50 World’s Greatest Poems Anthology: 327 Pages of Timeless Beauty

Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world.

– Percy Bysshe Shelley

We all need a bit of poetry in our life.

When life becomes prosaic. When rhythm appears missing. When the meter increases. When trying to find reasons. When delving deeper!

People do seek suggestions about good books to read pertaining to the genre; fiction or non-fiction but seldom did I come across someone asking for a book of poetry. The genre ‘drama’ is equally marginalised but I would place it above poetry due to certain reasons. Nonetheless, it’s true that we do not look toward them in our leisure time unless prescribed by academia. While you ponder over the reasons, allow me to discuss the book that must be a part of your collection, irrespective of whether you are interested in poetry.

Title: 50 World’s Greatest Poems

Poets: An anthology, hence multiple poets.

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 327

Publisher: Fingerprint Classics

Price: 149/- on amazon (e-book for 86/-)

Before someone asks me which poems or poets to read, the question that I dread the most as a student of literature, I am grateful that this book solves my problem. It collects 50 famous poems written by 43 different poets belonging to different ages, starting with Chaucer whom we regard as the father of English literature.

One of the best things about this book is that the poems are arranged according to chronology so that you can trace the change in the language or evolution of poetry from ancient/archaic to modern. Also, you’ll have the experience of reading various types of poetry such as epic, lyric, sonnets, rhymed, unrhymed, metrical, non-metrical etc. in one place. The excerpt extending to a couple of pages has been provided to the long ‘epic’ poems so that you can get the crux of the poem without reading the whole.

Since the poems correspond to popular poets, a student of literature must have read most of them. But as Keats says, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”, one can always revisit the poems to get delighted by the multitudes of meanings they possess. Others can always acquaint themselves with these beautiful poems to quote or enrich their understanding of literature.

A couple of things I would like to highlight which should be noted while reading poetry are; language, rhyme scheme, figure of speeches (simile, metaphor, alliteration, metonymy, synecdoche, euphemism etc) age in which it’s written (classical, romantic, victorian, neo-classical etc), its type (epic, haiku, sonnet, lyric etc) to get the complete essence of the poems. Read a couple of poems each day. Work with them to find various meanings. I would also advise you to question ‘why’ and ‘how’ for the various suggestive meanings that the poem can offer, along with the literal meaning. Mark the lines you find remarkable, and scribble them in your diary. You can always use them to strengthen/beautify your discussions, articles and speeches. You can also try reciting the poems with modulation in voice. Poetry is meant to be sung. You’ll be surprised to know that some first poets were the ‘bards’ who used to sing here and there.

Though the book collects some of the finest poems from popular poets, the majority of them belong to only England. The poets belonging to other regions have been dropped. Only one poet from India i.e. Sarojini Naidu and her poem Palanquin Bearers could find a place in this book. Since ‘Fingerprint Classics’ is an Indian publishing firm, I was expecting more poems from Indian poets such as Ezekiel, Mistry, Tagore, Kamala Das, Toru Dutt, Jayanta Mahapatra and others.

Nonetheless, this book must be a part of your collection if you’re interested in literature or wanna cultivate an interest in reading poetry. The best use of this book is to learn how to compose verses after reading it.

Also, let me know your views in the comment section about the question that I posed in the beginning.

©Shashank