Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry

Poetry’s archives are incomparable, and to celebrate the magazine’s centennial, editors Don Share and Christian Wiman combed them to create a new kind of anthology, energized by the self-imposed limitation to one hundred poems. Rather than attempting to be exhaustive or definitive—or even to offer the most familiar works—they have assembled a collection of poems that, in their juxtaposition, echo across a century of poetry. Adrienne Rich appears alongside Charles Bukowski; poems by Isaac Rosenberg and Randall Jarrell on the two world wars flank a devastating Vietnam War poem by the lesser-known George Starbuck; August Kleinzahler’s “The Hereafter” precedes “Prufrock,” casting Eliot’s masterpiece in a new light. Short extracts from Poetry’s letters and criticism punctuate the verse selections, hinting at themes and threads and serving as guides, interlocutors, or dissenting voices.

The resulting volume is an anthology like no other, a celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention, a vital monument to an institution that refuses to be static, and, most of all, a book that lovers of poetry will devour, debate, and keep close at hand.

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U .S. Poet Laureate, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years. Selecting from the canon of American poetry throughout the 20th century, Dove has created an anthology that represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities — from styles and voices to themes and cultures — while balancing important poems with significant periods of each poet. Featuring poems both classic and contemporary, this collection reflects both a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry and outlines its trajectory over the past century.

Penguin proudly presents an unparalleled survey of the best poems of the past century.

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U .S. Poet Laureate, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years. Selecting from the canon of American poetry throughout the twentieth century, Dove has created an anthology that represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities-from styles and voices to themes and cultures-while balancing important poems with significant periods of each poet. Featuring poems both classic and contemporary, this collection reflects both a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry and outlines its trajectory over the past century.

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Now available in paperback, this indispensable volume represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities—with varying styles, voices, themes, and cultures—while balancing important poems with vital periods of each poet. Featuring earlier works by Robert Frost, James Weldon Johnson, and Wallace Stevens along with examples from the new generation of critically acclaimed poets, including A. E. Stallings, Terrance Hayes, and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Doves selections paint a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry.

Editors Note

Ezra Pound   In a Station of the MetroKay Ryan   Sharks TeethMarie Ponsot   Anti-Romantic Roddy Lumsden   The YoungLeRoi Jones   Valéry as DictatorEdwin Arlington   Robinson Eros TurannosAnge Mlinko   It Was a Bichon Frisés Life . . .Muriel Rukeyser   SongAugust Kleinzahler   The HereafterT. S. Eliot   The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockLaura Kasischke   LookWeldon Kees   From “Eight Variations”Robert Creeley   For LoveMary Karr   DisgracelandLucille Clifton   sorrowsA. E. Stallings   On Visiting a Borrowed Country House in ArcadiaCharles Wright   Bedtime StoryDelmore Schwartz   In the Naked Bed, In Platos CaveWilliam Matthews   Mingus at the ShowplaceDonald Justice   Men at FortyRuth Stone   ForecastCraig Arnold   Meditation on a GrapefruitJosephine Miles   The Hampton Institute AlbumP. K. Page   My Chosen LandscapeTheodore Roethke   Florists Root CellarWallace Stevens   Tea at the Palaz of HoonBasil Bunting   From BriggflattsLouise Bogan   NightRodney Jack   After the DiagnosisMargaret Atwood   Pig SongMichael S. Harper   Blues AlabamaIsaac Rosenberg   Break of Day in the TrenchesGeorge Starbuck   Of LateRandall Jarrell   ProtocolsTom Disch   The Prisoners of WarSeamus Heaney   A Dog Was Crying To-Night in Wicklow AlsoHart Crane   At Melvilles TombRobert Hayden   O Daedalus, Fly Away HomeCharles Bukowski   A Not So Good Night in the San Pedro of the WorldAdrienne Rich   Final NotationsW. H. Auden   The Shield of AchillesAlbert Goldbarth   He HasAlice Fulton   What I LikeEdna St. Vincent Millay   RendezvousSylvia Plath   Fever 103Lisel Mueller   In the Thriving SeasonEleanor Wilner   MagnificatAtsuro Riley   HutchThomas Sayers   Ellis Or,Marianne Moore   No Swan So FineJohn Berryman   The TravelerAverill Curdy   Sparrow Trapped in the AirportH. D.   His PresenceRae Armantrout   TransactionsGwendolyn Brooks   The Children of the PoorE. E. Cummings   What If a Much of a Which of a WindFrederick Seidel   Mu‘allaqaGeoffrey Hill   The Peacock of AldertonMay Swenson   Green Red Brown and WhiteAnne Stevenson   Inheriting My Grandmothers NightmareJeanne Murray   Walker Little Blessing for My FloaterBrooklyn Copeland   Prayers EndJack Spicer   “Any fool can get into an ocean . . . ”Alan Dugan   Fabrication of AncestorsEdward Dorn   Dark CeilingW. S. Merwin   Search PartyLorine Niedecker   Three PoemsDenise Levertov   Our BodiesJames Wright   The BlessingRobinson Jeffers   Grass on the CliffW. S. Di Piero   Big City SpeechCid Corman   From “Cahoots”Richard Wilbur   Hamlen BrookRita Dove   Old Folks Home, JerusalemDon Paterson   The LieMaxine Kumin   NurtureWilliam Carlos Williams   Paterson, Book V: The River of HeavenTed Hughes   HeatwaveFrank OHara   Chez JaneReginald Dwayne Betts   “For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers”Rachel Wetzsteon   On Leaving the Bachelorette BrunchAdrian Blevins   How to Cook a WolfA. R. Ammons   Gravelly RunSamuel Menashe   HereRobert Duncan   Returning to Roots of First FeelingLangston Hughes   Blues in StereoJames Schuyler   Korean MumsJacob Saenz   Sweeping the StatesGeorge Oppen   Birthplace: New RochelleGary Snyder   Song of the TangleBelle Randall   A Childs Garden of GodsIsabella Gardner   The Widows YardThom Gunn   Lines for a BookFrank Bidart   From “The Third Hour of the Night”William Meredith   The IlliterateRhina P. Espaillat   ChangelingMaria Hummel   StationJames Merrill   The Mad SceneW. S. Graham   The Beast in the SpaceWilliam Butler Yeats   The Fisherman

Acknowledgments

Contributors