Poems of New York

Book Overview

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 pages: 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375415041
• ISBN13: 9780375415043
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous collection, even for folks who think they don't like poetry

I've given away several dozen copies of this book as gifts to friends who visit New York (including their teenage children), English teachers both American and foreign, and to new, literary friends who find it a fascinating introduction to the city I've lived in for over 25 years. It offers a comprehensive array of top-drawer writers in a focused, thematic collection. And the Everyman edition is beautiful--small and elegant with a gold ribbon bookmark. If you like NYC, or have an interest in cities and the writers who have lived in them, check this out.

Poetry For All

I've never been a fan of poetry. In fact this is the first book of poetry I have ever purchased, purchased out of a sense of loving my city. I have been continually amazed by the evocative imagery found throughout this excellently chosen group of poems. They bring a full sense of what New York City is and was, and provide both a sense of being here and that experience has not varied much over time.What prevents a 5 star rating, and this is picky perhaps, is that the poet's names are printed after, rather than before the work, something which I found confusing when poems went on for several pages.

Perfect for NYC lovers

If you are looking for something to read as 9/11 solace, get this book. I can't say enough about how good it is. As a Dorothy Parker fan, I was looking for something about NYC by classic poets, and came across "Poems of New York" by accident. It is a perfect gift book to give others.