Poems of the American South

by Paula R. Backscheider (Editor), David Biespiel (Editor)

This one-of-a-kind collection of poems about the American South ranges over four centuries of its dramatic history.

The arc of poetry of the South, from slave songs to Confederate hymns to Civil War ballads, from Reconstruction turmoil to the Agrarian movement to the dazzling poetry of the New South, is richly varied and historically vibrant. No other region of the United States has been as mythologized as the South, nor contained as many fascinating, beguiling, and sometimes infuriating contradictions. Poems of the American South includes poems both by Southerners and by famous observers of the South who hailed from elsewhere. These range from Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Francis Scott Key through Langston Hughes, Robert Penn Warren, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, James Dickey, and Donald Justice, and include a host of living poets as Wendell Berry, Rita Dove, Sandra Cisneros, Yusef Komunyakaa, Naomi Shihab Nye, C. D. Wright, Natasha Trethewey, and many more. Organized thematically, the anthology places poems from past centuries in fruitful dialogue with a diverse array of modern voices who are redefining the South with a verve that is reinvigorating American poetry as a whole.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2014

Reviews

[Anna P (whatIreallyRead) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up for two reasons, both of them shallow 😅 One being, the cover is just gorgeous. The second one - this poetry anthology is part of my favorite series - Everyman's Library Pocket Poets. I own a bunch of books from this series.

Anyway, the idea of this collection sounded intriguing. Having read several notoriously "southern" novels this year, I wanted to explore the topic further.

Unfortunately though, this particular anthology didn't really strike a chord with me. There were several poems I liked, of course. But much fewer than I've come to expect when reading poetry collections. The poems seemed to be picked for their subject matter rather than their power. A lot of them were focused on specific geographical places, but rather than help me discover those far-off towns, the poems seemed to rely on the reader already knowing and caring about them. So those places stayed unfamiliar and foreign to me after I read the poems.

Most of the poets in the collection were unknown to me, and their works included didn't induce me to want to become more acquainted with their other poems.

I took this book on a work trip to Portugal. Unfortunately, one day I left my stuff too close to the ocean. A big wave drenched everything - my clothes, shoes, passport, money, phone, and Poems of the American South! I was very upset because at the time I was only 30 pages in and it was so pretty! Fortunately, the stuff was rescued and dried up quickly, and though the volume is not what it used to be, it was still readable, so I finished it.

I love it for its fortitude in the face of hardship 😂

Anyway, I would recommend this collection to someone who is from (or just a fan of) the South to begin with.

[shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

i picked up this book at a local bookstore in new orleans in the middle of a hot summer and i couldn't be happier about it. i read it sparingly over several months, you know, in the true southern-drawling way. i'm biased, but i would recommend this collection to everyone. this combines classic & contemporary poetry, showcasing all the diversity and complexity the american south holds. i would recommend it especially to people who are not from or have spent a significant time in the south. the american south is charming, corrupted, haunted, beautiful, ugly, and everything in between and you will be different for having explored; whether that be with your heart, your eyes, or both. but explore it nonetheless.

[Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is mostly an excellent collection of poems. The clear winners are:
1. Jerry Lee Lewis Plays .......by Bobby Rogers. Great storytelling
2. Shiloh...by Melville. Inspired me to read up on this battle.
3. Remarks on Color...by CD Wright. Poetry as numbered list. Brilliant.
4. Sweep....by Rodney Jones. Great poem about passings in life. Time's arrow.
5. The Ozark Odes...by CD Wright. Awesome setting and descriptions.
6. Elegy for a Magnolia....by Phillis Levin. Holocaust victim has their own demons in terms of racism. Mentions a "shadow-caster"

A perfect little poetry book to check out from the library and to read at night.

[Kem White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book of American poetry. I'm not a big fan of the American South, so I chose this book with some trepidation. I didn't want bible-thumping or antebellum nonsense. And the editor of this anthology did a great job avoiding these and selecting the interesting poems. My favorite is probably "Burned Man" by David Huddle, which tells the story of a man badly burned in a factory accident. Phillis Levin's "Elegy for a Magnolia" (the tree happens to be in New Jersey), Ray Gonzalez's "Rattlesnakes Hammered on the Wall," and Natasha Trethewey's "Flounder" are all exceptional poems. In fact, I like all of Trethewey's poems in this slim volume. (It helps to know something about her to appreciate them.) Of course, all the Langston Hughes poems are worth reading.

Then there are some clinkers. Frank Stanford's "The Gospel Bird," way too weird and abstruse for my taste, was my least favorite. C. D. Wright's "The Ozark Odes" composed of snippets of poetry and other oddities, left me cold. But the number of poems I liked far exceeded those I didn't.

The volumes in the Pocket Poets have been uniformly excellent. This one is not different. I found one typo in this book. The first I've encountered. This volume does well highlighting a region of the country with a checkered history. Recommended.

[Melissa Wyllie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This summer the family drove the full stretch of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway, starting in Nashville and ending in Natchez, Mississippi. This beautiful book of poetry was my companion through the South. The Trace is a federal park - beautiful scenery, no commercial traffic, no billboards. Just a slowly changing landscape, rolling hills, rivers, fields, cypress swamps. The view matched the poetry and it was a wonderful reading experience. It's brilliant that the book was not organized by author, type of poetry or date, but by region.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like poetry, but it takes a lot for me to love it. This was a mix of wonderful and just okay. Overall for an impulse library pickup, it was good. I also obviously need to read more poetry.

[bianca :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology captures the complicated nature of the south. It is a place both beloved and reviled. The quote from the introduction captures it perfectly “a southerner’s soul-searching has long been one of agitation and anguish, chagrin and disquiet, a harrowed and mortified and tormented weave.”
If I wanted a non-southerner to understand what it was like to grow up here, I would give them this anthology.

[CaitlynK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed some, glazed over during others. Unfortunately, rather skimpy on the Tarheels section.

[Kristy Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book of poetry. I bought it because there are so many Southern authors of literature that I love and thought I'd enjoy poems about the South. Of course, I really like the Langston Hughes ones and there were a lot of new discoveries too. My favorites: "Shiloh" by Herman Melville, "Birmingham Sunday " by Langston Hughes, "Orange Buds by Mail front Florida " by Walt Whitman and "The Blue Terrance" by Terrance Hayes. There's a lot of variety of styles and themes here, combining to form an interesting perspective of the South.

[neeka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous collection purchased in New Orleans on a perfect trip. Perfect compilation of the complexities of the South. When we were driving down, we kept morale high through Alabama and Mississippi reminding ourselves that a guy at a gas station told us that you enter New Orleans through the world's longest land bridge. One night I stopped by a guy at a typewriter on Bourbon Street who wrote me what is in earnest one of the most beautiful poems in the world to me. Then we trudged back to Virginia.

[Mr. V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. A vast array of voices with lots of fresh poems I've never heard before. Many contemporary poets are included.

[Lisa K · Rating 3 out of 5]

esp p. 207