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[CCBC-Net] Ruth's Anthologies
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:57:59 -0500
On the importance of poetry U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic is quoted in "American Libraries" (April, 2008) as saying, " My views are of no importance. Poetry has been around for at least four thousand years. Obviously, it has meant a great deal to individuals and various cultures over the ages. It has told stories of their gods, their heroes, and it also conveyed what it was like to be alive on a certain day in a certain year hundreds of years ago. The reason we still read that poem today is that we find in it something we find nowhere else: the record of the impact of some feeling or sensation on a single life. There are plenty of other things that go into poetry, but that ability to draw on our most basic experience of the world is what makes it important.
Our two commentators along with other anthologists, poets and poetry enthusiasts have enriched this discussion enormously so far. Lee, I admire your anthologies enormously. You consistently introduce very young children to opportunities to think thematically by giving them a first experience with delightful poems by outstanding poets.
However, my question today is for Ruth, whose splendid anthologies continue to provide me with profound insights and because they offer a unique world to readers. The poems in your anthologies originated in many centuries, as well as contemporary decades. They were written by women and men from many nations and cultures. I admire the expansive world view, deep chronology and multiple voices within each volume, and I return frequently to them. How does an anthologist undertake such a challenge? Of course you have your own world of experience with poetry, and so you have m-u-c-h on which to draw. But - in general - what's your next step?
Just in case some of us no longer have access to Megan's April 3rd message, here's a list of Ruth's anthologies with their original publisher and publication years: "Under All Silences: Shades of Love"
(Harper, 1987; "Time Is the Longest Distance: An Anthology of Poems"
(HarperCollins, 1991); "Peeling the Onion: An Anthology of Poems"
(HarperCollins, 1993); and "Pierced by a Ray of Sun: Poems for the Times When We Feel Alone" (HarperCollins, 1995). These fine collections of world poetry offer exactly what Charles Simic pointed out when he wrote that poetry can offer "the record of the impact of some feeling or sensation on a single life." Thank you, Ruth, for inviting readers to read and savor such poems. Knowing that there's more to it than using a checklist, what can you tell us about how you go about doing this?
With appreciation, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at wisc.edu
Received on Thu 10 Apr 2008 01:57:59 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:57:59 -0500
On the importance of poetry U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic is quoted in "American Libraries" (April, 2008) as saying, " My views are of no importance. Poetry has been around for at least four thousand years. Obviously, it has meant a great deal to individuals and various cultures over the ages. It has told stories of their gods, their heroes, and it also conveyed what it was like to be alive on a certain day in a certain year hundreds of years ago. The reason we still read that poem today is that we find in it something we find nowhere else: the record of the impact of some feeling or sensation on a single life. There are plenty of other things that go into poetry, but that ability to draw on our most basic experience of the world is what makes it important.
Our two commentators along with other anthologists, poets and poetry enthusiasts have enriched this discussion enormously so far. Lee, I admire your anthologies enormously. You consistently introduce very young children to opportunities to think thematically by giving them a first experience with delightful poems by outstanding poets.
However, my question today is for Ruth, whose splendid anthologies continue to provide me with profound insights and because they offer a unique world to readers. The poems in your anthologies originated in many centuries, as well as contemporary decades. They were written by women and men from many nations and cultures. I admire the expansive world view, deep chronology and multiple voices within each volume, and I return frequently to them. How does an anthologist undertake such a challenge? Of course you have your own world of experience with poetry, and so you have m-u-c-h on which to draw. But - in general - what's your next step?
Just in case some of us no longer have access to Megan's April 3rd message, here's a list of Ruth's anthologies with their original publisher and publication years: "Under All Silences: Shades of Love"
(Harper, 1987; "Time Is the Longest Distance: An Anthology of Poems"
(HarperCollins, 1991); "Peeling the Onion: An Anthology of Poems"
(HarperCollins, 1993); and "Pierced by a Ray of Sun: Poems for the Times When We Feel Alone" (HarperCollins, 1995). These fine collections of world poetry offer exactly what Charles Simic pointed out when he wrote that poetry can offer "the record of the impact of some feeling or sensation on a single life." Thank you, Ruth, for inviting readers to read and savor such poems. Knowing that there's more to it than using a checklist, what can you tell us about how you go about doing this?
With appreciation, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at wisc.edu
Received on Thu 10 Apr 2008 01:57:59 PM CDT
