The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English (Oxford Companions) - Hardcover

'The field covered by this well-researched volume is enormous ... There are intriguing poet-as-critic sections (Jon Stallworthy, for example, writing about Rupert Brooke, or Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell - the American poet - an analysis which is wonderfully revealing).'Richard Edmonds, The Birmingham Post

'Ian Hamilton, the editor, succeeds, on the whole triumphantly, in his declared aim of providing a map of modern poetry in English ... a collection which contains many excellent essays ... This volume serves a very good purpose.'Stephen Spender, The Times

'marvellously peopled Companion ... it's the massive rehearsal here of the peculiarities of poetry in English which holds out almost endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers'Valentine Cunningham, The Observer

'This is a provocative Companion ... essential for anyone interested in coming to terms with modern poetry ... it does entertain pugnaciously as well as inform'Alan Bold, The Herald

'a wonderful litany of bizarre names, all belonging to poets, all included in Ian Hamilton's massive Companion To Twentieth Century Poetry. The Companion is a book bulging with spleen and fascinating titbits.'Val Hennessy, The Daily Mail

'The strength of this Companion lies in its comprehensiveness: 1,500 poets from all five continents ... this is a fine and useful compendium.'William Scammell, Independent on Sunday

'The book is compact, legible and excellent value.'Grey Gowrie, Daily Telegraph

'a Herculean achievement with lively pen portraits on 1,500 poets plus entries on movements, concepts and critical terms ... This book should quickly establish itself as an essential work of reference.'Richard Foster, Yorkshire Evening Post

'It holds out endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers.'The Observer

'at once a reference book and a sort of map of critical opinion regarding the current verse trade ... It should prove useful to public libraries'Literary Review

This Companion is both an alphabetically arranged reference work and, in its sum, a history, a map of modern poetry in English. From the last decade of the century, it offers a survey of the terrain, from 1900 to the present, and from Britain and America to New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Trinidad, Zimbabwe - anywhere, if fact, where poets write in English. It charts the shift from `poetry' to `poetries' - from primarily British and American traditions to a rich diversity of younger poetic identities elsewhere. The only comprehensive work of its kind, it covers not just individuals - some 1,500 of them - but also magazines, movements, concepts, and critical terms.

Edited and introduced by Ian Hamilton, himself a notable poet, The Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English has the distinction of including among its contributors many other celebrated poet-critics, often in intriguing author/subject combinations. Encounter, for example, Seamus Heaney writing on Robert Lowell, Dan Jacobson on Thomas Hardy, Jon Stallworthy on Rupert Brooke, Carol Rumens on Edith Sitwell, Andrew Motion on Edward Thomas, and Anne Stevenson on Sylvia Plath. These and other writers offer lively and opinionated critical assessments as well as biographical and bibliographical information. And, as one soon discovers, twentieth-century poets have lived far from humdrum lives. Twenty-seven here had nervous breakdowns, nineteen served time in jail, fourteen died in battle, three were murdered, one executed. One played hockey for his country. There were fifteen suicides, and one poet who staged his own death only to reappear, still writing poetry, under a new name.