The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry

Rating:
Summary: Can you have a "Vintage" book of "Contemporary" poems?
Review: Besides the seemingly at odds title, this book is pretty indispensable as far as poetry anthologies go. To even people that love and follow poetry the muddle of 20th and 21st century poetry writers can leave one scratching one's head fuddled at where to begin. This collection edited by J.D. McClatchy is perhaps the best place to start.

This book is a smorgasbord of modern day poets. It turned me on to such vastly different talents as Ginsberg, Robert Penn Warren, and Mark Strand. It starts with Robert Lowell telling us, "I want words meat-hooked from the living steer, but a cold flame of tinfoil licks the metal log, beautiful unchanging fire of vision..." and ends with Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Covered with snow, and snow in clouds above it, And drifts and swirls too deep to understand. Still, I must try to think a little of it, with so much winter in my head and hand." There is a description of each writer straightforward and unpretentious. In its compactness, 65 writers are covered with each represented by 3-14 poems each.

I was pretty surprised to see only one review written for this book here on Amazon. I sure hope more people are owning, reading, and cherishing this book than reviewing it because to let it fall by the wayside would be something literally tragic. It's a jumping off point, a springboard. A beginning to discovery of writers and word, beautiful, unique, gymnastically agile words. We like it so much, we have two copies, one I had for myself and one I bought for my wife before we were married. Now which one will I read tonight?

Rating:
Summary: Can you have a "Vintage" book of "Contemporary" poems?
Review: Besides the seemingly at odds title, this book is pretty indispensable as far as poetry anthologies go. To even people that love and follow poetry the muddle of 20th and 21st century poetry writers can leave one scratching one's head fuddled at where to begin. This collection edited by J.D. McClatchy is perhaps the best place to start.

This book is a smorgasbord of modern day poets. It turned me on to such vastly different talents as Ginsberg, Robert Penn Warren, and Mark Strand. It starts with Robert Lowell telling us, "I want words meat-hooked from the living steer, but a cold flame of tinfoil licks the metal log, beautiful unchanging fire of vision..." and ends with Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Covered with snow, and snow in clouds above it, And drifts and swirls too deep to understand. Still, I must try to think a little of it, with so much winter in my head and hand." There is a description of each writer straightforward and unpretentious. In its compactness, 65 writers are covered with each represented by 3-14 poems each.

I was pretty surprised to see only one review written for this book here on Amazon. I sure hope more people are owning, reading, and cherishing this book than reviewing it because to let it fall by the wayside would be something literally tragic. It's a jumping off point, a springboard. A beginning to discovery of writers and word, beautiful, unique, gymnastically agile words. We like it so much, we have two copies, one I had for myself and one I bought for my wife before we were married. Now which one will I read tonight?

Rating:
Summary: A Great Anthology
Review: This is a great anthology of later 20th C. American poets and a great book to use for a poetry reading group, because the selection for each poet is sufficiently long to provide a good introduction. It inspired me to acquire books by many of the individual poets.

I would prefer that the poems be dated and would greatly prefer it to be available hardbound - it deserves the permanence in my library.

McClatchy's editing of this and Contemporary World Poetry is outstanding!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Anthology
Review: This is a great anthology of later 20th C. American poets and a great book to use for a poetry reading group, because the selection for each poet is sufficiently long to provide a good introduction. It inspired me to acquire books by many of the individual poets.

I would prefer that the poems be dated and would greatly prefer it to be available hardbound - it deserves the permanence in my library.

McClatchy's editing of this and Contemporary World Poetry is outstanding!

Rating:
Summary: Beware: This is new but out of date
Review: You'd think that a new, second edition of this anthology would be truly updated? Well, if so, you'd be wrong. All that this adds to the first edition is a few young poets at the end. The poets who were included in the first edition and who have continued to write might as well have died in 1990 as far as this anthology is concerned. Mark Strand wrote his best work in the 90s; in this book, his career stops in 1980. Anthony Hecht and Richard Wilbur and John Hollander have written fine poems in the last decade, but you wouldn't know it from this book. The editor should have made room for this new work by cutting some of the poems by Robert Lowell (his reputation has shrunk for a good reason) and Theodore Roethke and other poets who have been dead for more than 25 years.

Rating:
Summary: Beware: This is new but out of date
Review: You'd think that a new, second edition of this anthology would be truly updated? Well, if so, you'd be wrong. All that this adds to the first edition is a few young poets at the end. The poets who were included in the first edition and who have continued to write might as well have died in 1990 as far as this anthology is concerned. Mark Strand wrote his best work in the 90s; in this book, his career stops in 1980. Anthony Hecht and Richard Wilbur and John Hollander have written fine poems in the last decade, but you wouldn't know it from this book. The editor should have made room for this new work by cutting some of the poems by Robert Lowell (his reputation has shrunk for a good reason) and Theodore Roethke and other poets who have been dead for more than 25 years.