A Pocketful of Poems: Vintage Verse, Volume I

by David Madden

One of David Madden's Pocketful series (including titles in fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay), this slim volume includes over 100 of the most familiar and most taught poems, arranged alphabetically. Priced to be affordably packaged with two or even three other volumes, each book in the Pocketful series can also be used separately.This text will range from classic, traditional poems mixed with contemporary poets.. This text is intended to be an inexpensive alternative to the more expensive anthologies.

Genres: Poetry

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2005

About the author

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David^^Madden: David Madden

David Madden is an American writer of many novels, short stories, poems, plays, and works of nonfiction and literary criticism.

Madden was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to James Helvy and Emile Merritt Madden. He was named after David Madden, president of the East Tennessee Packing Co., where many of Madden's family worked. At the age of 16, he was a radio announcer for WKGN in Knoxville. His first success was winning second place in a statewide one-act play competition with “Call Herman in to Supper” when he was 16. He graduated from Knox High School in 1951.

Madden enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1951. In 1952, he became a seaman in the Merchant Marine. Following his discharge from the army in 1955, he returned to the University of Tennessee and graduated in 1957 with a B.S. in education; he earned an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University in 1958, and received a John Golden fellowship to attend Yale School of Drama from 1959 to 1960.

Reviews

[Persy]

A delightful collection of poetry featuring pieces from Emily Dickinson, Sharon Olds, Langston Hughes and more. An assembly of great work and famous pieces to be sure, the only drawback for me was the lack of less notable authors. I hoped to expand my verse vault but had read most of the poems included here already.

Some favorites from this volume: "The Bean Eaters," "Ballad of Birmingham," "For a Lady I Know," "The Colonel," "Acquainted with the Night," "Those Winter Sundays," and "The Victims."

[Avel Deleon]

This volume contains all the poetry you'll need. :)

[Di Taylor]

I picked up this book after I realized it was a textbook for a poetry class that I'm hoping to land in for next fall. I found myself irritated at myself for not picking up the meaning of poems and the various terms. While the professor loaned me a couple of books, which have been helpful — I am really enjoying the selection of poems. In addition, it demonstrates the markup of how a poem with the various elements. While I take notes in class, I have enjoyed reading the poems to try to figure out what it is trying to say utilizing their demo poems. It also provides a list of 30 questions you can ask yourself about a particular poem. For less than $10 it's a great little poem anthology that is jammed packed with 117 poems. =)

[Isabel]

A really nice collection of must know poems. I read it alongside a really great English class.