Invitation to Poetry

"A collection of 200 poems chosen by American readers, some of them appearing on the DVD, with a video introduction by Robert Pinsky." "For readers unaccustomed to reading poetry, this anthology offers a way into the art. For those devoted to poetry, it offers examples of the infinitely various ways a poem reaches a reader." "The videos on the accompanying DVD feature 27 of the acclaimed Favorite Poem Project documentaries as seen on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Poems by Sappho, Keats, Rilke, Whitman, and Dickinson, as well as contemporary poets, are introduced by people from across the United States - a construction worker, a Supreme Court justice, a glass blower, a marine - each speaking about his or her connection to the poem. Their comments are variously poignant, funny, heartening, tart, penetrating, and eccentric, showing some of the ways in which poetry is alive for American readers."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.