curse / William Butler Yeats ; Second coming / William Butler Yeats ; Among school children / William Butler Yeats ; Sailing to Byzantium / William Butler Yeats ; Crazy Jane on the day of judgment / William Butler Yeats ; Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931 / William Butler Yeats --
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). C.D. Wright on Gertrude Stein ; Christian Berard / Gertrude Stein ; She bowed to her brother / Gertrude Stein ; If I told him / Gertrude Stein --
Robert Frost (1874-1963). Richard Wilbur on Robert Frost ; Oven bird / Robert Frost ; Road not taken / Robert Frost ; Stopping by woods on a snowy evening / Robert Frost ; Nothing gold can stay / Robert Frost ; To earthward / Robert Frost ; Silken tent / Robert Frost ; Come in / Robert Frost --
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967). Rosellen Brown on Carl Sandburg ; Chicago / Carl Sandburg ; Fog / Carl Sandburg ; Grass / Carl Sandburg ; Cool tombs / Carl Sandburg ; 107 from The people, yes / Carl Sandburg --
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). Mark Strand on Wallace Stevens ; Fabliau of Florida / Wallace Stevens ; Bantams in Pine-Woods / Wallace Stevens ; Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird / Wallace Stevens ; Idea of order at Key West / Wallace Stevens ; So-and-so reclining on her couch / Wallace Stevens ; Not ideas about the thing but the thing itself / Wallace Stevens --
James Joyce (1882-1941). Paul Muldoon on James Joyce ; Chamber music II / James Joyce ; Chamber music X / James Joyce ; Chamber music XVIII / James Joyce ; She weeps over Rahoon / James Joyce ; Ecce Puer / James Joyce ; Anna Livia Plurabelle from Finnegans Wake / James Joyce --
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). Robert Pinsky on William Carlos Williams ; Queen-Anne's-Lace / William Carlos Williams ; Spring and all / William Carlos Williams ; To Elsie / William Carlos Williams ; Red wheelbarrow / William Carlos Williams ; To a poor old woman / William Carlos Williams ; A sort of a song / William Carlos Williams --
Ezra Pound (1885-1972). Charles Bernstein on Ezra Pound ; River-merchant's wife : a letter / Ezra Pound ; Cantico del sole / Ezra Pound ; In a station of the Metro / Ezra Pound ; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley / Ezra Pound ; XLV from the Cantos / Ezra Pound --
H.D. (1886-1961). Rafael Campo on H.D. ; Garden / H.D. ; Orchard / H.D. ; Helen / H.D. ; Oread / H.D. ; from Helen in Egypt / H.D. --
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962). Robert Hass on Robinson Jeffers ; Hurt Hawks / Robinson Jeffers ; Purse-Seine / Robinson Jeffers ; Day is a poem (September 19, 1939) / Robinson Jeffers ; Oh, lovely rock / Robinson Jeffers ; Carmel Point / Robinson Jeffers --
John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974) ; John Hollander on John Crowe Ransom ; Captain Carpenter / John Crowe Ransom ; Bells for John Whiteside's daughter / John Crowe Ransom ; Painted head / John Crowe Ransom ; Equilibrists / John Crowe Ransom ; Dead boy / John Crowe Ransom --
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). Agha Shahid Ali on T.S. Eliot ; Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock / T.S. Eliot ; La Figlia Che Piange / T.S. Eliot ; Journey of the Magi / T.S. Eliot ; Burnt Norton from Four Quartets / T.S. Eliot --
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). ; Molly Peacock on Edna St. Vincent Millay ; Recuerdo / Edna St. Vincent Millay ; First fig / Edna St. Vincent Millay ; Love is not all : it is not meat nor drink / Edna St. Vincent Millay ; I shall forget you presently, my dear / Edna St. Vincent Millay ; Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies / Edna St. Vincent Millay --
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967). Susan Hahn on Dorothy Parker ; One perfect rose / Dorothy Parker ; Résumé / Dorothy Parker ; News item / Dorothy Parker ; Afternoon / Dorothy Parker ; A pig's-eye view of literature / Dorothy Parker ; Lady's reward / Dorothy Parker --
E.E. Cummings (1894-1962). Brad Leithauser on E.E. Cummings ; In just / E.E. Cummings ; Love is a place / E.E. Cummings ; May I feel said he / E.E. Cummings ; Anyone lived in a pretty how town / E.E. Cummings ; As freedom is a breakfastfood / E.E. Cummings ; Pity this busy monster / E.E. Cummings --
Robert Graves (1895-1985). W.S. Merwin on Robert Graves ; Castle / Robert Graves ; Ulysses / Robert Graves ; To Juan at the Winter solstice / Robert Graves ; Return of the Goddess / Robert Graves ; Amergin's charm / Robert Graves ; With her lips only / Robert Graves ; Blue-fly / Robert Graves ; A time of waiting / Robert Graves --
Louise Bogan (1897-1970). Richard Howard on Louise Bogan ; Medusa / Louise Bogan ; Daemon / Louise Bogan ; Sleeping fury / Louise Bogan ; Dream / Louise Bogan ; Song for the last act / Louise Bogan --
Melvin B. Tolson (1898-1966). Rita Dove on Melvin B. Tolson ; An ex-judge at the bar / Melvin B. Tolson ; Dark symphony / Melvin B. Tolson ; Lambda / Melvin B. Tolson --
Laura (Riding) Jackson (1901-1991). Forrest Gander on Laura (Riding) Jackson ; O vocables of love / Laura (Riding) Jackson ; Death as death / Laura (Riding) Jackson ; Nothing so far / Laura (Riding) Jackson ; Take hands / Laura (Riding) Jackson --
Langston Hughes (1902-1967). Al Young on Langston Hughes ; Negro speaks of rivers / Langston Hughes ; Mother to son / Langston Hughes ; Weary blues / Langston Hughes ; I, too / Langston Hughes ; Good morning / Langston Hughes ; Harlem [2] / Langston Hughes ; Luck / Langston Hughes --
Ogden Nash (1902-1971). Billy Collins on Ogden Nash ; Trouble with women is men / Ogden Nash ; Portrait of the artist as a prematurely old man / Ogden Nash ; I do, I will, I have / Ogden Nash ; I must tell you about my novel / Ogden Nash ; Laments for a dying language / Ogden Nash --
W.H. Auden (1907-1973). Dana Gioia on W.H. Auden ; O where are you going? / W.H. Auden ; Funeral blues / W.H. Auden ; As I walked out one evening / W.H. Auden ; In memory of W.B. Yeats / W.H. Auden ; Musee des Beaux Arts / W.H. Auden ; If I could tell you / W.H. Auden --
Louis MacNeice (1907-1963). Peter McDonald on Louis MacNeice ; Bagpipe music / Louis MacNeice ; Conversation / Louis MacNeice ; Meeting point / Louis MacNeice ; British Museum Reading Room / Louis MacNeice ; Star-gazer / Louis MacNeice --
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963). Joy Harjo on Theodore Roethke ; My Papa's waltz / Theodore Roethke ; Waking / Theodore Roethke ; I knew a woman / Theodore Roethke ; Sloth / Theodore Roethke ; In a dark time / Theodore Roethke --
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979). Jorie Graham on Elizabeth Bishop ; Fish / Elizabeth Bishop ; Map / Elizabeth Bishop ; Armadillo / Elizabeth Bishop ; Crusoe in England / Elizabeth Bishop ; One art / Elizabeth Bishop ; In the waiting room / Elizabeth Bishop --
May Swenson (1913-1989). Grace Shulman on May Swenson ; Question / May Swenson ; Watch / May Swenson ; At Truro / May Swenson ; Orbiter 5 shows how Earth looks from the moon / May Swenson ; July 4th / May Swenson ; Woods at night / May Swenson --
Robert Hayden (1913-1980) ; Marilyn Nelson on Robert Hayden ; Those winter Sundays / Robert Hayden ; Frederick Douglass / Robert Hayden ; Homage to the Empress of the Blues / Robert Hayden ; El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) / Robert Hayden ; Words in the mourning time / Robert Hayden --
Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) ; Sharon Olds on Muriel Rukeyser ; Night feeding / Muriel Rukeyser ; from Letter to the front / Muriel Rukeyser ; Poem as mask / Muriel Rukeyser ; Waiting for Icarus / Muriel Rukeyser ; Ballad of Orange and Grape / Muriel Rukeyser --
William Stafford (1914-1993) ; Robert Bly on William Stafford ; Star in the hills / William Stafford ; Traveling through the dark / William Stafford ; Passing remark / William Stafford ; Saint Matthew and all / William Stafford ; Report to Crazy Horse / William Stafford --
Randall Jarrell (1914-1965) ; Peter Sacks on Randall Jarrell ; 90 North / Randall Jarrell ; Death of the Ball Turret Gunner / Randall Jarrell ; Selle im Raum / Randall Jarrell ; Next day / Randall Jarrell --
John Berryman (1914-1972) ; Elizabeth Spires on John Berryman ; Ball poems / John Berryman ; 4 from the Dream songs / John Berryman ; 14 from the Dream songs / John Berryman ; 22 from the Dream songs / John Berryman ; "Sole watchman" from Eleven addresses to the Lord / John Berryman --
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) ; Glyn Maxwell on Dylan Thomas ; And death shall have no dominion / Dylan Thomas ; Fern Hill / Dylan Thomas ; Among those killed in the dawn raid was a man aged a hundred / Dylan Thomas ; In my craft or sullen art / Dylan Thomas ; Do not go gentle into that good night / Dylan Thomas --
Robert Lowell (1917-1977) ; Frank Bidart on Robert Lowell ; Skunk hour / Robert Lowell ; Home after three months away / Robert Lowell ; "To speak of woe that is in marriage" / Robert Lowell ; For the Union dead / Robert Lowell ; Epilogue / Robert Lowell --
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) ; Sonia Sanchez on Gwendolyn Brooks ; A song in the front yard / Gwendolyn Brooks ; Kitchenette building / Gwendolyn Brooks ; We real cool / Gwendolyn Brooks ; Boy died in my alley / Gwendolyn Brooks ; Speech to the young / Gwendolyn Brooks --
Robert Duncan (1919-1988) Michael Palmer on Robert Duncan ; Poetry : a natural thing / Robert Duncan ; Structure of Rime I / Robert Duncan ; Often I am permitted ot return to a meadow / Robert Duncan ; Sentinels / Robert Duncan --
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) ; Jason Shinder on Jack Kerouac ; MacDougal Street Blues : Canto Uno / Jack Kerouac ; 7th chorus from Orizaba 210 Blues / Jack Kerouac ; from Book of haikus / Jack Kerouac ; from [Biographical résumé, Fall 1957] / Jack Kerouac ; 99th chorus from Mexico City Blues / Jack Kerouac ; 114th chorus from Mexico City Blues / Jack Kerouac ; Rimbaud / Jack Kerouac --
Philip Larkin (1922-1985) ; Mary Jo Salter on Philip Larkin ; Places, loved ones / Philip Larkin ; Whitsun weddings / Philip Larkin ; Wild oats / Philip Larkin ; This be the verse / Philip Larkin ; Old fools / Philip Larkin --
Denise Levertov (1923-1997) ; Nancy Willard on Denise Levertov ; Come into animal presence / Denise Levertov ; Secret / Denise Levertov ; Talking to grief / Denise Levertov ; Woman alone / Denise Levertov ; Her sadness / Denise Levertov --
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) ; C.K. Williams on Allen Ginsberg ; from Howl / Allen Ginsberg ; A supermarket in California / Allen Ginsberg ; America / Allen Ginsberg --
Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) ; David Lehman on Frank O'Hara ; Why I am not a painter / Frank O'Hara ; Poem (Hate is only one of many responses) / Frank O'Hara ; Day lady died / Frank O'Hara ; Ave Maria / Frank O'Hara ; Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!) / Frank O'Hara --
Anne Sexton (1928-1974) ; Kay Ryan on Anne Sexton ; Truth the dead know / Anne Sexton ; Her kind / Anne Sexton ; Operation / Anne Sexton ; For my lover, returning to his wife / Anne Sexton ; Rumpelstiltskin / Anne Sexton --
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) ; Christopher Reid on Ted Hughes ; Thought-fox / Ted Hughes ; Howling of wolves / Ted Hughes ; Crow's first lesson / Ted Hughes ; February 17 / Ted Hughes ; A pink wool knitted dress / Ted Hughes --
Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) ; Elizabeth Alexander on Etheridge Knight ; Idea of ancestry / Etheridge Knight ; Hard Rock returns to prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane / Etheridge Knight ; Belly song / Etheridge Knight ; Dark Prophecy : I sing of shine / Etheridge Knight ; Violent space / Etheridge Knight --
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) ; Anne Stevenson on Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) ; Tulips / Sylvia Plath ; Morning song / Sylvia Plath ; I am vertical / Sylvia Plath ; Daddy / Sylvia Plath ; Lady Lazarus / Sylvia Plath --
Disc 1. Introduction / by Charles Osgood --
from "The bugle song" ; from The charge of the light brigade / Alfred, Lord Tennyson --
How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix / Robert Browning --
from America / Walt Whitman --
Yeats on "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" ; Lake Isle of Innisfree ; Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931 / William Butler Yeats --
Christian Berard ; She bowed to her brother / Gertrude Stein --
Oven bird ; Road not taken ; Stopping by woods on a snowy evening ; Nothing gold can stay ; Silken tent / Robert Frost --
Grass ; Cool tombs ; 107 from The people, yes / Carl Sandburg --
So-and-so reclining on her couch ; Not ideas about the thing but the thing itself / Wallace Stevens --
from Anna Livia Plurabelle from Finnegans Wake / James Joyce --
Queen-Anne's-Lace ; To Elsie ; Red wheelbarrow / William Carlos Williams --
Cantico del sole ; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley ; XLV from the Cantos / Ezra Pound --
from Helen in Egypt / H. D. --
Day is a poem (September 19, 1939) ; Oh, lovely rock / Robinson Jeffers --
Captain Carpenter ; Bells for John Whiteside's daughter / John Crowe Ransom --
Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock ; La Figlia Che Piange / T. S. Eliot --
Disc 2. Recuerdo ; I shall forget you presently, my dear ; Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies / Edna St. Vincent Millay --
One perfect rose ; Resume ; Afternoon / Dorothy Parker --
from Anyone lived in a pretty how town ; As freedom is a breakfastfood / E. E. Cummings --
Castle ; To Juan at the Winter solstice ; Blue-fly / Robert Graves --
Dream ; Song for the last act / Louise Bogan --
An ex-judge at the bar ; Dark symphony / Melvin B. Tolson --
Death as death ; Nothing so far / Laura (Riding) Jackson --
Negro speaks of rivers ; Mother to son ; Weary blues ; Harlem [2] / Langston Hughes --
I do, I will, I have ; I must tell you about my novel / Ogden Nash --
In memory of W. B. Yeats ; Musee des Beaux Arts ; If I could tell you / W. H. Auden --
Conversation ; Meeting point / Louis MacNeice --
My Papa's waltz ; Waking ; I knew a woman / Theodore Roethke --
Fish ; from Crusoe in England / Elizabeth Bishop --
Question ; Watch / May Swenson --
Those winter Sundays ; El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) / Robert Hayden --
Night feeding ; Poem as mask ; Waiting for Icarus / Muriel Rukeyser --
Disc 3. Star in the hills ; Traveling through the dark / William Stafford --
Death of the Ball Turret Gunner ; Selle im Raum / Randall Jarrell --
Ball poem ; 4 from The dream songs ; 22 from The dream songs / John Berryman --
Fern Hill ; Among those killed in the dawn raid was a man aged a hundred / Dylan Thomas --
Skunk hour ; Home after three months away / Robert Lowell --
A song in the front yard ; Kitchenette building ; We real cool / Gwendolyn Brooks --
Poetry, a natural thing ; Often I am permitted ot return to a meadow Robert Duncan --
MacDougal Street Blues : Canto Uno ; from Book of Haikus / Jack Kerouac --
Places, loved ones ; Old fools / Philip Larkin --
Secret ; Her sadness / Denise Levertov --
from Howl ; A supermarket in California / Allen Ginsberg --
Ave Maria ; Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!) / Frank O'Hara --
Truth the dead know ; from The operation / Anne Sexton --
Thought-fox ; February 17 / Ted Hughes --
Idea of ancestry ; Belly song / Etheridge Knight --
Daddy ; Lady Lazarus / Sylvia Plath.