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Poems of New York
A beautifully jacketed small hardcover that collects the greatest poetic tributes, past and present, to a remarkable metropolis.
New York City has always been a larger-than-life, half-mythical place, and this collection offers an appropriately stunning mosaic of its many incarnations in poetry–ranging from Walt Whitman’s exuberant celebrations to contemporary poets’ moving responses to the September 11 attack on the city.
All the icons of this greatest of cities swirl and flash through these taxis and subways, bridges and skyscrapers, ghettos and roof gardens and fire escapes, from the South Bronx to Coney Island to Broadway to Central Park, and from Langston Hughes’s Harlem to James Merrill’s Upper East Side. Wallace Stevens, e. e. cummings, W. H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, and Audre Lorde are just a few of the poets gathered here, alongside a host of new young voices.
Encompassing as many moods, characters, and scenes as this multifaceted, ever-changing metropolis has to offer, Poems of New York will be treasured by literary lovers of New York everywhere.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
New York City has always been a larger-than-life, half-mythical place, and this collection offers an appropriately stunning mosaic of its many incarnations in poetry–ranging from Walt Whitman’s exuberant celebrations to contemporary poets’ moving responses to the September 11 attack on the city.
All the icons of this greatest of cities swirl and flash through these taxis and subways, bridges and skyscrapers, ghettos and roof gardens and fire escapes, from the South Bronx to Coney Island to Broadway to Central Park, and from Langston Hughes’s Harlem to James Merrill’s Upper East Side. Wallace Stevens, e. e. cummings, W. H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, and Audre Lorde are just a few of the poets gathered here, alongside a host of new young voices.
Encompassing as many moods, characters, and scenes as this multifaceted, ever-changing metropolis has to offer, Poems of New York will be treasured by literary lovers of New York everywhere.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 13, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
November 10, 2023
I have a lot of Everyman's Library Pocket Poets editions because I love their neat and compact format. I took this one with me on my first-ever US visit, and actually started reading the poetry collection while in New York! However, my visit was pretty short and work-related, and I was terribly jet-lagged, so I only got through like 20 pages of it before flying back 😅
This anthology includes many famous poets like Walt Whitman and Dorothy Parker, and many I haven't heard of before. For those, I wished there would be some kind of clue as to the time period - either date of the poem's publication or the years of the poet's life. Some poems had an obvious connection to New York in the title or text, in others I didn't see the connection - though I'm not in any way knowledgeable about Ney York, so I probably just missed some references.
In any case, it was a good collection, I liked some poems, but it's not one of my favorite Everyman's poetry collections I've read.
August 19, 2018
I don't know what it is, but I'm finding that I'm just not that interested in poetry anthologies anymore. It's not that I don't like poetry, but having a collection of completely different poets and different styles rarely works for me, and so this collection was just okay. The poems I liked were completely overshadowed by the ones I felt next to nothing for.
May 23, 2017
I didn't love all of the choices. But overall a fine collection. Would be a lovely little gift for someone moving to New York.
December 24, 2008
New York, New York
"Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs…"
This stanza is pulled from the Claude McKay poem "The Tropics of New York" which can be found in Poems of New York— an anthology selected and edited by Elizabeth Schmidt. McKay's stanza above not only sums up New York (one can get anything in New York), but it also sums up this anthology— these poems are "tangerines and mangoes and grapefruit fit for the highest prize."
Recommended to me by a former college classmate when I was looking for a poetry book to shake my writers' block, Poems of New York was just what I needed. I knew right away from the title, I'd enjoy the book. Once I got my hands on the tiny book (my copy is about 4 in x 6 in), I looked over the table of contents immediately— be still my beating heart! Sharon Olds, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, June Jordan, Li-Young Lee, Cornelius Eady, Allen Ginsberg! I couldn’t wait to read it!
So many of my favorite poets— where to start? I didn't know what poem to read first. It was like being a vegetarian/fruitarian at a farmer's market, or better yet, it was like I was that cliched kid in the candy store, preferably "The Pennycandy Store Beyond the El"— a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti which appears in this anthology. I started with the Ferlinghetti poem and have been re-reading this anthology (and have been a Ferlinghetti fan) ever since.
Besides being my second favorite city in the U.S.A. (Boston is my favorite), there is just something about New York and poetry that does it for me. In this book, I like best the poems that couple the poet's love of New York with lovers loving in New York; take May Swenson's "Staying at Ed's Place"—
"I like being in your apartment, and no disturbing
anything …"
" …the yellow kitchen stool belongs right there
against the white plaster …"
" …I look into the clearing
of your high front room, where sunlight slopes
through bare/ window squares …"
" … your narrow desk and typewriter
are the only furniture"
"…I listen/ to the remote growl of trucks over cobbles
on Bethune Street below…"
May Swenson's poem had me wanting to move to New York to start a love affair of my own just so I could write a poem about it. She is not only moved by Ed, but she is moved by his space; she made poetry out of a near-empty apartment and growling trucks just because she was in love and in New York. James Schuyler's poem "This Dark Apartment," Robert Polito's "Overheard in the Love Hotel," and Li-Young Lee's "From the City in which I Love You" also reflect on lovers loving in New York—
"…How I wish you would come
back! I could tell/ you how, when I lived
on East 49th, first/ with frank and then with John,
we had a lovely view of/ the UN building and the
Beekman Towers. They were/ not my lovers, though.
You were. You said so." (from "This Dark Apartment")
" …Outside, snow holding. Another cab.
'Where was I, tonight? I've been
lying to Kevin about Steve, Steve about Kevin;
and to Stanley about both of them…
Only you have the whole story.
First time I lie to you—
then you'll know we're really going someplace.'"
(from "Overheard in the Love Hotel")
"...Between brick walls, in a space no wider than my face,
a leafless sapling stands in mud.
In its branches, a nest of raw mouths
gaping and cheeping, scrawny fires that must eat.
My hunger for you is no less than theirs."
(from "From the City in Which I love You")
Love, although it is my favorite topic, is not the only subject matter in this anthology of New York poems. In this anthology, you will also find poems about a grittier New York; for example, you will find the well-known Langston Hughes poem "Harlem"— you know the one: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" "Good Morning," another Langston Hughes poem, explores, too, the New York he knew—
"…up from Cuba Haiti Jamaica,
in buses marked New York
from Georgia Florida Louisiana
to Harlem Brooklyn the Bronx
but most of all to Harlem …"
"… The gates are open—
yet there're bars/ at each gate.
what happens/ to a dream deferred?
Daddy, ain't you heard?"
June Jordan shows this side of New York, too, in her poem "If You Saw a Negro Lady." She writes:
"her years of bending over floors…
skin cleared of interest by a ruthless
soap …
if you saw her square
above the dirty/ mopped-on antiseptic floors
before the rag-wiped table tops …"
Other poems that tell a tale of another side of New York are Kevin Young's "City-as-School," Willie Perdomo's "123rd Street Rap," and Amiri Baraka's "Return of the Native."
There are also poems about September 11, 2001. "Before September 11/ I would have written it one way" David Lehman writes in his poem "September, 14, 2001." In "Dust— A Survival Kit, Fall 2001," Hettie Jones splits up her stanzas with dates (like diary entries)—
"9/25
Two weeks breathing
each breath marking each
stunning absence …"
"10/23
the dead have dispersed
It has rained on them twice …"
These poems are all New York— not one is more indicative of New York than the other. This is what makes this anthology so great. You will want to read it, re-read it, underline and high-light like mad the first go round, and then underline and high-light some more the next go round. Each one of these poems (beginning with Walt Whitman's "Mannahatta" and ending with Nathaniel Bellow's "Liberty Island") is "fit for the highest prize." Enjoy!
"Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs…"
This stanza is pulled from the Claude McKay poem "The Tropics of New York" which can be found in Poems of New York— an anthology selected and edited by Elizabeth Schmidt. McKay's stanza above not only sums up New York (one can get anything in New York), but it also sums up this anthology— these poems are "tangerines and mangoes and grapefruit fit for the highest prize."
Recommended to me by a former college classmate when I was looking for a poetry book to shake my writers' block, Poems of New York was just what I needed. I knew right away from the title, I'd enjoy the book. Once I got my hands on the tiny book (my copy is about 4 in x 6 in), I looked over the table of contents immediately— be still my beating heart! Sharon Olds, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, June Jordan, Li-Young Lee, Cornelius Eady, Allen Ginsberg! I couldn’t wait to read it!
So many of my favorite poets— where to start? I didn't know what poem to read first. It was like being a vegetarian/fruitarian at a farmer's market, or better yet, it was like I was that cliched kid in the candy store, preferably "The Pennycandy Store Beyond the El"— a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti which appears in this anthology. I started with the Ferlinghetti poem and have been re-reading this anthology (and have been a Ferlinghetti fan) ever since.
Besides being my second favorite city in the U.S.A. (Boston is my favorite), there is just something about New York and poetry that does it for me. In this book, I like best the poems that couple the poet's love of New York with lovers loving in New York; take May Swenson's "Staying at Ed's Place"—
"I like being in your apartment, and no disturbing
anything …"
" …the yellow kitchen stool belongs right there
against the white plaster …"
" …I look into the clearing
of your high front room, where sunlight slopes
through bare/ window squares …"
" … your narrow desk and typewriter
are the only furniture"
"…I listen/ to the remote growl of trucks over cobbles
on Bethune Street below…"
May Swenson's poem had me wanting to move to New York to start a love affair of my own just so I could write a poem about it. She is not only moved by Ed, but she is moved by his space; she made poetry out of a near-empty apartment and growling trucks just because she was in love and in New York. James Schuyler's poem "This Dark Apartment," Robert Polito's "Overheard in the Love Hotel," and Li-Young Lee's "From the City in which I Love You" also reflect on lovers loving in New York—
"…How I wish you would come
back! I could tell/ you how, when I lived
on East 49th, first/ with frank and then with John,
we had a lovely view of/ the UN building and the
Beekman Towers. They were/ not my lovers, though.
You were. You said so." (from "This Dark Apartment")
" …Outside, snow holding. Another cab.
'Where was I, tonight? I've been
lying to Kevin about Steve, Steve about Kevin;
and to Stanley about both of them…
Only you have the whole story.
First time I lie to you—
then you'll know we're really going someplace.'"
(from "Overheard in the Love Hotel")
"...Between brick walls, in a space no wider than my face,
a leafless sapling stands in mud.
In its branches, a nest of raw mouths
gaping and cheeping, scrawny fires that must eat.
My hunger for you is no less than theirs."
(from "From the City in Which I love You")
Love, although it is my favorite topic, is not the only subject matter in this anthology of New York poems. In this anthology, you will also find poems about a grittier New York; for example, you will find the well-known Langston Hughes poem "Harlem"— you know the one: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" "Good Morning," another Langston Hughes poem, explores, too, the New York he knew—
"…up from Cuba Haiti Jamaica,
in buses marked New York
from Georgia Florida Louisiana
to Harlem Brooklyn the Bronx
but most of all to Harlem …"
"… The gates are open—
yet there're bars/ at each gate.
what happens/ to a dream deferred?
Daddy, ain't you heard?"
June Jordan shows this side of New York, too, in her poem "If You Saw a Negro Lady." She writes:
"her years of bending over floors…
skin cleared of interest by a ruthless
soap …
if you saw her square
above the dirty/ mopped-on antiseptic floors
before the rag-wiped table tops …"
Other poems that tell a tale of another side of New York are Kevin Young's "City-as-School," Willie Perdomo's "123rd Street Rap," and Amiri Baraka's "Return of the Native."
There are also poems about September 11, 2001. "Before September 11/ I would have written it one way" David Lehman writes in his poem "September, 14, 2001." In "Dust— A Survival Kit, Fall 2001," Hettie Jones splits up her stanzas with dates (like diary entries)—
"9/25
Two weeks breathing
each breath marking each
stunning absence …"
"10/23
the dead have dispersed
It has rained on them twice …"
These poems are all New York— not one is more indicative of New York than the other. This is what makes this anthology so great. You will want to read it, re-read it, underline and high-light like mad the first go round, and then underline and high-light some more the next go round. Each one of these poems (beginning with Walt Whitman's "Mannahatta" and ending with Nathaniel Bellow's "Liberty Island") is "fit for the highest prize." Enjoy!
July 15, 2020
I don't read enough poetry, although I do enjoy it. I often feel baffled or overwhelmed by the power and the depth of it. This book of themed poems in and about New York is a wonder: it has great variety and touches on a vast myriad of human experience. It is cross-generational and cross-cultural. It is uplifting, distressing, and ironic. It, like poetry in general, is the great mirror into our souls. I enjoyed the experience very much.
December 12, 2020
I read this for my “out of my comfort zone book” and poetry will remain out of my comfort zone. Although I will say, I particularly enjoyed the Langston Hughes section and am inspired to read more poems by him.
November 27, 2011
If any city deserves a collection of poetry dedicated to it, it's New York. Bustling, churning, overflowing, and overwhelming, NYC has been many things to many people and many poets, and the need to have that urban rhythm commemorated is unquestionable. I just question whether this is the commemoration New York deserves. Everyman collections are generally fairly good, but this one - published in 2002 - feels like a bit of a post 9/11 rush to get something feel-good on the market. It's a bit heavy on the Whitman for my tastes, frankly, and light on later era poets. Some gems stand out (Amy Lowell, Deborah Garrison, Ted Berrigan), but by and large it seems a somewhat forgettable collection for such an unforgettable city.
Read
December 6, 2014Great pocket-sized hardcover anthology. I've had three Everyman collections in my life. The first was Rimbaud, which I stole and carried around with me everywhere in my late teens. Second was the Beat Poets, from ex-wife overseas. Third is Poems of New York, bought for a dollar at the library. I even got a complimentary glass of sparkling grape juice and two of those delicious buttermilk (?) cookies which come in circular, royal-blue-unto-purplish tin. I tip my hat to the bums drinking port wine in the East New York wind. I'm with you, boys. But for now I have a roof over my head. And so I must get back to my book.
November 1, 2012
audre lorde, c.k. williams, walt whitman all writing about my favorite place? beautiful.
August 7, 2017
This is a charming collection of poems. New York – what a subject! – its buildings, people, events, lives, architecture, and the tragedy of 9/11. As I read through these poems I understood so many of them – never having been a resident of that rumbling city, I nonetheless have spent a lot of time there. I love the heart of New York, and I found it again in these pages. Poems are from the 19th, the 20th, and the 21st centuries. You will remember some of them well, or perhaps you will know many of the poets well but will find a new poem you had never read by one of them. You will also find poets you have never known before, but you are sure now that you were destined to meet, in this book.
The poems are not in chronological order, and I appreciate so much the Table of Contents which lists each author with the years they lived (and some are still living, of course). The 9/11 poems are scattered throughout the book, and you will be reading a poem and realize it is about that tragedy. I highly recommend this book to poetry lovers.
Don’t miss Poems of New York!
The poems are not in chronological order, and I appreciate so much the Table of Contents which lists each author with the years they lived (and some are still living, of course). The 9/11 poems are scattered throughout the book, and you will be reading a poem and realize it is about that tragedy. I highly recommend this book to poetry lovers.
Don’t miss Poems of New York!
January 27, 2025
A great celebration of a city.
My favourites:
Mannahatta - Walt Whitman
The great figure - William Carlos Williams
Broadway - Sara Teasdale
Dawn - Federico García Lorca
Harlem - Langston Hughes
Refugee blues - W. H. Auden
Staying at Ed’s place - May Swenson
Steps - Frank O’Hara
Get up - Philip Levine
Man listening to disc - Billy Collins
Just a New York poem - Nikki Giovanni
You weren’t crazy and you weren’t dead - Judith Baumel
From the city in which you live - Li-Young Lee
Worked late on a Tuesday night - Deborah Garrison
Rain - David Semanki
Liberty Island - Nathaniel Bellows
My favourites:
Mannahatta - Walt Whitman
The great figure - William Carlos Williams
Broadway - Sara Teasdale
Dawn - Federico García Lorca
Harlem - Langston Hughes
Refugee blues - W. H. Auden
Staying at Ed’s place - May Swenson
Steps - Frank O’Hara
Get up - Philip Levine
Man listening to disc - Billy Collins
Just a New York poem - Nikki Giovanni
You weren’t crazy and you weren’t dead - Judith Baumel
From the city in which you live - Li-Young Lee
Worked late on a Tuesday night - Deborah Garrison
Rain - David Semanki
Liberty Island - Nathaniel Bellows
July 2, 2020
I bought this little book while I was in New York in 2018, partly because why not? But also because I really like these Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets editions. However, this one was not my favourite by any means. There were a couple of really good poems in here, but on a whole, this was just not for me. It did convince me that it’s time to pick up a collection of Adrienne Rich’s poems though, so it’s not a complete loss.
February 14, 2020
How appropriate that I finished reading this love letter to New York on Valentine's Day! It's a lovely book with poems by well-known writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman and Audre Lorde as well as by lesser known poets. Also, a very nice touch is the gold cloth bookmark. I very much enjoyed reading this compilation of poetry dedicated to New York City.
November 11, 2024
Some poems resonated more than others, but the anthology flows quite nicely drawing on similar themes trying to encapsulate the spirit of New York.
The poets are in order by birth year, but I think it would have also been helpful to list the year each poem was written for additional context.
The poets are in order by birth year, but I think it would have also been helpful to list the year each poem was written for additional context.
July 26, 2018
I liked it, but would have liked it better if there was more modern day poetry in it. I couldn't quite connect to it.
July 21, 2019
Like any compilation some pieces in here are better than others but there were some lovely discoveries. Not bad for a book I bought out of desperation for train reading
July 23, 2020
Some poems are better than others. Most are appropriately intellectual, and all exalt in the city, even when lashing out at it.
July 7, 2022
Tengo conflicto con las traducciones.
September 1, 2025
Ilsa gave me this!
June 11, 2008
As a way to finish my 25 book list I chose to read two poetry books one about love and the other one about New York City. When I was finished with this book I felt so happy and greatful about living in NY. What was interesting about all the peoms was that all the poems were so different from each other. Some of the poems that I really liked was OBSERVATIONS by Dorothy Parker, THE WEARY BLUES and JUKE BOX LOVE by Langston Huges, THE NEW YORKERS by Nikki Giovanni and other a few other poems. I thoguht that alot of these poems were really interesting since they were from all different time periods. Based on that you can see the differences that took place in NY throughout the years and how peoples feelings and expereiences changed over time. I also liked how the refered to many of the landmakrs that makes New York the place it is. I definitly enjoyed reading this in the little time I had to finish and it made me reflect on the experiences I had in NY ever since I was little so it was relatable. It reminded me of the time I was in my moms car going home from New Jeresy and seeing New York City over the Varrazano Bridge.
April 12, 2011
I bought this book of poetry from the New York Public Library over Spring Break and read it after I had returned home. I absolutely love the poems in this collection. They are very real and true to New York, describing the people who walk the streets, the subway, the NY weather and atmosphere, and the impact of the 9/11 attacks. The writing is dense, lyrical, beautiful, and memorable, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
August 19, 2015
New York is a complex place and this anthology provides multiple points of views into this city and its people.
However the anthology lacks the work of many poets who have portrayed a deeper relationship with the city.
The author of this collection has simply chosen to portray the cities vastness, overcrowding, and business.
However the anthology lacks the work of many poets who have portrayed a deeper relationship with the city.
The author of this collection has simply chosen to portray the cities vastness, overcrowding, and business.
August 17, 2015
EH.
I had high expectations. The cover was gorgeous, the size was cute and the titles were intriguing. However the poems weren't good, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of a poem book.
Had fun with the '123rd Rap' poem, where I translated it into Arabic. My class couldn't stop laughing. We all agreed that the poem was much better in Arabic.
I had high expectations. The cover was gorgeous, the size was cute and the titles were intriguing. However the poems weren't good, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of a poem book.
Had fun with the '123rd Rap' poem, where I translated it into Arabic. My class couldn't stop laughing. We all agreed that the poem was much better in Arabic.
December 13, 2015
It's only getting 1 star from me because well, I read this book as a part of a reading challenge and knowing nothing of poetry this seems as good a pick as any. Most poems I just glazed over reading them and couldn't really grasp what they were about really...I feel sorta bad! Maybe I'll try another book of poetry but put a little research in and see if I can't find something I like!
January 15, 2016
I am not a big fan of poetry but needed a book for my 2016 reading challenge. Having recently moved to NYC, I checked this one out of the Queens library. I actually enjoyed our much more than I thought I would. Very interesting that Wat Whitman's NY is actually not much different than today easy to see as you compare poems from later writers
December 29, 2016
I wish it could have ended with a couple of poems more about the city itself, but it includes TWO poems by the great June Jordan along with the requisite Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and other poets I now need to look up, so how much can I really complain? (Though I will note that complaining would be very New York.)
June 8, 2025
don’t you just love poems! don’t you just love new york!
i haven’t read an everyman anthology before but i thought this was a really cool format. obviously there were some i didn’t enjoy, but there was a good mix of happy, sad, meaningful, meaningless etc etc etc.
this is a lovely little book of memories for me. i bought it in the ny public library too <3
i haven’t read an everyman anthology before but i thought this was a really cool format. obviously there were some i didn’t enjoy, but there was a good mix of happy, sad, meaningful, meaningless etc etc etc.
this is a lovely little book of memories for me. i bought it in the ny public library too <3
July 14, 2012
Thanks lovely Heather! what a wonderful birthday gift to get in the mail ~ : >
"The Pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality..."
~Lawrence Ferlinghetti
"The Pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality..."
~Lawrence Ferlinghetti
December 27, 2020
Picked this book up after a visit to New York City left me wanting more. Some of these poems are fantastic and I'm forever grateful for the introduction to my new favorite poets. Some of these poems weren't my jam and reminded me more of a New Jersey suburb than NYC.
May 23, 2010
A great idea, when you stop and think about it, yet it is stylistically all over the place which for me makes the poems of varying value. This is just my humble perspective, but there it is...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews