For copyright reasons, this anthology is available only in the US and Canada.

This anthology takes a unique approach to the process of poetry. Each poem included in the book is followed by at least one earlier draft or version of that poem. The reader is thus able to explore the development of the poet's vision and to make a variety of historical, aesthetic, and intellectual comparisons.

The poets represented have been chosen both on the basis of the aesthetic strength of their work and on the grounds of the availability of previous versions of their work. The inclusion of a number of selections by poets ranging from Dickinson and Yeats to Larkin, Plath, and P.K. Page allows readers to focus in some depth on the work of these poets. Though the anthology makes no claim to present a selection fully representative of different eras, regions, or poetic styles, the inclusion of a miscellany as a final chapter adds a substantial measure of breadth to the anthology.

Each chapter includes brief commentary by the editors, and questions follow each set of poems.

Comments:

"Anyone who wants to achieve what the editors call 'intimacy with the poem' will find delight in this collection, which enables the reader to enter the poet's workshop and see how poems are created. I don't know any other book like this one, with its multitude of drafts of poems by English, American and Canadian poets. Writers, teachers of writing, and student writers will learn from it, not to mention those content to read and enjoy poetry." - Bert Almon, University of Alberta

"In its celebration of the poetic incarnations that prefigure, recall and/or trouble 'definitive' versions, Visions and Revisions brings us into intimate relation with the poem as process...Wallenstein and Burr offer students, teachers, all lovers of poetry the thrill of the archives. They also invite us to linger between the versions, where we witness the dynamic of composition and, indeed, the very engine of poetic language at work: the curve and torque of image, tone, rhythm, cadence, syllable." - Susan Holbrook, University of Windsor

Barry Wallenstein is the author of five collections of poetry. He teaches literature and creative writing at City College in New York and is also an editor of the journal, American Book Review. He has made four recordings of his poetry with jazz collaboration, the most recent being a CD, Tony's Blues (Cadence Jazz Records 2001). Robert Burr currently lives and works in New York City and has taught freshman composition at Bronx Community College, Medgar Evers College, and The City College of New York. Mr. Burr's poetry was recently published in chapbook form under the title Trading Bits of Dream (Ridgeway Press, 1999).

Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies. While the availability of bound complimentary copies is restricted to desk copies only, electronic complimentary copies are readily available for those professors wishing to consider this title for possible course adoption. Should you choose to adopt the book after viewing an electronic copy we will be happy to provide a bound desk copy.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Preface

Introduction

William Blake

Emily Dickinson

William Butler Yeats

Wilfred Owen

W.H. Auden

Dylan Thomas

P.K. Page

Philip Larkin

Sylvia Plath

Stephen Watson

Three Poets

Robert Frost

In White

Design

William Carlos Williams

The Locust Tree in Flower

Young Woman at a Window

Robert Lowell

Water

John Keats

Miscellany of Poets

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 129

Mathew Arnold

Quiet Work

Philomela

Dover Beach

Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Windhover

D.H. Lawrence

Renascence

Violets

The Piano

Man's Image

Bavarian Gentians

Marianne Moore

Poetry

James Emanuel

Bill Clinton

Tina Turner

Alicia Osteriker

The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz

The Kiss of Judas

Stan Rogal

Sub Rosa Transformation

Jill Battson

Parasites of Age and History

Desert Woman

Appendix: Translations

The Holy Bible

Psalm 15 (1611)

Psalm 15: A Psalm of David (1917)

A Psalm of David: 15 (1952)

Homer

Odyssey XI (1616)

Odyssey XI (1673)

Odyssey XI (c. 1673-1677)

Odyssey XI (1897)

Catullus

Caeli, Lesbia nostra (1931)

Caeli, Lesbia nostra (c. 1949)

Lesbia me dicit (c. 1735)

Lesbia me dicit (1931)

Petrarch

Sonetto in Vita 91 (1557)

Sonetto in Vita 91 (1557)

Sonetto in Vita 91 (1892)

Acknowledgments
About the Editors