12/06/98

By Tom Mayo

When the Modern Library published its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the century, the reaction was intense, negative - and predictable. (Only slightly less predictable was the behavior of some of the 10 judges who compiled the list. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and William Styron denounced both the final list and the way the Modern Library's editors manipulated the panel's ballots to produce it.) If there is a caution in this tale, one would be to avoid making the claim that any 100 works of art are "the best."

But, oh, how we love to make lists, and books that offer a hundredweight of poems are even more abundant than lists of novels. Two new collections are but the latest in a spate of recent "top 100s" from the world of poetry. Both are excellent anthologies but have very different agendas. Also, each is considerably shorter than such standard anthologies as the elephantine Norton Anthology of Poetry (1,600-plus poems: almost 2,000 pages) or World Poetry (big - really big), volumes that fill half a decent-sized bookshelf all by themselves. The new works' limited size, however, has at least two significant advantages. First, it's easier to make a statement (or at least, have an attitude) with a 100-poem limit. And the shorter books are more likely to be read.

Two of a kind but definitely not the same

In some ways the oddest of the collections is the more conventional: The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites, edited by William Harmon (Columbia University Press, $18.95). Based on the authoritative Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies, this is a collection of the 100 most-anthologized poems in the English language. No attempt has been made here to bestow "best of" honors on any poet or individual poem. This is simply the result of a head count.

The results of this sort of exercise can be exasperating, but the book is great fun, nonetheless. Poets who have turned out a comparatively large number of popular poems, for example, are at a disadvantage against poets who have written only one or two. As a result, more than half the 49 poets are represented by one poem (for example, Auden, Milton, Eliot) and others by only two (Frost) or three (Dickinson), while their most popular poems in the aggregate are far more frequently anthologized than, say, the poetry of Sir John Suckling or Thomas Carew. The collection is also heavily weighted in favor of older poets (therefore, white male poets) and in favor of rhymed and metered verse (100) over free verse (0). Anthologies, of course, avoid longer poems, so shorter works win out over longer and sometimes better poems by the same poet.

Despite the limitations imposed by its methodology, every poem in this collection is worth reading, and most are worth getting to know well. This is a fun, if quirky, way to present the historically most popular poets in the English language. The book includes biographical sketches, a brief glossary of technical terms and suggestions for further readings. It has led me to read more by poets I knew less well (or not at all: sorry, Ernest Dowson).

Women's poetry spans half a millennium

The second collection is the paperback edition of 100 Great Poems by Women, edited by Carolyn Kizer (Ecco Press, $15). This is part of a series from Ecco that includes Earth Took of Earth (edited by Jorie Graham) and The Golden Ecco Anthology (edited by Mark Strand). All three volumes are edited by distinguished working poets and are limited to one poem per poet. Jorie Graham's collection covers nearly 1,000 years, while Mr. Strand's and Ms. Kizer's are closer to 500 years.

For reasons that deserve an essay or book of their own, 100 Great Poems by Women is divided about equally between writers of the 20th century (from Stevie Smith to Thylias Moss) and those of the preceding four centuries (beginning with Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I). Ms. Kizer has selected wisely, avoiding too many "love and loss" poems in favor of more gender-neutral works that showcase the range and diversity of the poets represented on her pages. Is it a compliment, or an example of deep-seated sexism, to say that these poets write like men? It's true, but I think I would rather say that the men and women in these collections write like poets.

Then there are books about poetry: One of the reasons most of us don't read more poetry is the feeling that our school years spent wrestling great poetry to the ground left us with few or no skills that would enable us to encounter poetry later in life on anything like equal terms. As a regular feature of this column, I am recommending a recent book, often as not by an accomplished poet, that attempts to tell the reading public how to read and write poetry. The most recent in this genre is by the current poet laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky: The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide (Farrar Strauss & Giroux, $16). Mr. Pinsky emphasizes the physicality of the sounds of words and the technical means by which poets connect the eye and ear to stress, volume, pace and pitch. Like all good books of its kind, this one makes you want to read more poetry - always a good idea.

Guest columnist Tom Mayo is associate professor of law at Southern Methodist University. He teaches "Law, Literature and Medicine" at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and at the law school.

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