The Art of Angling: Poems about Fishing

Henry Hughes

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Apr 5, 2011 - Poetry - 256 pages

The Art of Angling offers a bountiful catch of poems from around the world and through the ages on every aspect of the beloved sport.

Fishing has inspired a wealth of poetry—Tang Dynasty meditations; Japanese haiku; medieval rhymes; classic verses by Homer and Shakespeare; poems by Donne, Goethe, Tennyson, and Yeats. Modern masterpieces abound as well, by the likes of Federico García Lorca, Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Hughes, Robert Lowell, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood, Audre Lorde, Richard Hugo, and Derek Walcott. In the hands of the poets collected here, fishing with a hook and line yields reflections both sparklingly light and awe-inspiringly deep. Filled with humor, nostalgia, adventure, celebrations of the beauties of nature, and metaphors for the art of living, The Art of Angling is sure to lure anglers and lovers of poetry alike.

About the author

Poet, essayist and winner of the Oregon Book Award, Henry Hughes is a professor of English at Western Oregon University. He is also the editor of the Everyman's Pocket Classic anthology Fishing Stories.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Art of Angling: Poems about Fishing; Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series
• Editor: Henry Hughes
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011
• ISBN: 0307597032, 9780307597038
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Animals / Fish; Poetry / Anthologies (multiple authors); Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Animals & Nature