Three Centuries of American Poetry

by Allen Mandelbaum (Editor ), Robert D. Richardson Jr. (Editor)

A comprehensive overview of America's vast poetic heritage, Three Centuries of American Poetry features the work of some 150 of our nation's finest writers. It includes selections from Anne Bradstreet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, e. e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and Gertrude Stein, as well as significant works of lesser-known American poets.

From the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to the Romantic Era and the Gilded and Modern Ages, this unrivaled anthology also presents a memorable array of rare ballads, songs, hymns, spirituals, and carols that echo through our nation's history. Highlights include Native American poems, African American writings, and the works of Quakers, colonists, Huguenots, transcendentalists, scholars, slaves, politicians, journalists, and clergymen.

These discerning selections demonstrate that the American canon of poetry is as diverse as the nation itself, and constantly evolving as we pass through time. Most important, this collection strongly reflects the peerless stylings that mark the American poetic experience as unique. Here, in one distinguished volume, are the many voices of the New World.

Genres: Poetry

768 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 1999

About the author

Allen Mandelbaum was an American professor of Italian literature, poet, and translator. A devout Jew, Mandelbaum is highly knowledgeable of Christianity.

His translation of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri appeared between 1980 and 1984 — published by The University of California Press and supported by the notable Dante scholar Irma Brandeis. He subsequently acted as general editor of the California Lectura Dantis, a collection of essays on the Comedy; two volumes, on the Inferno and Purgatoria, have been published.

Mandelbaum received the National Book Award for his translation of Virgil's Aeneid, and is also the recipient of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy, the Premio Mondello, the Premio Leonardo, the Premio Biella, the Premio Lerici-Pea, the Premio Montale at the Montale Centenary in Rome, and the Circe-Sabaudia Award.

In 2000, Mandelbaum traveled to Florence, Italy, for the 735th anniversary of Dante's birth, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Florence, in honor of his translation of the Divine Comedy. In 2003, he was awarded The Presidential Prize for Translation from the President of Italy, and received Italy's highest award, the Presidential Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.

Allen Mandelbaum died on Oct. 27 in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was 85. His son, Jonathan, said he died after a long illness.

Reviews

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

242 pages of required reading.
I like poetry.
We'll see if I like poetry that much...

*EDIT*

Colonial-era spelling is funny...verry funnye inndeede. Mye spleene is manifested...

No matter how much poetry I read, nothing will ever get me like "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "The Raven". Edgar Allan Poe = Awesome Crazy Win.

I like reading the lyrics to familiar folk tunes. They're so strange and morbid...Oh my darling Clementine, heh heh heh...

It makes me soooo happy that in "Casey at the Bat", Casey strikes out. That's sort of mean of me, huh? But it just seems so fitting...and Casey sounded a bit like he deserved it. I think someone needs to write a responding parody of the visiting team..."Joey on the Mound" or something.

*EDIT*

Apparently, someone did..."Riley on the Mound"...it's clever.

*EDIT*

So I read Poe's stuff, with the "Nevermore" and "It writhes - It writhes!" (Loooove Poe's vocabulary..."scintillant" "tintinabulation" "sepulchre"...wish people still talked like that...) I really liked how in "The Bells", it starts off sort of happy and hopeful, like a song, and then that song sharpens into a scream...and then ends with a demented macabre note, a "laugh - but smile no more" sort of idea. Like if you started in a major key, and then sharped it into an atonal key, and then ended in a diminished chord. (Music Theory 101...)

Then right after Poe's "we're all going to die, and life is utterly miserable" motif, I read Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life".

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul

...

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother
Seeing, shall take heart again

Contrast is fun.

*EDIT*

Goodness, Whitman is a nut...but he's an American nut, so I guess it's okay. "Free verse for a free people"...indeed...

Replacing "free" with "crazy" would also work.

I understood almost nothing of what I read, but apparently poetry has excuses for this. (It all seems like one big inside joke that I'm just not fortunate enough to be a part of...)

I don't usually recommend books in these reviews; I just say whether I liked them or not. But in this case, especially for all the darling homeschoolers out there, I'd say that this is a really great collection of poems with excellent contrast, since it spans three centuries of American poetry. I think it's totally worth owning. Not only can you discuss the art of poetry and the evolution of writing styles, but you can also get some interesting historical contexts and a little bit of philosophy thrown in on the side. What's not to love?!

Admittedly, it's more for high school than elementary school, but it depends on the kid...

Just don't read Whitman first...
Your face will be like this -> o.O
Your mind will be like this -> ?????????????
I warn you now so it won't be my fault...

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a thorough collection containing not only poetry, but song lyrics as well. It is divided up into different eras, instantly putting the poems in context for the reader.
Brief biographies on back that are full of meaningful trivia on the poets.
This is one I would like to own.

[Erin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to think that there is an anthology of American poetry out there that more accurately represents the efforts of American poets from the time of the Mayflower. If I come across one, I'll be sure to come back and edit this with the name and ISBN of that book.

One thing I found troubling with this anthology is that more of it than necessary was dedicated to poets favored by the postmodern editors who selected its content. Meanwhile, as nearly a quarter of this book was dedicated to Whitman, other American poets, such as Julia Dorr (1825 Charleston, SC—1913 Rutland, VT), were altogether omitted. Since I know Dorr's work very well, I have to wonder how many more American poets were completely omitted in favor of creating more space for Whitman and Ezra Pound.

So, mixed feelings about this anthology. I appreciated the walk-through of selected American poets—Very biasedly selected—But I would have appreciated a much broader sweep of American poets and a lot less focus on some of the editor's personal favorites.

[Cathy Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the title, I thought this would be poetry from the 18th, 19th & 20th century, but it's really more like 17th, 18th & 19th; the last period covered ends in 1922. The book makes a good reference volume. I like that they include popular songs, Indian chants, and other non-traditional verse. Not all the poets are my cup of tea, but that's not the collection's fault. I just wish it continued further into the 20th century.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book with a span through 1620-1923, the first poem is The Sea Marke, by John Smith talking about nature and other things. Overall most the book is about God, Nature and there believes.

The book Three Centuries Of American Poetry is a very heartwarming book it most warm your heart if you believe in God.

My favorite poem in the book is The Last Leaf I really enjoyed reading it

If you like poem books that are religious, and many more you will love this book.

[Chris Gager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave up looking for the exact book. It was a general anthology of American poetry. The classics like Whitman, Robinson, Dickinson, Stevens, Cummings etc. A prep school book. Date read a guess.