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The Best American Poetry website, with searchable archive [by Stacey Lehman]
Ever wonder which volume of Best American Poetry included a particular poem or poet? Need to settle a bet about how many times a certain poet has appeared in BAP? Vist the Best American…
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“A Poison Tree” [by William Blake]
I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in…
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Shakesapeare’s #71
No longer mourn for me when I am deadThan you shall hear the surly sullen bellGive warning to the world that I am fledFrom this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.Nay, if you read this line, remember notThe hand that writ it, for I love you soThat I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,If thinking on me then should make you woe.O, if, I say, you look upon this verseWhen I, perhaps, compounded am with clay,Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,But let your love even with my life decay, Lest the wise world should look into your moan And mock you with me after I am gone. Shakespeare's #71 was Mark Van Doren's favorite, the only sonnet (he felt) in which the closing couplet is not a mere afterthought or summary. What's your favorite?
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“Methought I saw my late espoused saint” [by John Milton]
Sonnet 23: Methought I saw my late espoused saint Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband…
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On Coming to America [by Anne Lehman]
David and Anne Lehman In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, here is an excerpt from Anne Lehman's essay about escaping the Nazis and coming to America aboard the President Harding: It was a nightmare…
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“All the Things You Are”: The Greatest Love Song?
Fifteen years ago today, David proclaimed that Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are" is the greatest of all love songs and Jill Alexander Essbaum asked why. David played a Sinatra cover from 1944…
