a treasure trove for poetry readers and listeners, 24 Jul 2003
This book contains three CDs of familiar and not-so-familiar poets and poetry, many of them American classics, and includes powerful readings by Langston Hughes and Etheridge Knight. It is truly fascinating to hear Tennyson's and Browning's faint but compelling readings recorded by Eddison in the earliest days of sound recording. The book itself is a generous anthology which includes many poems not included among the 142 recorded poems, giving a wider perspective of the poets' work, as well as biographical information and photographs. My only criticism is the lack of cross-indexing, making it a bit of a struggle to locate recordings in the printed text. Otherwise, great!

a treasure trove for poetry readers and listeners, 24 Jul 2003
This book contains three CDs of familiar and not-so-familiar poets and poetry, many of them American classics, and includes powerful readings by Langston Hughes and Etheridge Knight. It is truly fascinating to hear Tennyson's and Browning's faint but compelling readings recorded by Eddison in the earliest days of sound recording. The book itself is a generous anthology which includes many poems not included among the 142 recorded poems, giving a wider perspective of the poets' work, as well as biographical information and photographs. My only criticism is the lack of cross-indexing, making it a bit of a struggle to locate recordings in the printed text. Otherwise, great!

As great as a Metrocard swipping perfectly on the first go!, 06 Sep 1999
This is a wonderful book. I have been reading the poems for years on the Subway and this book is one that combines and collects many of the poems, 100 of them, in one place. One can read this book on the bus or subway and be filled with the words of these great and not so well known wordsmyths. A must have for poetry lovers, especially those who need to have some idea of a cross section of poetry from Audre Lorde to Edna St. Vincent Millay, from T.S. Elliot to an Anonymous entry of the 16th century. There is also a cross culture. There are poems from hispanic poets and poets of Japan. This treasure is well worth buying in hardcover, for surely the soft cover will not last very long. This book requires lots of handling and reading and rereading for the shear joy of the chosen poems. There is a definite dose of New York City throughout and why not? This book is as varied and beautiful as the city whose poems represented here still delight many regular subway riders, tourists, business persons and panhandlers alike!