Dazzled with the height of place

Translation, imitation and the genuinely useful poem

I’ve written a few times about the importance of anthologies, and the point is hardly confined to contemporary verse: think of the Greek Anthology; the Subhāsitaratnakosha in Sanskrit or the Therīgāthā in Pāli; or the Carmina Burana.¹ Anthologies are useful places to start for the reader: but they can also come to define a literature. This is true in Eng…