BEST POEMS OF ALL TIME Part 1

[Editor’s Note: The following is a combined review with BEST POEMS OF ALL TIME, Part 2.]--Probably "favorite" or "most popular" would be a better adjective for a collection that brings together "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Casey at the Bat." Editor Pockell has put together an excellent selection of standard poems from the ancients (a taste of Homer and Sappho) to the 1850s, and from the 1850s to around 1950 (except for Maya Angelou). Out of a growing number of programs of classic poetry now on the market, this one is ideally matched to the student and the general reader unaccustomed to hearing poetry read aloud, and is an especially good bargain for the number of selections offered. The readers are uniformly good, and many are excellent; and the readings of difficult poems like Hopkins's "Spring and Fall" and of Plath's "Daddy" are especially effective and enlightening. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]