Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In their introductions, editors Swensen and St. John, both accomplished and forward-thinking poets, outline the contention that spurred this anthology: for a long time, poetry has been divided, or has divided itself, into two basic camps, traditional and experimental. In contemporary American poetry, the editors argue, and the poets collected here demonstrate, these distinctions no longer make sense, as poets now draw equally from both traditions, often in the same poem. Hence these generous selections from 73 poets who seek to blend, in varying degrees, the straightforward clarity and formal rigor of the long poetic tradition with the disjunction, self-consciousness and obscurity of experimental poetics. Some names will be familiar to the casual reader of American poetry (John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass); some are well known in poetry circles (Brenda Hillman, D.A. Powell, Donald Revell); and others are totally new to this kind of anthology, such as the amazing and subtle Martha Ronk ("When it is raining it is raining for all time then it isn't") and Bin Ramke, a master of the commingling of old and new. For serious readers of poetry, novices looking for a way in to what's new, and, perhaps especially, for poetry professors, this is a must-have book. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
It's been apparent to American poetry readers for some time that the long-assumed gulf between traditional and experimental poetries has narrowed as poets on either side of the divide have begun adopting the tools and techniques of the other. This generous array of work by more than 70 contemporary poets provides evidence that surrealism, linguistic indeterminacy, social and political awareness, fragmentation, and cross-genre fusions are now taken for granted. That said, most of the poets included here have long been associated with the avant-garde (Rae Armantrout, Lyn Hejinian, Nathaniel Mackey, Michael Palmer, Juliana Spahr), and the stronger influence has largely emanated from their direction. But the editors' concept of hybridity is broad enough to encompass "mainstream" poets like Charles Wright, Norman Dubie, and Robert Hass and their sampling points to an increasingly open, inclusive poetic climate, one in which factional distinctions and labels have lost their descriptive utility. Recommended for most poetry collections.-Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib. Ithaca, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
