American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse (American Poets Project) [Hardcover]

VARIOUS (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Poets Project | Publication Date: October 9, 2003

Distinguished poet and critic John Hollander offers, for the first time ever, a buoyant guided tour of American light verse-a tradition he delightfully pursues from Ambrose Bierce's sardonic The Devil's Dictionary quatrains to the latter-day comic inventions of Edward Gorey, Kenneth Koch, and James Merrill. Along the way, American Wits gathers a rich harvest of couplets, clerihews, epigrams, parodies, burlesques, and other forms of fractured verse. The varied and often surprising list of contributors includes Edwin Arlington Robinson, Don Marquis, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Morley, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ogden Nash, Phyllis McGinley, and Anthony Hecht.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Light verse, editor Hollander says, is a phenomenon of a cultural moment that has passed. "The writers gathered here came to literate maturity at a time when the ability to read and write accentual-syllabic verse was part of what it meant to be literate." The rise of free verse in American literature and, more important, literature classes exiled light verse from daily newspapers--in which columnists Franklin P. Adams and Don Marquis (who managed to write light free verse) published it--to specialty micro-magazines. So the youngest poet Hollander samples is 73! That poet, George Starbuck, is as funny, as culturally literate, and as willing to make light of it as any others in the book. (Try to be frivolous about the things that matter and the powers that be today--and it's PC court for you, buster!) The still-glimmering stars of light verse include Dorothy Parker, of course, who breaks your heart as well as your sobriety with her wit and acerbity; the nonpareil Ogden Nash; and Phyllis McGinley. But opera-flouting Norman Levy, love-deflating Samuel Hoffenstein, poetic chestnut-parodying Morris Bishop--these and other now-obscure names demand to be lit anew, to be read. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

John Hollander has published eighteen books of poetry, including Picture Window (2003), as well as five books of criticism. He recently retired as Sterling Professor of English at Yale.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (October 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931082499
• ISBN-13: 978-1931082495
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SHED A TEAR FOR A LOST ART FORM, OR TWO, IF YOU WILL, April 13, 2009

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D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)

American Wits, An Anthology of Light Verse, which has been edited by John Hollander, is a wonderful little volume which more or less slaps us in the face with an art from which, alas, has more or less vanished from the literary landscape of today. With the advent of free verse (all of we poor creatures who lack an "ear," yet have souls of poets deep within us, turn to free verse as a last resort), light verse is no longer taught in our schools, read by the general public, and heaven help the individual who tries to get their work published!

While I am not generally a big fan of anthologies, in the volume being reviewed here, it works! There are approximately 155 pieces presented here, running a very wide gambit of subject matter and intensity. The authors of these works are not light weights, good grief no! We have here works from Robert Frost, Don Marquis, Franklin P. Adams, Ezra Pond, T.S. Elliot, Morris Bishop, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Crowe Ransom, Dorothy Parker (you gotta love her), E.E. Cummings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.B. White, Ogden Nash (does it get any better?), and Kenneth Koch to name just a few.

These works include four liners and progress from there. The wit, the observations and the word play of these literary giants is something to behold and to read and savor. Each of the selections here are extremely well constructed, each tell a story, each make some sort of social comment; or not, and each is an absolute delight! Some of these little poem reek with ironic sarcasm, while others sneak around their subject and bite...well who know where? These are not professional poets represented here; they are all writers and are all very bright individuals who simply have an insightful, if not quirky outlook on life and all have the ability to transfer their wit to the written word in a format that is pure joy.

There is a sad aspect to this work though I must report. As I mentioned above, this is quickly becoming a completely lost art form and this work reminds the reader of just what we are missing and what we have lost. That is rather sad, as far as I am concerned.

Again, this is a wonder series of books we are being offered. If you have a chance to collect them for your home library, I certainly recommend you do so; each and ever one of them. We would all be richer by reading any of the works in this series.