Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 2: Modern and Postmodern Poetry from Postwar to Millennium

Poems for the Millennium #2

by Jerome Rothenberg (Editor), Pierre Joris (Editor)

As we come to the beginning of a new century, we find that the entire vista of modern poetry has dramatically changed. Poems for the Millennium captures the essence of that change, and unlike any anthology available today it reveals the revolutionary concepts at the very heart of contemporary poetry. International in its coverage, these volumes bring together the poets and poetry movements that radically altered the ways that art and language express the human condition. Volume 2 offers a dazzling chronicle of the second "great awakening" of experimental poetry in the twentieth century. Ranging from the period of World War II through the cold war to the onset of the twenty-first century, this volume presents two "galleries" of individual poets such as Holan, Olson, Rukeyser, Jabès, Celan, Mac Low, Pasolini, Bachmann, Finlay, Ginsberg, Adonis, Rich, U Tam'si, Baraka, Takahashi, Waldman, and Bei Dao. There are also samplings of local and international the Beats, the Vienna Group, the Cobra poets and artists, the Arabic-language Tammuzi poets, the creators of a new "Concrete Poetry," the "postwar poets" of Japan, the Italian Novissimi and Avan-Guardia, the Chinese Misty Poets, and the North American Language Poets. In addition, an extended section is devoted to examples of the "art of the manifesto" and two smaller groupings of traditional "oral poets" and of experimenters with machine art and cyberpoetics. Poet-editors Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris provide informative and irreverent commentaries throughout. They challenge old truths and propose alternative directions, in the tradition of the manifestos that have marked the art and poetry of the twentieth century. The result is both an essential resource for experiencing the full range of contemporary poetic possibilities and an arresting statement on the future of poetry in the millennium ahead.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

912 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 1998

About the author

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance.

Reviews

[Erik Akre]

Do I review the book, or do I review the evolving essence of poetry itself as it moves from the twentieth century into the twenty-first? Since I hardly understand either one, I find I must speak of it from the relatively limited viewpoint, experience, and comprehension I have.

If you go to this book out of curiosity and interest in poetry as an art form, you can't but be rewarded. This one volume exhibits hundreds of examples of what poetry can be (and has been) in the last 75 years, and it points ahead if you make space for it. You might be inspired to follow these poems out on their limb and then venture just a bit further into uncharted places. (I found that even this inspiration is by itself a good reason to try Poems for the Millenium--Volumes 1 or 2.) You may find yourself ready to give your writing a fresh try after this book.

You have to read this as a poet, reveling in the freedom and torture and dizziness and mania of it all. You have to read this as a poet, so every piece opens a door through which to peek, or to stride fearlessly, or from which to recoil in confusion. You have to read this as a poet, because these poems call to poets. To others, many of them will be ridiculous garbage. Even poets will undoubtedly find some things here to scoff at and throw away.

I decided to read this cover to cover, instead of poking around like I did with Volume 1. I wanted to experience all of it indiscriminately. It took me almost eight months to get through it. If you pick it up, I wish you well. If you're a professor of literature or a critic, you certainly don't need me to tell you any of this. You could talk my ear off about it if I asked. If you're a person who's just interested in poetry and wants to try something far-out, I say to you Give it a try! It's worth it!

[Andy]

Still fantastic, though not as good as volume 1. I think Rothenberg and Joris could have left the U.S. out of this volume entirely, as there are much better anthologies of its avant-gardes (Douglas Messerli's From the Other Side of the Century is my pick... and maybe there are too many notes. But it's still a near-top-notch curatorial job.

[Philip Jenks]

when I don't know what to do, lost, when I do know what to do, no matter what...always, always Poems for the Millennium blows my mind. There will be quibbles about who should and should not be included. I could join in, sure. As Foucault said, "criticism that hands down sentences sends me to sleep."

Perhaps this is why I'm awake.

[Chelsea]

hard to put down

[Joseph McIntosh]

This is one of the greatest poetry anthologies in existence. It has all the weirdos. Fantastic!

[Adrian Alvarez]

Reading this volume of Joris/Rothenberg's excellent anthology of experimental poetic movements was a much different experience from reading the first volume, which covered the first half of the century. With the first volume I was thrilled to read so many influential poets and very conscious of how many of them affected the poets who came immediately after. With this volume, I wasn't as taken with as many poets and I found myself at a loss to interpret/feel/make significant-meaning-of many of the poems throughout. Perhaps this has to do with the inability of the editors to "act as distant and objective viewers but as witnesses and even partisans for the works at hand" (the introduction). Certainly there is a lack of distance for many of these works (how, for example, do we process Will Alexander's place in our century's poetic continuum). Joris and Rothenberg were also not shy about including their own work, several times, in several places. It is true, Rothenberg in particular does have a very justified place in this volume, but still, we started with Charles Olson, ending with Rothenberg's Prologomena to a Poetics felt underwhelming. Just my opinion, but Robert Duncan in the finale would have felt more appropriate.

As in the first volume, the commentary was insightful and very necessary. Often, I found the commentary a lot more interesting than the poems themselves. Often. Though I think this has more to do with the state of poetry in the later half of the century than the choices in this anthology. Nothing is as certain as it seemed to be in the early days of writing. Directions, even anti-directions are diffused, intellectual ideas are murky. This is the world we live in and it is impossible to write poetry the way we did in the past.

Still no answer to the greatest mystery running through both volumes, however. I'll have to read volume 3 to see if they enlighten the reader, or else live my life never understanding why on earth they have a problem with the word "and" and insist on using the ampersand in its place. Is this a political thing I missed out on? Are we reclaiming the ampersand much like Prince ("The Artist") thwarted words when renaming himself with a symbol? What's the deal here?

These are hefty volumes of poetry & I definitely recommend them, but not out of order. I think it's important to read volume one before volume two in order to better understand the trajectory of Rothenberg/Joris' project.

[Meter]

I spent four or five hours with this tomb. Honestly I didn't find much to go crazy over. But I like the idea of this book very much and it includes many poets unfamiliar to me, which is nice since about all I know are the "Norton Canonized" and a handful of other high profiles.

While on the subject, it is often more enjoyable/better to read collections of poems. Many just don't stand alone well.

I'll most likely be revisiting this book as a resource to finding complete books by contemporary authors.

[Tosh]

Like Vol. 1, this is a must in your collection. I am very much in awe with Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris' editing on both volumes. A good book to have on your work desk on a regular basis.

[Trevor Joyce]

Best anthology of poetry from the last 500 years that I know.