Best of
Poetry

1928

Fireflies: a collection of proverbs, aphorisms and maxims


Rabindranath Tagore - 1928
    Tagore visited Japan and collected them in his notebooks. Each firefly, rarely more than a sentence long, represents a luminous thought on love, life, beauty or God. Each page of this book contains a decorative design by Boris Artzybasheff with the short maxim of Tagore's beneath. The text also includes Tagore's Nobel Acceptance Speech.

Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning


Owen Barfield - 1928
    Returning always to this personal experience of poetry, Owen Barfield at the same time seeks objective standards of criticism and a theory of poetic diction in broader philosophical considerations on the relation of world and thought. His profound musings explore concerns fundamental to the understanding and appreciation of poetry, including the nature of metaphor, poetic effect, the difference between verse and prose, and the essence of meaning.Forward by Howard Nemerov.

The Wild Party


Joseph Moncure March - 1928
    The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets.Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain. When The Wild Party was first published, Louis Untermeyer declared: "It is repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious, uncompromising, unashamed . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force."

Stone


Osip Mandelstam - 1928
    The poet was inspired by his concern with form and Western culture, especially architecture. This work, together with "The Collected Critical Prose and Letters" mark Mandelstam's centenary in 1991.

John Brown's Body


Stephen Vincent Benét - 1928
    A book of great energy and sweep, it swings into view the entire course of that terrible and decisive war, lighting up the lives of soldiers, leaders, and civilians, North and South, amidst the conflict. Generations of readers have found the book a compelling and moving experience.

Selected Poems


Conrad Aiken - 1928
    With writing that reflects an intense interest in psychological, philosophical, and scientific issues, Aiken remains a unique influence upon modern writers and critics today. In his lifetime, Aiken received many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1930 and the National Book Award for Poetry in 1954. He served as the Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1950-1952.Selected Poems contains Aiken's own choice of the best and most representative of his poems, spanning more than forty years of his work. Harold Bloom has contributed a new Foreword to reintroduce Aiken to a new generation of readers. The inclusion of several pivotal poems from previous editions broadens the scope of the work to represent Aiken's legacy.