Contemporary American Poetry [Paperback]

Donald Hall (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Our Youth by John Ashbery
The Picture Of Little J.a. In A Prospect Of Flowers by John Ashbery
Some Trees by John Ashbery
Thoughts Of A Young Girl by John Ashbery
A Vase Of Flowers by John Ashbery
The Young Prince And The Young Princess by John Ashbery
After The Industrial Revolution, All Things Happen At Once by Robert Bly
Andrew Jackson's Speech by Robert Bly
Awakening by Robert Bly
The Busy Man Speaks by Robert Bly
Driving Toward The Lac Qui Parle River by Robert Bly
Hunting Pheasants In A Cornfield by Robert Bly
Poem Against The British by Robert Bly
Poems In Three Parts: 1 by Robert Bly
Poems In Three Parts: 2 by Robert Bly
Poems In Three Parts: 3 by Robert Bly
The Possibility Of New Poetry by Robert Bly
Sleet Storm On The Merritt Parkway by Robert Bly
Where We Must Look For Help by Robert Bly
Adam's Song To Heaven by Edgar Bowers
The Centaur Overhead by Edgar Bowers
Le Reve by Edgar Bowers
The Mountain Cemetery by Edgar Bowers
The Prince by Edgar Bowers
Sonnet To George Sand: 1. A Recognition by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnet To George Sand: 2. A Desire by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
After Lorca by Robert Creeley
The Cracks by Robert Creeley
For Love by Robert Creeley
The Hill by Robert Creeley
I Know A Man by Robert Creeley
Kore by Robert Creeley
The Rain by Robert Creeley
The Signboard by Robert Creeley
The Performance by James Dickey
A Poem Beginning With A Line By Pindar by Robert Duncan
She by Jorge Guillen
Alceste In The Wilderness by Anthony Hecht
The End Of The Weekend by Anthony Hecht
Samuel Sewall by Anthony Hecht
The Vow by Anthony Hecht
Another Song by Donald Justice
Beyond The Hunting Woods by Donald Justice
Counting The Mad by Donald Justice
Here In Katmandu by Donald Justice
On A Painting By Patient B Of Independence State Hospital by Donald Justice
On The Death Of Friends In Childhood by Donald Justice
B Negative by X. J. Kennedy
First Confession by X. J. Kennedy
In A Prominent Bar In Secaucus One Day by X. J. Kennedy
Little Elegy; For A Child Who Skipped Rope by X. J. Kennedy
Nude Descending A Staircase by X. J. Kennedy
The Avenue Bearing The Initial Of Christ In The New World:11 by Galway Kinnell
Flower Herding On Mount Monadnock by Galway Kinnell
The Grace-note by Denise Levertov
A Map Of The Western Part Of The County Of Essex In England by Denise Levertov
Overland To The Isalnds by Denise Levertov
Six Variations by Denise Levertov
The Springtime by Denise Levertov
Sunday Afternoon by Denise Levertov
The World Outside by Denise Levertov
The Picnic by John (1923-1987) Logan
A Trip To Four Of Five Towns by John (1923-1987) Logan
After The Surprising Conversions by Robert Lowell
Between The Porch And The Altar: 3. Katherine's Dream by Robert Lowell
Christmas Eve Under Hooker's Statue by Robert Lowell
For Sale by Robert Lowell
The Holy Innocents by Robert Lowell
Man And Wife by Robert Lowell
Memories Of West Street And Lepke by Robert Lowell
New Year's Day by Robert Lowell
Skunk Hour; For Elizabeth Bishop by Robert Lowell
After Greece by James Ingram Merrill
Angel by James Ingram Merrill
Childlessness by James Ingram Merrill
The Power Station by James Ingram Merrill
The Bones by William Stanley Merwin
Departure's Girlfriend by William Stanley Merwin
Grandfather In The Old Men's Home by William Stanley Merwin
Leviathan by William Stanley Merwin
Low Fields And Light by William Stanley Merwin
Small Woman On Swallow Street by William Stanley Merwin
Views From The High Camp by William Stanley Merwin
Dark Head by Robert Mezey
Epitaph Of A Faithful Man by Robert Mezey
The Funeral Home by Robert Mezey
Late Winter Birthday by Robert Mezey
The Lovemaker by Robert Mezey
To Philip Levine, On The Day Of Atonement by Robert Mezey
The Fall Again by Howard Nemerov
The Statues In The Public Gardens by Howard Nemerov
Storm Windows by Howard Nemerov
The View From An Attic Window by Howard Nemerov
1. The Evil Eye by Adrienne Cecile Rich
2. The Confrontation by Adrienne Cecile Rich
3. Memorabilia by Adrienne Cecile Rich
4. Consanguinity by Adrienne Cecile Rich
5. The Mirror by Adrienne Cecile Rich
6. The Covenant by Adrienne Cecile Rich
The Insusceptibles by Adrienne Cecile Rich
The Ash And The Oak by Louis Simpson
Early In The Morning by Louis Simpson
My Father In The Night Commanding No by Louis Simpson
The Riders Held Back by Louis Simpson
There Is by Louis Simpson
To The Western World by Louis Simpson
Walt Whitman At Bear Mountain by Louis Simpson
1 by William Dewitt Snodgrass
4 by William Dewitt Snodgrass
6 by William Dewitt Snodgrass
The Examination by William Dewitt Snodgrass
Monet: 'les Nympheas' by William Dewitt Snodgrass
Above Pate Valley by Gary Snyder
All Through The Rains by Gary Snyder
Hay For The Horses by Gary Snyder
Milton By Firelight by Gary Snyder
Piute Creek by Gary Snyder
At Cove On The Crooked River by William Edgar Stafford
Near by William Edgar Stafford
Returned To Say by William Edgar Stafford
Strokes by William Edgar Stafford
Traveling Through The Dark by William Edgar Stafford
With My Crowbar Key by William Edgar Stafford
A Day With The Foreign Legion by Reed Whittemore
On The Suicide Of A Friend by Reed Whittemore
The Party by Reed Whittemore
Still Life by Reed Whittemore
The Walk Home by Reed Whittemore
After The Last Bulletins by Richard Wilbur
In The Smoking-car by Richard Wilbur
Museum Piece by Richard Wilbur
Shame by Richard Wilbur
Tywater by Richard Wilbur
The Undead by Richard Wilbur
A World Without Objects Is A Sensible Emptiness by Richard Wilbur
At Thomas Hardy's Birthplace, 1953 by James Wright
The Blessing by James Wright
Confession To J. Edgar Hoover by James Wright
Depressed By A Book Of Bad Poetry, I Walk ... by James Wright
A Gesture By A Lady With An Assumed Name by James Wright
Lying In A Hammock At William Duffy's Farm In Pine Island, Minnesota by James Wright
Miners by James Wright
Saint Judas by James Wright
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; 2nd edition (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140586180
• ISBN-13: 978-0140586183
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nice encapsulation of mid-20th century American poets, August 14, 2004

By 

Christopher Nelson (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contemporary American Poetry (Paperback)

This little book contains some 39 American poets, some better known than others. If you're into poetry, and looking for an interesting and brief collection of what was being written in America during the middle-half of the 20th century (and thus, highly influential upon our own) than this Penguin anthology is a great book to own. In his introduction, written in 1961, Donald Hall distinguishes "new" American poetry as being "subjective" rather than "autobiographical". "It reveals through images not particular pain, but general subjective life." The poems of this era (roughly the 1950's & early 1960's) are best described as "expressionistic" - they have their own language and feeling best understood and felt if the reader is open to them. Like a painter "...the poet uses fantasy and distortion to express feeling."

I like this anthology because it contains a number of American poets I was unfamiliar with and wanted to know. Each poet is represented fairly well, mostly with four or more poems. Stafford, Lowell, Wilbur, Bly, Creeley, Ginsberg, Ashbery, Sexton, Wright, Rich, Snyder, and Plath are some of the more well-known names in American poetry you'll find here. But the rest are just as interesting for being less known and "new". Reading these poets all together, one gains a basic idea of what kinds of movements, directions, and experiments were happening in poetry at this time, leading into and influencing ours. A number of lines strike me in a meaningful or thought-provoking way, and I enjoy the way many of these poets make one see and feel in a new and different light. Well worth the time and effort of any knowledgable poet or poetry lover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New Poetry 1962., February 28, 2007

By 

David Adams (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Contemporary American Poetry. (Paperback)

When Donald Hall put this together in 1962 it was filled with works by poets born mostly in the 1920's. It's a collection of short works to get you acquainted with poets, many now so famous, and old, that you hardly need this book any more other than for historical reference. Poems by William Stafford, Robert Lowell, Robert Duncan, Reed Whittemore, Howard Nemerov, Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht, James Dickey, Denise Levertov, John Logan, Louis Simpson, Edgar Bowers, Donald Justice, Robert Bly, Robert Creeley, James Merrill, W.D. Snodgrass, John Ashbery, Galway Kinnell, W.S. Merwin, James Wright, S.J. Kennedy, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, Robert Mezey. The blurb on John Ashbery tells us that he won the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1956 and wrote The Tennis Court Oath in 1962. Were we every that young?