I ran across this list online yesterday—”100 Novels Everyone Should Read”—and while I only half-enjoy these kinds of lists, it hit me that someone ought to assemble a list of “100 Poetry Books Everyone Should Read.” No restrictions except the books need to be available in English, because—as with the Telegraph’s list of novels—the list should be global in scope. In thinking through the shape of such a list, it struck me that we think of poetry in ways fundamentally different from novels. Whatever the quality of Flaubert’s writing in general, Madame Bovary is clearly a masterpiece.Read More