Best of
Poetry

1933

Residence on Earth


Pablo Neruda - 1933
    These poems, written by the prolific Chilean poet between the 1920's and 1940's, illuminate his views on alienation and political oppression.

In Search of Duende


Federico García Lorca - 1933
    . .there are no maps nor disciplines to help us find the duende. We only know that he burns the blood like a poultice of broken glass, that he exhausts, that he rejects all the sweet geometry we have learned. . . ." The duende is portrayed by Lorca as a demonic earth spirit containing irrationality, earthiness, and a heightened awareness of death. In Search of Duende gathers Lorca's writings about the duende and about three art forms most susceptible to it: dance, music, and the bullfight. A full bilingual sampling of Lorca's poetry is also included, with special attention to poems arising from traditional Spanish verse forms. The result is an excellent introduction to Lorca's poetry and prose for American readers.

The Book of the Dead


Muriel Rukeyser - 1933
    The poems collected here investigate the roots of a tragedy that killed hundreds of workers, most of them African American. They are a rare engagement with the overlap between race and environment in Appalachia. Published for the first time alongside photographs by Nancy Naumburg, who accompanied Rukeyser to Gauley Bridge in 1936, this edition of The Book of the Dead includes an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore, whose writing on the topic has been anthologized in Best American Essays.

The Collins Albatross Book of Verse


Louis Untermeyer - 1933
    English and American poetry from the 13th century to the present day

Over the Garden Wall


Eleanor Farjeon - 1933
    A collection of poems for children, organized into four sections: Indoors, Out-of-Doors, The Nursery, and The Walled Garden.