I collect three kinds of anthologies. Maybe collect is too precious. Accumlate . The first are the huge omnibuses put out by the major academic publishers . you can pick up ten dollar copies of the big ones. Freshman shed them like a snake shakes skin. After the english course si through , they do not need them anymore.

There are a few interesting things about these books. The first is it seems to be a portal. An easy way to find connections. You discover Anne Sexton in Heath because it reminds you of Sylvia Plath in Nortons. Then you find a copy of Anne Sextons complete poems that has a forward by Maxine Kumin. So you find out about her. Or Louise Gluck leading you to Sharon Olds.

The second anthology group i own is a collection curated depending on collective identity. The Penguin Book of Woman Poets, The Vintage Book of Modern Gay Stories.

These are portals as well. They provide a couple of things If you belong to the group in question then they are "ways to find your own Fathers" in the words of Borges. As a poet who considers himself a lyricist i found Ginsberg and Whitman important first steps. But without Anthologies i could not claim Thom Gunn or Edward Carpenter or Frank O'Hara .

If you do not belong to the group then they provide entrance. You could read 1000 pages of feminst theory about woman's writing being undervalued. About woman being unable to write because of being helpmates. Or you could pull the Virago Book Of Wicked Verse and scan until you get to page 19 and read Lynn Peters 17 line work on Dorothy Woodsworth. Now this is a virtue of poetry. But a poem i could not see unless anthologized.

The third anthology is an anthology on one theme. One one word poets write about and have always written about. It provides a modulation. The themes remain the same but the words change, sometime ever so slightly . It is like a hall of mirrors where you are lost. You do not know the path because reflection reflects itself. The loss of a lover can be as barren to Anonymous Writers in ancient egypt or Elizabethan england or Atwood . Anthologies let you move back and forth comparing and contrasting the time.