The Faber Book of Modern Verse is a collection of poems by various poets who wrote mainly in the twentieth century. Except for the account of G M Hopkins, whose verse was mainly reproduced and printed only in the 20th century and after his death. Other than him, all the poets whose works have been included in this modern poetry collection were producing poems mainly in the twentieth century. The collection was edited by Michael Roberts, a poet and critic himself and his choices have been superb – giving us a genuine glimpse of the 20th-century poetry. 

The collection flaunts the poems by well-known poets as well as the poets who are still rather new and mostly strange to the lovers of poetry because of their never coming popularity – they were not popular because the 20th century literature in English was largely eclipsed by some of the towering personalities like Eliot, Lawrence, Shaw, Auden, and later Hughes, Plath, Orwell’s notorious fame and then by the critics who came out from nowhere. So, this collection, The Faber Book of Modern Verse, offers a great collection as we know that it has the poems by the poets like David Gascoyne, John Berryman, Anne Ridler, David Jones, Charles Olson and many other poets who have already faded into the dark abyss of poetry…

The best part that we look for in any poetry collection is the depth of poetic quality and essence of pleasure that we get from it. In these terms, The Faber Book of Modern Verse offers a vivid sense of satisfaction because it has accommodated the poets who write in different sections – about different aspects of life and all the poems have a pure beauty of the poetic art attached to them.

“And so we met ourselves again. And so
Once more we were one of Him; until one day
Wanting to meet us, he prepared to go
Further impossibilities away.”

For the lovers of poetry, this collection is certainly a gem and they must not miss it. It will take them back to the realms of poetry which has almost been forgotten by the readers of modern crumbled verse – no sense and no need to sense.

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review by Abhishek