Selected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

John Burt’s Selected Poems of Robert Penn Warren is more broadly representative of Warren’s poetry than any previous selected gathering. More than two hundred poems from every phase grace the volume, a vehicle ideal for sampling—or soaking in—the finest of Warren’s rich output.

With each poem, Burt has carefully located the version that constitutes Warren’s final revision. His introduction gives an eloquent overview of the poet’s career, touching on every published book of verse and highlighting significant lines. A “selected” collection in the truest sense, featuring several previously unpublished pieces, this treasure is at once new and familiar.

At the heart of Warren’s poetry is a celebration of man’s intellect and imagination, his integral place within nature, and his relationship to time and the past; ultimately, joy coexists with the knowledge of life’s many mysteries, including its tragedies. Selected Poems, a generous survey and a convenient compendium, is the shining portal to this greatly gifted poet.

A prodigiously diversified writer, Robert Penn Warren was the first poet laureate of the United States and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He is the author of fifteen volumes of poetry and ten novels, including All the King's Men, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Warren was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, in 1905 and died in Stratton, Vermont, in 1989.

John Burt is the editor of The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren and the author of two books of poems. He is professor of English at Brandeis University, where he has taught since 1983.