Earth Took of Earth: 100 Great Poems of the English Language Book

"It really matters that great poems get written," crackles the wise remark attributed to Ezra Pound, "and it doesn't matter a damn who writes them." Taking her cue from Pound, Jorie Graham has fashioned an exhilarating collection of one hundred of the finest poems in the English language. From Geoffrey Chaucer to Derek Walcott, Emily Bronte to James Merrill, Earth Took of Earth is an inclusive anthology that celebrates the diversity of language and theme over one thousand years of poetry. In doing so, it also tells the remarkable story of the evolution of a people and of its language. As Graham writes in her introduction, "This is a book about the nature and force of Poetry itself. . . [one that tells] the story of how that force has rippled, burned, danced, clenched, raged, argued, persuaded, and generally exploded through one remarkable language over a thousand years of its usage. So here are some of the songs people - the custodians and inventors of a great language - have sung (have needed to sing) to keep themselves spiritually, morally, and emotionally awake."