The Faber book of modern verse

by Michael Roberts, Peter Porter (Editor)

1936. Second Impression. 352 pages. No dust jacket. Blue cloth with gilt lettering. Deckled edges. Clean pages with noticeable tanning and heavy foxing to endpapers. Tightly bound with faint thumb-marking throughout. Boards have light edgewear with corner crushing and heavy marking to boards. Moderate tanning to board edges and heavy to spine, which has mild crushing and tearing to ends. Moderate cracking to front joint. Mild water stains and droplets to boards. Book has forward lean.

Genres: Poetry, Poetry Plays

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1936

About the author

Michael Roberts (6 December 1902 – 13 December 1948), originally named William Edward Roberts, was an English poet, writer, critic and broadcaster, who made his living as a teacher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...

Reviews

[Alok Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The included poems are no more modern... still, they reverberate the goodness of old melody that soothes the hearts of poetry lovers... I enjoyed reading this collection time and again and never tire myself with this!

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful anthology of poems, and especially poets, and precisely those twentieth century poets of the English language. This is one of those early twentieth century anthologies that does not intend to be a survey of world poetry as a whole, but more precisely twentieth century poets that wrote in the English language. Therefore, when it comes to scope, it falls way short of better and more comprehensive surveys like The Norton Anthology of Poetry which grants a comprehensive overview of modern verse. This edition is mainly a revised edition of the original published in the early part of the twentieth century and therefore it is representative mostly of that early era between the wars as represented by poets like Wilfred Owen, D.H.Lawrence and Robert Graves. Overall it is a nice and balanced selection and several modern poets and poems have been added. As for me there are several poems that I had treasured long ago and have revisited in this volume. Along with that there have been several new ones.

Pros: This volume has been a good intro to the poetry of Basil Bunting, Edith Sitwell, Cecil Day Lewis and Stephen Spender- poets whom I have discovered only now.

Cons: It leaves out several great poets viz Allen Ginsberg, Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, James Merrill to name only a few.

[Jonathan Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early 1970s. Had to read and study some of the poems in this book for college. It was a good solid edition (updated to the 1960s - could be 1965 or even 1970). There I discovered free verse and modern poets. I know for sure that Eliot's 'Waste Land' was in it, and also 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock'. There was Dylan Thomas, GM Hopkins, Louis MacNiece, Auden, Pound, DH Lawrence, Robert Graves, etc.

I think it was the right age to read modern poetry and appreciate the new style of 'free verse'. I am not saying that I 'loved' this book; it was 'study material' for my college degree. One has affection for Palgrave's Golden Treasury; but Michael Roberts opened up a whole new world of poetry for me.

This is essential reading for anyone who loves poetry and wants to write strong solid verse. Not the meaningless cacophony and mindless caterwauling of popular 21st century poetasters.

[SBC · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't really like it this selection. Made me think I like older poetry better.

[David Morley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turning to the title page of this book and noting the date my edition was published I realised that not only must I have owned and dipped into this book for something like thirty five years but that it must have introduced me to many of the poets that are included in the anthology: Gerard Manley Hopkins, W B Yeats, Ezra Pound, T S Eliot, Isaac Rosenberg, e e cummings, Edith Sitwell, W H Auden, Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, Dylan Thomas, David Gascoyne, Edwin Muir, David Jones, R S Thomas, Kathleen Raine, John Heath-Stubbs, Philip Larkin and so on and so on.

Need I say more? I love this book.

[Esther Hong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat! Great exposure for me. I had to skip some poets like Ezra Pound; his poetry is definitely too obscure, the what-the-fuck, why-on-earth-are-you-so-limiting-with-your-poetry kind.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of English modern poetry.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read Dylan Thomas, for a-z challenge.

[Steve Clark]

Edition: New Ed