Essential Pleasures (English)

Everything you need for an informal poetry reading is contained in this vibrant volume of poetry which is meant to be read aloud. Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky has compiled this magnificent compendium of poems chosen for their quality of sound, rhyme, and rhythm. Pinsky organizes the works by type (odes, stories, parodies), and introduces each section with a brief analysis of how the master poets meticulously use line breaks and rhymes to dictate the pace and cadence of their verses, giving as much attention to the aural quality of the work as to the meaning of the words. Thus, this volume is at once an essential collection of many of the greatest poets who have ever lived, and a first-class education on the craft that goes into writing a verse with compelling resonance. All the greats are here--Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, William Carlos Williams--along with dozens of other favorites, including Allen Ginsberg, Margaret Atwood, Lewis Carroll, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allen Poe. The hardcover edition features a wonderful CD of Pinsky performing some of his selections, but the true voice of the work is best determined by each individual reader, preferably with an enthusiastic audience of friends. minimize