Encyclopaedia of World Great Poets Vol. I - X/T.K. Sitalakshmi and D.C. Patra. New Delhi, Commonwealth Pub., 2009, lxxx, 2744 p., ISBN 81-311-0202-2.

    Contents: Preface. 1. Sherman J. Alexie. 2. A.R. Ammons. 3. John Ashbery. 4. Jimmy Santiago Baca. 5. Amiri Baraka. 6. John Beecher. 7. Gwendolyn Bennett's. 8. John Berryman. 9. Elizabeth Bishop. 10. Paul Blackburn. 11. Robert Bly. 12. Louise Bogan's. 13. Arna Bontemps. 14. William Bronk (1918-1999). 15. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000). 16. Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989). 17. Gladys May Casely-Hayford (Aquah LaLuah) (1904-1950). 18. Ana Castillo. 19. Marilyn Chin. 20. Sandra Cisneros. 21. Lucille Clifton. 22. Gregory Corso (1930-2001). 23. Jayne Cortez. 24. Hart Crane (1899-1932). 25. Robert Creeley. 26. Harry Crosby (1898-1929). 27. Countee Cullen (1903-1946). 28. E.E. Cummings (1894-1962). 29. Joy Davidman (1915-1960). 30. James Dickey (1923-1997). 31. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). 32. Mark Doty. 33. Rita Dove. 34. Henry Dumas. 35. Paul Laurence Dunbar. 36. Alice Dunbar-Nelson. 37. Robert Duncan's. 38. T.S. Eliot. 39. Anita Endrezze. 40. Louise Erdrich. 41. Martin Espada. 42. William Everson. 43. Kenneth Fearing. 44. Carolyn Forche's. 45. Sesshu Foster. 46. Joseph Freeman (1897-1965). 47. Allen Ginsberg. 48. Judy Rae Grahn. 49. Angelina Weld Grimke. 50. Michael S. Harper. 51. Robert Hass. 52. Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn. 53. Sadakichi Hartmann. 54. Robert Hayden. 55. Anthony Hecht. 56. Garret Hongo. 57. Susan Howe. 58. Langston Hughes. 59. Laura (Riding) Jackson Early Criticism. 60. Randall Jarrell. 61. Robinson Jeffers. 62. V.J. Jerome. 63. Georgia Douglas Johnson. 64. James Weldon Johnson. 65. Bob Kaufman. 66. Weldon Kees. 67. Galway Kinnell. 68. Etheridge Knight. 69. Aaron Kramer. 70. Maxine Kumin. 71. Denise Levertov. 72. Giacomo Leopardi. 73. Philip Levine. 74. Vachel Lindsay. 75. Audre Lorde. 76. Adrian C. Louis. 77. Amy Lowell. 78. Robert Lowell. 79. Mina Loy. 80. Archibald MacLeish. 81. Edwin Markham. 82. Thomas McGrath. 83. Claude McKay. 84. James Merrill. 85. W.S. Merwin. 86. Edna St. Vincent Millay. 87. N. Scott Momaday. 88. Marianne Moore. 89. Tulias Moss. 90. Harryette Mullen. 91. Lorine Niedecker. 92. Frank O'Hara. 93. Sharon Olds. 94. Mary Oliver. 95. Tillie Olsen. 96. Charles Olson. 97. George Oppen. 98. Michael Palmer. 99. Dorothy Parker. 100. Robert Pinsky. 101. Sylvia Plath. 102. Ezra Pound. 103. Carl Rakosi. 104. Dudley Randall. 105. John Crowe Ransom. 106. Ishmael Reed. 107. Kenneth Rexroth. 108. Charles Reznikoff. 109. Adrienne Rich. 110. Lola Ridge. 111. Edwin Arlington Robinson. 112. Carolyn M. Rodgers. 113. Theodore Roethke. 114. Edwin Rolfe. 115. Wendy Rose. 116. Michael Thurston. 117. Carl Sandburg. 118. Anne Sexton. 119. Ron Silliman. 120. Patricia Smith. 121. Welton Smith. 122. Gary Snyder. 123. Herman Spector. 124. Anne Spencer. 125. William Stafford. 126. Gertrude Stein. 127. Wallacer Stevens. 128. Ruth Stone. 129. Mark Strand. 130. Genevieve Taggard. 131. Allen Tate. 132. Melvin B. Tolson. 133. Jean Toomer. 134. Mona Van Duyn. 135. Paul Violi. 136. Margaret Walker. 137. Robert Penn Warren. 138. John Wheelwright. 139. Walt Whitman. 140. Richard Wilbur. 141. Williams Carlos Williams. 142. Yvor Winters. 143. C.D. Wright. 144. James Wright. 145. Richard Wright. 146. Ray A. Young Bear. 147. Louis Zukofsky.

    "It appears, that the literature of all cultures began with poetry, whose rhythmic and sensuous qualities satisfy a fundamental human need for expression of emotions. Derived from the Greek world Poitein, 'to make up', poetry insinuates invention of things. For the ancient Greeks this word signified any artist--writer, painter or musician--who made forms that did not previously exist in nature; only in later ages did the world assume its present, narrower meaning. Probably originating as a mode of formal storytelling and teaching in preliterate societies, the power of poetic imagination, derided as it is by skeptics and philistines, cannot be dined. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry (1595), saw the poetic imagination as an afflatus that agave access to truth beyond the scope of reason, and for Wordsworth, one of the most enigmatic and acclaimed poets to have ever lived the importance of poetry was captured in this one sentence: "Poetry is passion; it is the history or science of feelings". Today, appreciation for meaningful poetry may have diminished in a world where the pursuit of money holds far greater value than literary taste; nonetheless, poets are far from extinct, and poetry carries just as much significance for giving impetus to imagination and humanity as it did before.

    This encyclopaedia hence reserves its pages to biographies of some of the world's greatest poets throughout the ages. Transcending nations races, languages and sex, the book is a testimony to the power of poets in capturing the fancy and curiosity of fellow human beings through their works, even after their mortal deaths. Whether as preservers of cultural tradition, or as rebels ushering in the winds of radical change, poets continue to hold sway in a world which hardly finds time to peruse their literary gems, and so such, are to be landed for their creations. It is hoped that the encyclopedia's effort to emphasise upon the need for poetry in the modern world is appreciated by readers." (jacket)

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