Poetry for Students: null

Each volume of Poetry for Students provides analysis of approximately 20 poems that teachers and librarians have identified as the most frequently studied in literature courses. Some of the poems covered in this volume include:

• Mirror by Sylvia Plath
• Miss Rosie| by Lucille Clifton
• |Musee des Beaux Arts| by W. H. Auden
• |My Last Duchess| by Robert Browning
• |Ode on a Grecian Urn| by John Keats
• |The Raven| by Edgar Allan Poe
• And more

You may also be interested in For Students Online - the complete For Students Collection in eBook format.|PIM|10-JUN-18|01

Gr 8 Up--Each of these volumes in a projected set includes 22 poems frequently studied in literature courses. Most are 19th- and 20th-century English-language classics (e.g., Frost's "The Road Not Taken," Hughes's "Harlem," and Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn") as well as a few 17th- and 18th- century poems (e.g. Blake's "The Tyger"). In addition, there are poems by eight women, seven African Americans, and one Native American. These volumes provide a wealth of analytical and historical information in a clear, concise and easy-to-use format. Each entry consists of an overview of the poem and the poet's life, a black-and-white photograph or portrait, the complete text of the poem (although one poem is missing--Gwendolyn Brooks's "The Sonnet-Ballad"), a line-by-line discussion of its meaning, a summary of the themes, analysis of style and technique, a brief essay putting the poem into historical and cultural context, signed critical essays, and lists of sources for further study. Many entries also include topics to compare and contrast, a bibliography, a listing of media adaptations, and study questions. A minor drawback is the lack of line numbers accompanying the selections. Cumulative author/title and nationality/ethnicity indexes and a subject/theme index specific to each volume are also included. Similar to Masterplots II: Poetry Series (Aperture, 1992) in purpose, these initial volumes are at this point naturally less comprehensive and international in scope. However, this set is more accessible, and will not only be extremely useful for assignments, but also may very well spark a love of poetry.

Lauren Mayer, New York Public Library

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

High school and lower-level college students are the intended audience for this first volume of a planned biennial series. Each entry includes a poem, line-by-line summary, critical/historical/biographical comments, bibliography, and short set of discussion questions. The critiques of these commonly studied poems are presented at a level appropriate for young adults. The bibliographies, however, are generally outdated, and it is surprising that the editors did not number the lines of the poems to make it easier to follow the summaries. The contributors' qualifications are not clear, though Napierowski previously edited Gale's World Business Directory. The advantage of this new set over Magill's Masterplots II: Poetry Series (LJ 7/92) is that it provides much more commentary, but with only about 20 poems per volume, catching up to Magill, which already covers 760 poems, will take years. Libraries owning the Magill set may want to defer purchase of this new one until it is clear that it will be continued.?Peter A. Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.