David B. Lentz's Blog, page 2

September 26, 2011

Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time Now Posted on Listopia for Voting

"The Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time List" is now posted on Listopia for your voting: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...

Thanks very much to the many Goodreaders who recommended poems for this great list. Please help decide who are the very best poets who ever lived.
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Published on September 26, 2011 13:56 Tags: goodreads-top-100-poems, top-100-poems, top-100-poems-of-all-time

September 22, 2011

Top 100 Poems of All Time

We have collected from Goodreaders a germinal list of their recommended "Top 100 Poems of All Time" and have posted them here for your comments:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Here is the complete, unranked list to date -- prior to its upload into Listopia for voting by all Goodreaders --and thank you for the benefit of your perspective:

"Goodreads Top 100 Poems of All Time"
Unranked List
As of September 22, 2001

1. "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass
2. "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" by William Blake Songs of Innocence And of Experience
3. "Lake Isle of Innisfree" by WB YeatsWorks of W. B. Yeats
4. "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley Ozymandias
5. "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe ShelleyTo a Sky-lark
6. "The Emperor of Ice Cream" by Wallace Stevens The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Other Poems
7. "Poems" by Marianne Moore The Poems of Marianne Moore
8. "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" by Lord Byron Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
9. "Endymion" by John KeatsThe Complete Poems of John Keats
10. "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert FrostStopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
11. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
12. "Love Is a Dog from Hell" by Charles Bukowski Love is a Dog from Hell
13. "Easter 1916" by WB YeatsEaster 1916 and Other Poems
14. "somewhere i have never travelled" by ee cummings E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962
15. "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson Tennyson's Poetry
16. "Illuminations" by Artur Rimbaud ]Illuminations
17. "Ulysses" by Tennyson Tennyson: Poems
18. "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg Howl and Other Poems
19. "Coney Island of the Mind" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti A Coney Island of the Mind
20. "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning My Last Duchess and Other Poems
21. "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti"Goblin Market
22. "Iliad and Odyssey" by Homer (Lattimore Translation) The Iliad & The Odyssey
23. "Beowulf" Seamus Heaney Translation Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
24. "Divine Comedy" by Dante (Ciardi Translation) The Divine Comedy
25. "Poems of Sappho" by Sappho Sappho: A New Translation
26. "The Wasteland" by TS Eliot The Waste Land
27. "Cantos" by Ezra Pound The Cantos of Ezra Pound
28. "Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" by TS Eliot Collected PoemsThe Wasteland, Prufrock and Other Poems
29. "The Chicago Poems" by Carl Sandberg Chicago Poems
30. "I Know I Am But Summer in Your Heart" by Edna St. Vincent Millais The Edna St. Vincent Millay Collection
31. "Renaiscence" Renascence and Other Poems
The Edna St. Vincent Millay Collection
32. "Patterns" by Amy Lowell Amy Lowell: Selected Poems
33. "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish Collected Poems 1917 to 1982
34. "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose. The Love Poems of Robert Burns in Original Scots and Modern English
35. "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns Robert Burns: The Scottish Bard (Illustrated Poetry Anthology)
36. "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth Ode: Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood
37. "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tinturn Abbey" by William Wordsworth The Major Works: Including The Prelude
38. "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" by William Wordsworth The Major Works: Including The Prelude
39. "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold Dover Beach and Other Poems
40. "Rime of Ancient Mariner" by Samuel T. Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
41. "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron She Walks in Beauty
42. "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by WB Yeats
43. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats Ode On A Grecian Urn And Other Poems
44. "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats Selected Poetry
45. "Love among the Ruins" by Robert Browning Robert Browning - Poems
46. "Fairy Land" by William Shakespeare Love Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare
47. "The Sonnets" by William Shakespeare The Complete Sonnets and Poems
48. "Paradise Lost" by John Milton Paradise Lost
49. "The Second Coming" by WB Yeats The Second Coming - W. B. Yeats
50. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
51. "Faerie Queen" by Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene
52. "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems
53. "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
54. "Idylls of the King" by Alfred Lord Tennyson Idylls of the King and a Selection of Poems
55. "Even This Will Pass Away" by Theodore Tilten Heart's ease; or, Poems of rest and unrest
56. "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas Collected Poems 1934-1952
57. "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works
58. "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath Poetry by Sylvia Plath: Ariel, Ennui, Daddy, Lady Lazarus, Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea, the Munich Mannequins
59. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight" by Dylan Thomas The Dylan Thomas Omnibus
60. "Inversnaid" by Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works
61. "Mother to Son"/"Love Song"/"Dreams" by Langston Hughes The Collected Poems of Langston HughesThe Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
62. "The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy The Darkling Thrush
63. "Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin 1964 Poems: 1964 in Poetry, the Whitsun Weddings, an Arundel Tomb, the Magpies, Crioulo E Outros Poemas, the Circle Game
64. "The Second Elegy: Duino Elegies" by Rainer Maria Rilke Rilke's Duino Elegies
65. "Collected Works" by Robinson Jeffers The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers
66. "Give Me a Cool Drink of Water before I Die" by Maya Angelou The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
67. "Alone" by Edgar Allen Poe Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
68. "Invictus" by William Henley Invictus
69. "O Captain, My Captain" by Walt WhitmanPoetry by Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself, a Noiseless Patient Spider, Calamus, O Captain! My Captain!
70. "Snowbound" by Walt Whittier Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl (Illustrated Edition)
71. "Whoever You Are Now Holding Me Now in Hand" by Walt Whitman The Walt Whitman Reader: Selections from Leaves of Grass
72. "My Lost Youth" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
73. "If" by Rudyard Kipling Kim
74. "Selected Poems" by Yevgeny Yevtuschenko Selected Poems
75. "Collected Poems" by Alexander Pushkin Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry
76. "To a Waterfowl/Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant Thanatopsis; To A Waterfowl; A Midsummer Sonnet - Pamphlet
77. "Selected Poems" by Garcia Lorca The Selected Poems of Federico García-Lorca
78. "Selected Poems" by Luis Borges Selected Poems
79. "Poems" by Carlos Fuentes 4: 56: Poems
80. "Blessing the Boats" by Lucille Clifton Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-20
81. "Not Waving But Drowning" by Stevie Smith
82. "A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat" by Artur Rimbaud Collected PoemsA Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat
83. "The Canterbury Tales" by Chaucer The Canterbury Tales
83. "Sic Vita" by Henry David Thoreau Collected Essays and Poems
84. "Selected Poems" by Boris Pasternak Selected Poems
85. "The Tyger" by William Blake The Tyger
86. "Rain in Summer" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings
87. "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" by Omar Khyam (Fitzgerald Translation) Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
88. "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe The Raven
89. "To Bedlam and Part Way Back" by Anne Sexton To Bedlam and Part Way Back
90. "The Shadow of Sirius"by M.S. Merwin The Shadow of Sirius
91. "A Mask for Janus" by M.S. Merwin A Mask for Janus
92. "Carrier of Ladders" by M.S. Merwin The Carrier of Ladders
93. "Questions of Travel" by Elizabeth Bishop Questions of Travel
94. "The Listeners" by Walter de La Mare The Listeners and Other Poems
95. "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" by Paul Saunders Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
96. "The Vision of Piers Plowman" by William Langland The Vision of Piers Plowman
97. "Ham on Rye" by Robert Bukowski Ham on Rye
98. "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W.H. Auden As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other Light Verse
99. "I Will Go Back to the Great Sweet Mother" from The Triumph of Time by Algernon Charles Swinburne The Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne
100. "The World Is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth Selected Poetry
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Published on September 22, 2011 08:32 Tags: top-100-poems, top100-poems-of-all-time

September 16, 2011

Goodreads Top 100 Literary Novels of All Time

Just so you know: we have completed a few weeks of collaborative work and accepted nominations from Goodreaders on their choices for the "Top 100 Literary Novels of All Time."

Here's where to find our list: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...

This new list is now available for your preview and voting your favorites. Our eclectic list was built for sophisticated readers of literary novels. We hope that you find it useful as a reference to guide you to become immersed in the novels of masters of the genre.

If you want to contribute nominations for "Top 100 Poems of All Time" and "Top 100 Stage Plays of All Time," we certainly welcome your recommendations.

You can find both these emerging lists at:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_fol...

Thanks, again, to Colleen and everyone who contributed to the top literary novels list -- it's an inspiring collection of masterpieces.
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Published on September 16, 2011 06:48

September 6, 2011

Please Recommend Your Top 100 Plays and Poems

Dear Goodreaders:

In addition to posting to our new list of "Top 100 of Literary Novels of All Time," Colleen has kindly enabled us to post to two other genres.

Now you can contribute your world-class favorites to the lists for "Top 100 Poems of All Time" and the "Top 100 Stage Plays of All Time."

The big idea is to point Goodreaders to the best books ever written in these three major genres.

We welcome your recommendations at:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

Many thanks, again, to Colleen for her capable assistance in helping us to establish these three lists.
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Published on September 06, 2011 12:54 Tags: top-100-poems, top-100-stage-plays

September 5, 2011

Please Add to New List of Top Literary Novels of All Time

Dear Goodreaders:
We have started a new list seeking to articulate the Top 100 Literary Novels of All Time.

The big idea is to try to point Goodreaders to true literary masterpieces as many Goodreaders seem consumed by commercial novels.

You are some of the brightest people whom I know and would love to have your contributions to guide serious readers to the best literary novels -- not mainstream, commercial, best-sellers -- but truly great writers who have created literary masterpieces for the ages.

We would like to provide a "Goodreads Top 100 Literary Novels List" to rival the excellent list produced by Random House of the Top 100 Novelists of the 20th Century in 2000, which adeptly guided so many serious readers of novels to their list.

Here is the link:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Remember, please, only the best of the best -- the timeless, immortal works of the world's very finest novelists of all time.

We're also starting two other separate lists for Top 100 Poets and Top 100 Dramatists of All Time.

I look forward to reading your contributions.

Thank you for the benefit of your perspective.

Cordially,
David B. Lentz
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Published on September 05, 2011 15:13

August 2, 2011

Thanks for Participating in Bloomsday Give-Away

I just want to express my gratitude to 455 Goodreaders who participated in the "Bloomsday: The Bostoniad" Give-Away by WordsworthGreenwich Press.
Signed editions of this novel were shipped this morning to the three winners in Hugo, Colorado; Denton, Texas; and Doniphan, Missouri.
I certainly respect Gary Anderson's insightful recent review of "Bloomsday" and the sensitivity with which he connected with the writing.
While I'm at it, I want to thank Brad, who won a copy of "For the Beauty of the Earth" in the prior Goodreads Give-away, and then, in good faith, read and intelligently reviewed this novel on his wonderful, insightful blog.
All of the best until next time, dear friends.
Cordially,
David B. Lentz
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Published on August 02, 2011 11:05

July 17, 2011

Thank You for Participating in the Goodreads Give-Away

I would like to express my gratitude to the 746 members of Goodreads who entered to win one of five signed copies of "For the Beauty of the Earth."

As a writer who may spend years working in luminous solitude on one novel, it's always readers who make such labor worthwhile.

In my experience members of Goodreads are especially astute readers with an honest passion to find and devour good books worldwide.

The five winners of the Goodreads Give-away of "For the Beauty of the Earth," as determined by Goodreads, are:

1) Roseanne Schmidt | Manahawkin| NJ
2) David Baker | Story City | IA
3) Lynette Fox| Laconia| NH
4) Brad Sells| Livingston| TN
5) Kaitlin Shafer | Phoenix| AZ

Each of them will be shipped a signed copy of this novel on Tuesday, July 19th.

Again, we can be grateful to Goodreads for its tireless work to enable that the written word is read globally and endures.
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Published on July 17, 2011 11:43 Tags: david-b-lentz, for-the-beauty-of-the-earth, goodreads-give-away

June 14, 2011

June 16th Is Bloomsday: Celebrate with a Good Read

Thursday, June 16, 2011 is the 107th anniversary of the day when James Joyce's epic novel, "Ulysses," took place. The novel is set in Dublin and follows encounters narrated from the points-of-view of Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus through a single remarkable day -- June 16, 1904.

If you adore Joyce, and who doesn't, you may celebrate Bloomsday by reading from the novel, listening to traditional Irish music, or hoisting a Jameson to celebrate the 20th century's most luminous literary novelist.

Featured last year in the New York Times and the New York Post, "BloomsdayNYC" is dedicated to Bloomsday events in the metro New York City area and worldwide.
This is why great literature is considered a humanity.

To follow Bloomsday in New York, please visit www.bloomsdaynyc.org.

Here's a "Bloomsday Reading List" for those who want to celebrate this event with a good read:

http://www.amazon.com/lm/2UNA0D7FQ88K...
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Published on June 14, 2011 16:25

January 28, 2011

How to Critique a Novel

David B. Lentz Critical Performance Indicators (CPIs)
In every novel the writer invites readers and critics to judge subjectively the merits of the work.
After reading the last page, the critic must...

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Published on January 28, 2011 13:15

January 25, 2011

Divide and Conquer OPEC with Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) on Crude Oil

David B. Lentz How could America's free market system break the monopoly of OPEC on our great nation?
Simple: require "country of origin labeling" (COOL) on each barrel of imported oil into the USA...

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Published on January 25, 2011 12:46