The New Lifetime Reading Plan

Obviously the bulk of the world's great poetry is in languages other than English. See D. Weissbort and Ted Hughes, eds., Modern Poetry in Translation. If you can search out a copy of Mark Van Doren's out-of- print An Anthology of World Poetry, you will find it worthwhile. Hubert Creekmore's A Little Treasury of World Poetry, though built on a smaller scale, is also good. Both of these are now rendered obsolete by our own World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time, edited by Katharine Washburn and John S. Major under the gen­eral editorship of Clifton Fadiman.

For modern poetry in English: Richard Ellmann and Robert 0'Clair, eds., The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry is an entirely ser- viceable collection of modern verse. But others may do as well. A first- rate collection is Modern Verse in English, 1900-1950, ed. David Cecil and Allen Tate. It contains splendid introductions by the distinguished editors. A few inexpensive small anthologies of modern verse: New Poets of England and America, ed. Hall, Pack, and Simpson; The Pocket Book of Modern Verse, ed. Oscar Williams; 100 Modern Poets, ed. Selden Rodman; Faber Book of 2oth Century Verse, ed. Heath-Stubbs and Wright. For a comprehensive history of British and American poetry, see A History of Modern Poetry, ed. David Perkins.

For translations from the Greek: Dudley Fitts, Poems from the Greek Anthology; Higham and Bowra, The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation; Greek Lyrics, tr. Richmond Lattimore; Poems from the

Greek Anthology, tr. Kenneth Rexroth; Constantine A. Trypanis, ed., The Penguin Book of Greek Verse.

From the Latin: L.R. Lind, Latin Poetry in Verse Translation. A delightful book on the Latin poets, containing some superb translations, is Gilbert Highefs Poets in a Landscape.

From the Middle Ages (fourteen languages): Hubert Creekmore s Lyrics of the Middle Ages.

From the French: Broome and Chesters, eds., Anthology of Modern French Poetry; B. Woledge et al., eds., The Penguin Book of French Verse; C.F. Maclntyre, French Symbolist Poetry; Wallace Fowlie, Mid- Century French Poets; Angel Flores, An Anthology of French Poetry from Nerval to Valйry in English Translation.

From the Spanish: J.A. Crow, ed., Anthology of Spanish Poetry from the Beginnings to the Present Day, Including Both Spain and Spanish America; J.M. Cohen, ed., The Penguin Book of Spanish Verse.

From the Italian: George Kay, ed., The Penguin Book ofltalian Verse.