This is just amazing! This poetry and audio CD collection (there are THREE audio CDs in the book) lets you hear lots of different poets reading their own work. There's Auden and Bishop and Langston Hughes and Yeats. It's incredible. I don't know where they found all of these different poets. And the book has essays by some of the best poets around. Billy Collins has an essay, and Richard Wilbur, and Pinsky. So you can listen to and learn about the poets you know (like T.S. Eliot or Sylvia Plath) or you can discover somebody completely new to you (like Melvin Tolson). All in all, the best poetry collection I've ever seen!

This book is not only perfect for poetry lovers, but for those new to poetry who have some interest in it. There is nothing that compares to hearing a poet read his/her work--the musicality of verse is much of the pleasure that anyone can take in poetry. The CDs contain a wide range of poets' work, including Tennyson, Whitman, Eliot, Plath, Frost, Parker, Millay, Brooks, Hughes, etc. The book has all the recorded poems printed, with short biographical notes on each poet. Owning a Norton Anthology is great, but if you could only buy ONE volume of poetry, this book should be it. It satisfies every way to appreciate poetry. This book is really for everyone.

This collection is simply a must for anyone who enjoys poetry or who wishes to learn more about the subject! The experience of poetry is so greatly enhanced by hearing the author's own voice speak each word. I truly found that I was more greatly moved than ever by some of my favorite poems upon hearing them spoken. A new life was brought to each and I find that I am able to hear poems like "The Waking" now, in my head, when I'm far away from the three CDs that comprise the collection.

The collection is fairly extensive, including readings from forty three best known and loved poets reading their most memorable work. Included are: Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ogden Nash, Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Sexton, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Theodore Roethke and e.e. cummings, to name but a few. There's even a treasured recording of Walt Whitman reading from "America". Hearing him speak brought tears to my eyes!

Along with these marvelous recordings comes a book which not only contains each poem spoken on the CDs but numerous others by each of the highlighted poets. The book, in and of itself, is a wonderful collection of great poetry. Also, there is a brief biography on each poet presented with their work as well as photos. I highly recommend this collection to anyone interested in keeping poetry in their audio library.