Chapter 12 The best of poetry

The reader may be surprised to learn that so far I have not mentioned any poetry.In terms of painting, sculpture or music, I don't think the UK has world-class masters. Although we have achieved in these areas, it is not outstanding after all.However, regardless of national boundaries, I think our poetry is world-class.However, poetry is the crown of literature and mediocrity cannot be accepted.Edmund Goss once told me that he would rather read a volume of second-rate verse than a mediocre novel, which he thought took less time and took less thought. However skilled I am, I don't like second-rate stanzas, mediocre poetry is nothing to me, and I might as well read the newspapers.I can't read poetry anywhere, anytime.Poetry needs to be read in a certain mood and in a certain environment.I like to sit in the garden and read poems on summer evenings, and I also like to sit on the edge of a cliff with the endless sea in front of me, or lie by a mossy stream in the forest, and then take out a volume of poems from my pocket Read carefully.Yet even the greatest poets write much that is dull to read.Many poets write countless collections, and in the end only two or three can be called real poems.I think that's enough for them, but I don't want to read so much and get so little.So I prefer poetry anthologies.I can understand critics sniffing at anthologies, thinking that to appreciate a writer one must have read them all.When I read poetry, however, I am not a critic, but a human being who craves comfort, healing, and peace.I am very grateful to those empathetic scholars who identified second-rate and third-rate works from the vast sea of ​​poetry, thus leaving me excellent works that can be read carefully.The three best anthologies in my opinion are Palgrave's Golden Treasury, Oxford Book of English Verse, and Gerald Bullitt's Preparatory The highly regarded English Galaxy of Shorter Poems.In addition, don't forget the contemporary poets, because they may also leave valuable wealth for us.Unfortunately, the only anthology of contemporary poetry that I know of is so bad that I don't want to mention the name.

Of course, everyone should read the tragedies of Shakespeare, who was not only England's greatest poet but a national honor.I wish that some wise man of Shakespeare's plays, with good taste, great knowledge, and prudent judgment, would compose an anthology of Shakespeare's famous passages, passages, and even single sentences from his plays and poems, so that when When I need the nourishment of poetry, I can read the book I carry with me at any time. (After writing the above text, George Rylands published "The Ages of Man". This is an anthology that basically meets my above wishes, and I think it is worth reading. For this chaotic world To me, it was a much-desired gift.)