
The Most Anthologized Poems of the Last 25 Years - bryanrasmussen
http://lithub.com/the-most-anthologized-poems-of-the-last-25-years/
======
68c12c16
here is a Fibonacci poem -- not sure who is the author...

    
    
      I
      wrote
      a poem
      on a page
      but then each line grew
      to the word sum of the previous two
      until I started to worry about all these words coming with such frequency
      because, as you can see, it can be easy to run out of space when a poem gets all Fibonacci sequency.
    
    

=====

edit 1: just found out the author of this poem is Brian Bilston. It has been
included in his book, _You Took the Last Bus Home: The Poems of Brian Bilston_

~~~
DanBC
See also his venn diagram poem:
[https://twitter.com/brian_bilston/status/624222674559082496](https://twitter.com/brian_bilston/status/624222674559082496)

------
alexanderdmitri
Nice. I waste a lot of time converting prose/poetry that I like into code.
Here's the first four lines of [the widely anthologized I guess] Wasteland:

// cruellest_month.js

import lilacs from 'deadland';

import spring from 'seasons';

let April = function() {

    
    
      let season = spring;
    
      return {
    
        breeding: function() {
    
          return lilacs();
    
        },
    
        mixing: function() {
    
          return shakeUp(memory, desire);
    
        },
    
        stirring: function() {
    
          let dullRoots = this.breeding().roots;
    
          // move dullRoots in circles, using the avg
    
          // rainfall speed to calculate the period
    
          let circum = this.breeding().plotRadius * Math.PI * 2;
    
          let period = circum * this.season.rain.averageSpeed();
    
          dullRoots.setIntoCircularMotion(circum, period);
    
        }
    
      }
    

};

exports.cruellest = {

    
    
      "month": April
    

};

------
ddoran
While the author "looked at anthologies that collected international,
American, and English-language poems", there is a leaning towards American
poetry as 11 of the 20 anthologies surveyed were anthologies of American
poetry (based on their titles, bottom of the page).

~~~
corndoge
I look forward to your diversified collection of anthologized poetry

~~~
euyyn
You realize all countries have poetry, right?

~~~
corndoge
no way

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quirkot
I was surprised to see a sample size of only 20 was considered representative.
I wonder how genuinely representative it is (including the unstated exclusions
that define the total population)

~~~
lj3
How many poem anthologies do you imagine are published every year? My
impression was: not many at all. Poetry doesn't sell.

~~~
gwern
I imagine a fair many such anthologies get published. Poetry no longer sells
in general, that is true, and it would be odd for any poetry lover to buy an
unknown anthology rather than a collected edition by one of their famous
poets...

But there _is_ a particular niche, which everyone on HN is familiar with,
where books regularly book very lucrative profits while being sold at full
price, and whose authors churn through edition after edition and regularly
turn out new works - college textbooks.

And indeed, when I look at the Amazon page for the very first anthology
listed, "The Broadview Anthology of Poetry", 2 of the 4 reviews mention
needing it for a class.

------
flixic
The most anthologized one, "The Red Wheelbarrow", is often referenced and even
cited in an amazing TV Show, "Mr. Robot".

~~~
salimmadjd
Thank you! I just read the poem. I feel like I've learned a new black magic to
describe complex and ambiguous thoughts with clarity and simplicity.

 _so much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens._

\- William Carlos Williams

~~~
mediocrejoker
I am genuinely curious how you (and the authors of eleven poetry anthologies)
can find so much meaning in such a short poem. I see that it has some visual
imagery and definitely evokes the imagination (about farming for sustenance, I
think) but I'm not sure if there's something else I'm missing.

~~~
josephorjoe
Honestly, I think the reason it gets included so often is that it is short and
can usually fill out a page that one of Williams' longer and more substantive
poems (e.g., Spring and All) ends on.

Also, it is one of the better examples of a type of visual/minimalist/free
verse mid-20th century american poetry that is super approachable and
understandable (read some of the Wallace Stevens stuff for the counter
examples).

Plus, it is great for having "Wait, is this really a poem? What is a poem??"
discussions in English 101 classes.

And, to be fair, if some random person wrote it, it would get almost no
attention at all, but Williams really was a quite good poet. And while this
little poem doesn't have much to it, what it has is nicely wrought.

Just my $0.02...

------
JoeDaDude
No haiku? On a related note, no scifiku [1]? </tongue-in-cheek>

[1] [http://www.scifaiku.com/what/](http://www.scifaiku.com/what/)

