The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English

Hamilton hoped that his book would be serious and useful, as well as pleasurable. On this point, both he and his successor can be reassured. It remains an essential and enjoyable guide to what Noel-Tod refers to as the disorderly garden of English-language poetry. * Adam Newey , The Guardian *
an indispensable companion. * John Sutherland, The Sunday Times {Culture} *
This is a significant reference work without many, if any, serious competitors for both scope and content. * Languges and Literature, Volume 28, Number 1 *
Review from previous edition The field covered by this well-researched volume is enormous ... There are intriguing poet-as-critic sections (Jon Stallworthy, for example, writing about Rupert Brooke, or Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell - the American poet - an analysis which is wonderfully revealing). * Richard Edmonds, The Birmingham Post 07/03/1994 *
Ian Hamilton, the editor, succeeds, on the whole triumphantly, in his declared aim of providing a map of modern poetry in English ... a collection which contains many excellent essays ... This volume serves a very good purpose. * Stephen Spender, The Times 07/03/1994 *
marvellously peopled Companion ... it's the massive rehearsal here of the peculiarities of poetry in English which holds out almost endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers * Valentine Cunningham, The Observer 07/03/1994 *
This is a provocative Companion ... essential for anyone interested in coming to terms with modern poetry ... it does entertain pugnaciously as well as inform * Alan Bold, The Herald 07/03/1994 *
a wonderful litany of bizarre names, all belonging to poets, all included in Ian Hamilton's massive Companion To Twentieth Century Poetry. The Companion is a book bulging with spleen and fascinating titbits. * Val Hennessy, The Daily Mail 07/03/1994 *
The strength of this Companion lies in its comprehensiveness: 1,500 poets from all five continents ... this is a fine and useful compendium. * William Scammell, Independent on Sunday 07/03/1994 *
The book is compact, legible and excellent value. * Grey Gowrie, Daily Telegraph 09/05/1994 *
a Herculean achievement with lively pen portraits on 1,500 poets plus entries on movements, concepts and critical terms ... This book should quickly establish itself as an essential work of reference. * Richard Foster, Yorkshire Evening Post 09/05/1994 *
It holds out endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers. * The Observer 09/05/1994 *
at once a reference book and a sort of map of critical opinion regarding the current verse trade ... It should prove useful to public libraries * Literary Review 09/05/1994 *
hard to put down - chock-full of pleasures * Angus Calder, Scotland on Sunday 09/05/1994 *
The quality of the writing is, overall, very high, the range impressive, the approach as lively as the topic deserves. It is a handsome conversation piece, and should keep the passionate battles of the poetry world supplied with useful ammunition. * Times Literary Supplement 09/05/1994 *
very admirable and inclusive Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry * Times Literary Supplement 09/05/1994 *
The latest Oxford Companion is a magnificent snug chunk of a book and a browser's delight ... this ... blissfully exciting volume is likely to send poetry readers scurrying from one entry to another and up to the limit of their library tickets the next time they look at the poetry shelves. * David Buckley, Yorkshire Post 09/05/1994 *
a browser's delight ... blissfully exciting volume * David Buckley, Yorkshire Post 09/05/1994 *
As to the actual execution of the Companion it could hardly, given its premisses, be bettered. In particular, its coverage it exemplary. * Hilary Corke, The Spectator 09/05/1994 *
a welcome, extensive ... treat ... there's a mass of information about poets from America to Zimbabwe, as well as critical assessments and biographies of over 1500 writers * Colin Dyter, Evening Sentinel 10/05/1994 *
an essential reference book for poetry * Cork Examiner 10/05/1994 *
Hamilton's wide coverage comes to an American reader as a revelation ... As a proclamation of the internationalisation of poetry in English, Hamilton's Companion generously inclusive, will be seen in the future, I am certain, as a significant landmark of literary change. * London Review of Books 26/08/1994 *
frequently useful and interesting ... a work that is valuable - mainly for the general reader - in its catholocity of taste and in the verve of the writing it includes * Times Higher Education Supplement 26/08/1994 *
Comprehensive, alphabetically arranged reference work to some 1,500 poets as well as magazines, movements, concepts and critical terms, from 1900 to today. It includes authoritative, opinionated contributions from distinguished poets/critics. * Anne Boston, Country Living 17/02/1995 *
All the things one expects from an Oxford Companion - authority, comprehensiveness, judicious organisation and so forth - are here in abundance, and on top of that you get an introduction which immediately vanquishes the notion that the book may turn out to be unduly bland in tone, This Oxford Companion is a vast undertaking and an invaluable reference work ... Riveting details, areas of provocation, astute evaluations, even the odd deficiency or eccentricity - all these will help to keep the reader of Ian Hamilton's Twentieth-Century Poetry engrossed throughout. * Patricia Craig, The Honest Ulsterman No. 98 Autumn '94 21/02/1995 *
skilfully edited ... and with expert contributions, accurate in details and many of rare appreciation and sensitive understanding * Revd Dr Gordon S. Wakefield, The Expository Times 27/02/1995 *
This is an excellent reference book which no library, public or academic, large or small, should be without. Well written and intelligently put together it should have a long and useful life and definitely fills a gap in the current range of reference material on 20th-century poetry in English. There is nothing else in the field quite as comprehensive, as readable, as successful a combination of fact and analysis ... Its scope is wide ranging and fairly exhaustive ... He is to be congratulated, for despite the omissions and the quirky inclusions, he has done an excellent job. He is well qualified for an undertaking of this size and complexity ... For poets the Companion will be indispensable, for libraries invaluable, to the casual browser informative and to all endlessly fascinating. * The Year in Reference 08/02/1996 *