An imaginative anthology that contains:

This selection covers 55 years of Indian poetry in English. It is the first anthology to represent not just the major poets of the past half-century — but also the different kinds of poetry written by the great range of younger poets who live in many countries as well as in India. It is a groundbreaking global anthology of 70 poets writing in a common language responding to shared traditions, different cultures and contrasting lives in the changing modern world. The starting-point is Nissim Ezekiel who published his first collection in London in 1952. It pays homage to major influences, including Ezekiel, Dom Moraes and Arun Kolatkar, who died within months of each other in 2004. It rediscovers forgotten figures such as Lawrence Bantleman and Gopal Honnalgere, and it serves as an introduction to the poets of the future. The book also shows that many Indian poets were mining the rich vein of Indian English long before novelists like Rushdie and Upamanyu Chatterjee started using it in their fiction. While some of the poets may have little in common in terms of culture (a number of them have never lived in India), this anthology shows how they are all bound by the intimate histories of a shared English language. Editor: Jeet Thayil. (422 pages)
Level: Gymnasiet

20% discount in November and December!

“The Great Modern Poets” is a great introduction to the twentieth and twenty-first century poets of the English-speaking world and their best poetry. The work of each poet is accompanied by a concise text that provides thematic insight, critical observations, and a historical context for their work. A beautifully produced, large-format hardback with excellent typography. A resource for the teacher — and a source of inspiration that invites readers to dip into it and reacquaint themselves with the work of our finest poets. Editor: Michael Schmidt

Contents: Thomas Hardy – A. E. Housman – Rudyard Kipling – W. B. Yeats – Charlotte Mew – Robert Frost – Edward Thomas – Wallace Stevens – William Carlos Williams – D. H. Lawrence – Ezra Pound – Robinson Jeffers – Marianne Moore – T. S. Eliot – Hugh MacDiarmid – Edna St Vincent Millay – Wilfred Owen – E. E. Cummings – Robert Graves – Allen Tate – Laura Riding – Langston Hughes – W. H. Auden – A. D. Hope – Elizabeth Bishop – C. H. Sisson – Dylan Thomas – Robert Lowell – W. S. Graham – Keith Douglas – Edwin Morgan – Donald Davie – Philip Larkin – James K. Baxter – Allen Ginsberg – Frank O'Hara – John Ashbery – Thomas Kinsella – Thom Gunn – Adrienne Rich – Ted Hughes – Derek Walcott – Geoffey Hill – Sylvia Plath – Les Murray – Seamus Heaney – Eavan Boland – Jorie Graham – Andrew Motion – Carol Ann Duffy

Level: Gymnasiet/Library/Depot

This unique package of book + MP3 CD provides a multi-media poetry experience created by the actor John Lithgow. Lithgow has compiled an collection of memorable poetry, accompanied by an MP3 CD with excellent readings. The wide variety of carefully selected verse in this book provides a fine introduction for students who are new to poetry.  Great poems are experienced in a fresh and vivid way. Lithgow offers an insightful and sometime poignant commentary on each selection. His essential criterion for inclusion was that “each poem's light shines more brightly when read aloud”. Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Marianne Moore and Dylan Thomas are just a few of the names featured on Lithgow's list. Editor: John Lithgow. Hardback. (278 pages)
Level: Gymnasium

Benjamin Zephaniah is a poet who won't stay silent, who doesn't pull any punches, who writes out a sense of urgency and a commitment to social justice. He opens this collection of poems with an outspoken comment on where he's coming from, setting his poetry against the political landscape of Britain. The poetry here addresses the struggles of black Britain more forcefuly than his previous books. Too Black, Too Strong includes poems written while working with Michael Mansfield QC on the Stephen Lawrence case and other high profile political trials.
“'These poems are about how I feel now ... The more I travel, the more I love Britain, and it is because I love the place that I fight for my rights here ... It is probably one of the only places that could take an angry, illiterate, uneducated, ex-hustler, rebellious Rastafarian and give him the opportunity to represent his country ... ”
“I live in two places, Britain and the world, and it is my duty to explore and express the state of justice in both of them...I want the "project" to work. The day will come when we move from the margins and come to the centre; I just want it to be today.”
A highly recommended collection for young people. (87 pages)
Level: C-A

LaVaughn is fifteen and life is getting complicated. Big questions separate her from her friends. Her mother is distracted by a new man. School could slip away from her so easily. When she hears that Jody is moving back into her housing project, she can hardly believe it. They were best friends when they were children, and now he's gorgeous. But why doesn't he return her affection? This book explores gender identity, class, religion, and love with penetrating intelligence. The literary style is superb — the book is written in crystal clear, free verse. Don't be put off by the choice of poetry above prose — one read of the first page will remove any doubts that this cannot be a gripping story. The poetic form and the first-person narrative allow thoughts to mingle with words and actions, so that readers constantly have emotional and physical images thrown at them that let in the questions, doubts and angst of a teenage girl. But make no mistake LaVaughn is a strong, attractive figure. Her optimism for even the most simple things, coupled with her touching honesty about her failings, is uplifting. She manages to live through being 15, having a mother, meeting the demands of school and juggling the opinions of friends — and still retain her happiness and sanity. Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff. (264 pages)
Level: C/B (man kan sagtens finde gode uddrag)

20% discount in November and December!

The best teaching anthology if you want to study the literature of this period.
Selections of the poetry of Hardy, Kipling, Brooke, Sassoon, Rosenberg, Owen, Blunden, the women poets; non-fiction texts of the time; modern recreations in fiction (Susan Hill, Pat Barker etc.)
Good introduction, glossary, study suggestions.
Level: Gymnasiet etc.