Fifty Years of American Poetry: Over 200 Important Works by America's Modern Masters

by Academy Of American Poets, Joyce L. Vedral, Robert Frost

Seer, critic, lover, madwoman--the poet's sensibility gives us a chance to experience them all.  This rich, wide-ranging collection of work by scores of America's contemporary poets brings you both wisdom and entertainment in short verse.

In it are represented, with one poem each, the chancellors, fellows, and award winners of the Academy of American Poets since 1934.  The result is a unique sampler of the various literary styles and themes that have left their marks on the past five decades.

Fifty Years of American Poetry gives readers the opportunity to hear familiar voices and new ones--and encounter the great American poems that have captured both our minds and our hearts.


The Academy of American Poets has as its stated purpose ''To encourage, stimulate, and foster the production of American poetry..." This was never limited to poets of any particular school, method, or category of poetry so this anthology is as representative a cross-section of American poetry in the last 50 years as any of its kind. The Academy is not a stodgy eastem provincial institution. It encourages young poets, recognizes the importance of change and growth in the poetry of America, and believes that poetry is not for poets only. This anthology was compiled on this basis. Fifty Years Of American Poetry is not only educational, but also inspirational, hopefully imbuing everyone who reads it with a sense of the dynamic and development of American poetry in the last half century. The Academy of American Poets is the only institution which could compile such a unique anthology because it is the oniy group which has consistently played a large part in the American poetry scene through its patronage to poets and its mission to make poetry an accessible and vital part of the American literary landscape. -->

Genres: Poetry

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Arkskier]

I remember that I was 17 or 18 at the time, browsing through a bookstore, when I first found this book. I flipped to a random page—Muriel Rukeyser’s “Effort at Speech Between Two People”—and was struck at how a short poem written by someone from the other side of the world, 70 years separate from me in time, could speak to me so deeply.

Ten years after that incident, I return again to this book, bringing with me ten years’ worth of poetry-reading and ten years’ worth of living. It collects about 126 poems from 126 poets from the Academy of American Poets, from 1910 to 1984. It is more beautiful than I remember, and seems to become more beautiful as I get older.

Poems that did not speak to me as a teenager, both known and unknown to me, now sing to me. WH Auden’s “In Praise of Limestone” reminds me of the hugeness of mind of Milosz’s—an earthy wisdom mixed with a dissolute elegance. William Carlos Williams is here at his usual profound lightfootedness, and Kenneth Rexroth at his usual obscurantist clarity. Richard Lattimore’s “Report from a Planet,” written in 1972, could as well have been written today. John Hollander’s “Violet” is an exquisite, exquisite performance, a pièce de résistance, and Stephen Dobyn’s “The Delicate, Plummeting Bodies” is as true as any poem can be. Sharon Olds proves here that confessional poetry can be done to good effect, and WS Merwin that iterative simplicity is powerful. I concede that better poems could have been chosen for Robinson Jeffers, Charles Simic, Donald Justice, Stanley Kunitz, Frederick Seidel, etc., but I speak only from personal taste, and this doesn’t detract from the overall strength of this collection.

[Tate Bailey]

Hands down the best poetry anthology I own. Disregard the fact that it's the only poetry anthology I own.

But for real. Such an incredible collection of works. It's not heavy-handed on any one particular style, and really it introduced me to poetry that I never could have found on my own.

Some highlights include "In Praise of Limestone," "The Centre of Everyone's Attention," and "For John Clare." It is an exquisite selection of works.

[Bailee]

I'm not even going to lie, I skipped like 25% of the poems. Other than that, I really enjoyed this, particularly one - Mental Hospital Garden. It was my favorite poem out of all the ones that were in this book.

[Tina]

This is one of my favorite poetry anthologies. The selection of modern poems is wonderful, and a good introduction to each poet's work. Although it's a mass market paperback, the font is a nice one and plenty of white space is left on the page.

[Randy]

1984 hardback by Harry Abrams Publishers