100 Best-Loved Poems Poetry has evolved from its oral-based birth through its periods of strict forms and conventions, into a sprawling expanse of words, images, and ideas. The poems collected in this anthology cover a range of nations, of forms and styles, of themes and objectives, and of times. What makes them the “best-loved,” is up for discussion, but their lasting appeal has long been established as truth. The poems in this anthology can be taught in a number of ways. If one treats the poems in order of presentation, an adequate study can be made of the chronological progression of poetry through its major movements and time-periods. Such an approach will allow students to trace the influences of poets past, as well as to examine the slight variations of style that occur within set boundaries. The poems can also be treated by their subject matter. Units can easily be developed based on the ideas and feelings of love, loss, death, prayer, anger, hope, and resilience.