World's Best Poetry, Volume 7: Descriptive and Narrative (Part 1)

This is poetry as ceremony: a curated gathering of verse dedicated to the art of remembrance. Volume 7 of the acclaimed Carman anthology collects odes, elegies, and tributes that have given voice to humanity's oldest impulse, to mark the passing of the great and hold them against oblivion. Here you'll find poems addressed to Napoleon in his fall, Washington in his founding, Lincoln in his tragedy, and Shakespeare in his enduring mystery. The poets gathered here understand that to write about the dead is to argue with death itself, to insist that certain lives cannot be reduced to dates and facts. Le Gallienne's introductory essay sets the tone: this is not mere nostalgia but a defense of poetry's highest purpose, to be the instrument by which we lift our greatest selves out of the grave. For readers who believe that some voices deserve to be heard across centuries, this collection offers exactly that.