Home › Encyclopedia › The Norton Anthology of Poetry

The Norton Anthology of Poetry

📅 1970 ✏️ Multiple editors (Ferguson, Salter, Stallworthy, et al.) 📖 W. W. Norton & Company 📚 6th edition (2018)
AcademicComprehensiveUniversityEnglish-Language20th CenturyCanon
The Norton Anthology of Poetry is the standard academic anthology for university English and literature courses worldwide. First published in 1970, it provides comprehensive chronological coverage of English-language poetry from the Anglo-Saxon period to the contemporary era, with extensive editorial apparatus including introductions, annotations, and bibliographies.

Overview

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, The Norton Anthology of Poetry is the most widely adopted poetry textbook in English-speaking universities. It provides chronological coverage of English-language poetry from Cædmon's Hymn (7th century) to contemporary poets, with editorial notes, author biographies, and critical introductions.

Scope and Contents

The sixth edition (2018) contains over 1,800 poems by more than 600 poets. Coverage spans:

  • Medieval and Renaissance — Old English verse, Chaucer, Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, Milton
  • Restoration through Romantic — Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Blake, Burns, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats
  • Victorian and Modern — Tennyson, Browning, Dickinson, Hopkins, Yeats, Frost, Eliot, Stevens, Auden
  • Contemporary — Plath, Hughes, Heaney, Walcott, Ashbery, and many living poets

Editorial Approach

Unlike Palgrave's Golden Treasury, which favoured short lyrics and aesthetic pleasure, the Norton Anthology takes an academic, historicist approach. It includes long poems, excerpts from epic works, and formally challenging verse alongside lyric poetry. Each poet receives a biographical headnote, and poems are annotated with historical and textual notes.

Historical Significance

The Norton Anthology of Poetry is part of Norton's larger anthology programme (which includes the Norton Anthology of English Literature, American Literature, and others). Together, these anthologies have defined university curricula for decades. Being included in a Norton anthology is widely considered a mark of canonical status in English-language literature.

Criticism

The anthology has been criticised for its historically slow inclusion of women, minority, and non-Western poets — though more recent editions have significantly expanded representation. Its dominance in university syllabi has also raised concerns about a single publisher's outsize influence on the literary canon.

Related Anthologies

Palgrave's Golden Treasury

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Norton Anthology of Poetry?
The Norton Anthology of Poetry is the most widely used academic poetry textbook in English-speaking universities. First published in 1970 by W. W. Norton & Company, it covers English-language poetry from the 7th century to the present, currently in its 6th edition (2018).
How many poems are in the Norton Anthology of Poetry?
The sixth edition (2018) contains over 1,800 poems by more than 600 poets, covering English-language poetry from the Anglo-Saxon period to contemporary poets.

Last updated: 2026-07-01