The Norton Introduction to Poetry

When a friend gave me the Third Edition of this fine book some years ago, I couldn't have guessed how much pleasure I would get out of it. I now keep a copy in my office at work. At spare moments I pick a poem at random. I often find myself reading the poems around it, and the editor's commentary as well. Just reading the section introductions sucks you into reading all the poems in a section. This is the best collection for instilling or maintaining a love of poetry--I'm giving my doughter a copy today.

This is a nice way to settle back in with poetry if you have been away from it for a while. Hunter gives us a collection of outstanding writings from the western tradition. There is enough about form and structure to add to our appreciation of the artists' work without distracting from the meaning and emotion. There are a few chapters at the end that are very "textbookish" but they are brief and do not invade too much on the worth of the volume as a collection for people who do not plan to write "about poetry".