The Voice That Is Great Within Us : American Poetry of the Twentieth Century (Bantam Classics)

Rating:
Summary: great voices within
Review: I purchased this anthology because I love poetry and because I wanted a primer for some college American lit classes. I did get a good book out of the deal, but the latter expectation was never fully satisfied. If you're deciding whether to invest in a collection of "American Poetry of the Twentieth Century," there are some things to consider.

First, it should more aptly be subtitled, "American Poetry of the Mid-Twentieth Century." This anthology was compiled in 1970 with the bulk of its poetry originally published in the 1950s and 1960s (some from a couple decades before). As a result, it's top heavy with Frost, Cummings, W.C. Williams, and Roethke, et al. Naturally this isn't a tremendous problem, but it did make me wonder, for example, why Langston Hughes enjoys a scant two pages of recognition out of more than 700 pages of poetry! Another thing I found was that though this anthology earns points for sheer volume of work, tens of American lit classes later, I have yet to run across many of the authors. While I admittedly was not alive for any of the original publications, clearly most of the writing, however unfortunate, has not survived the passing of time. Thus a twenty-first century reader may find the collection rather dated.

All this said though, I still recommend this anthology because it is, simply, a collection of good poetry. Some of the more famous poems from some of the more famous authors are curiously absent, but again, this isn't a substitute for the Norton Anthology. In fact, I discovered a wealth of good twentieth century American writing that has escaped the Norton and Heath publishers. Most of the work is modern with a few pieces creeping into the shadow of post-modernity. Small biographies are provided for each author. An academic primer you won't end up with, but for all other purposes, this is a sound collection.

Rating:
Summary: great voices within
Review: I purchased this anthology because I love poetry and because I wanted a primer for some college American lit classes. I did get a good book out of the deal, but the latter expectation was never fully satisfied. If you're deciding whether to invest in a collection of "American Poetry of the Twentieth Century," there are some things to consider.

First, it should more aptly be subtitled, "American Poetry of the Mid-Twentieth Century." This anthology was compiled in 1970 with the bulk of its poetry originally published in the 1950s and 1960s (some from a couple decades before). As a result, it's top heavy with Frost, Cummings, W.C. Williams, and Roethke, et al. Naturally this isn't a tremendous problem, but it did make me wonder, for example, why Langston Hughes enjoys a scant two pages of recognition out of more than 700 pages of poetry! Another thing I found was that though this anthology earns points for sheer volume of work, tens of American lit classes later, I have yet to run across many of the authors. While I admittedly was not alive for any of the original publications, clearly most of the writing, however unfortunate, has not survived the passing of time. Thus a twenty-first century reader may find the collection rather dated.

All this said though, I still recommend this anthology because it is, simply, a collection of good poetry. Some of the more famous poems from some of the more famous authors are curiously absent, but again, this isn't a substitute for the Norton Anthology. In fact, I discovered a wealth of good twentieth century American writing that has escaped the Norton and Heath publishers. Most of the work is modern with a few pieces creeping into the shadow of post-modernity. Small biographies are provided for each author. An academic primer you won't end up with, but for all other purposes, this is a sound collection.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Buying Twice
Review: I recently purchased my second one of these, because I wore out the first one.

Even if you are untrained in poetry, as I am, (even if you are an engineer, as I am), you will find poems in here that will move you, thrill you, and make you sigh.

See how much language can transcend words. It opened my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: The Ageless and the Aging
Review: We venture to say that Hayden Carruth's anthology is necessary for understanding the trends, the vicissitudes, the heights and the depths of American poetry from the First World War to the time of the moonwalk (Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, not Michael Jackson's). A necessary book is not necessarily a perfect book, but there is something here for everyone.

We detect a slight preference for the "new" -- and often the radical -- in prosody and in politics. If we are looking for W H Auden in this book, we will not find him because he seems in the anthologist's opinion to have remained "essentially British." Auden disdained slang and anarchic versification, but I don't think that constitutes sufficient reason for declaring him un-American.

The oldest poet in this book is Robert Frost, born in 1874 (not 75, as the book claims); the youngest poet is Joel Sloman, born in 1943. The titanic modernists of the early part of the century are well-represented: Pound, Eliot, Stevens, Williams, Moore. And Carruth is unfailingly generous to the lesser figures: Aiken, Van Doren, Yvor Winters, MacLeish, Louise Bogan.

This anthology excels in presenting poets born between 1899 (Allen Tate, Hart Crane) and 1929 (Adrienne Rich). We could list the figures, familiar and not-so-familiar: Lowell, Berryman, Roethke, Duncan, Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Olson, Countee Cullen, Robert Hayden, Thomas Merton, Richard Wilbur, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Robert Bly.

Donald Hall is not included, perhaps because he had not yet written his very best work; Richard Howard is not included, presumably because he wasn't a beatnik. James Merrill and John Ashbery are here, as is Hayden Carruth in an admirably modest selection prefaced by an endearingly humble biographical note.

When it comes to poets born after 1930, the anthology is at its least satisfying. There are Sylvia Plath and Wendell Berry, Gary Synder and Gregory Corso, but few others that seem to justify Carruth's endorsement. Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, Louise Gluck, Charles Simic and Mark Strand are conspicuous by their absence; and of course, Seamus Heaney is Irish, and -- as we are often reminded in the preface -- this is an American anthology.

All in all, a capacious, generous, inclusive selection, sometimes culpably inclusive; one that should be read in conjunction with other anthologies, ones which contain the indisputably durable examples of the noble and demanding art of poetry.