The Classic Hundred Poems

These "Top 100" poems were deter-mined by the consensus of over one thousand anthologists and arranged in chronological order. The poems, mostly by British poets, span the canon, from "Sir Patrick Spens" to Eliot and Dylan Thomas, and are read by 16 contemporary poets. However, of the 47 poets represented, only 4 were born after 1900 and only 2 are women (Dickinson and Julia Ward Howe). Each poet is introduced with a biographical sketch--ably rendered by actress Laura Esterman--which puts him/her in a cultural context. In addition, each poem is preceded by a brief comment on the work. The poets who read the poems bring their own reading styles to the program. One clear advantage of the CD edition of this program is that a listener can program a CD player to play only the poems and skip the introductions. P.B.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine