Oxford Poetry Anthologies

Oxford Poetry Anthologies

The Oxford University Press published a long series of poetry anthologies, dealing in particular with British poetry but not restricted to it, after the success of the Oxford Book of English Verse (1900). The Oxford poetry anthologies ('Oxford Books') are traditionally seen as 'establishment' in attitude, and routinely therefore are subjects of discussion and contention. They have been edited both by well-known poets and by distinguished academics. In the limited perspective of canon-formation, they have mostly been retrospective and well-researched, rather than breaking fresh ground.

They include:

• New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1950 (1972) edited by Helen Gardner
• Oxford Anthology of English Poetry (1990) edited by John Wain
• Oxford Book of English Verse (1999) edited by Christopher Ricks
• Oxford Book of Irish Verse (1958) edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson
• New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (1986) edited by Thomas Kinsella
• Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917) edited by Daniel Howard Sinclair Nicholson and Arthur Hugh Evelyn Lee.
• Oxford Book of Christian Verse (1940) edited by David Cecil.
• New Oxford Book of Christian Verse (1981) edited by Donald Davie.
• Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935 (1936) edited by W. B. Yeats
• Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973) edited by Philip Larkin
• Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse ( 1980) edited by D. J. Enright, reissued in 1995 as Oxford Book of Verse 1945-1980.
• Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry (2001) edited by Keith Tuma.

See Oxford period poetry anthologies for selections by century, Oxford religious poetry anthologies.