Customer Reviews

Great American Prose Poems : From Poe to the Present

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A canny introduction ushers the reader into this hybrid art form. The examples illuminate the form's history and variety. Most of the prose poems are superb; only a few disappoint. And readers previously unfamiliar with the genre (like myself) will likely be introduced to established but little-known writers of tremendous depth, beauty and originality, like Lyn Hejinian and Fanny Howe. I highly recommend this collection.

I've always enjoyed reading short stories, but over the years I've started to appreciate their form more than their plot-lines, and a careful and insightful use of language became something I increasingly valued. The first time I came across a prose poem, although I did not know it was called that at the time, was a translation of Czeslaw Milosz poem by Robert Pinsky. I was immediately fascinated by it, but I thought it was just something characteristic Milosz's style. Many years later I came across this book, and I was instantly drawn to it. I've read it and re-read it many times. It contains some of the best prose poems out there, and it helped me discover some new poets that I would have otherwise not known about. Based on that, I am adding new books to my Amazon wish list on a continuing basis. It's definitely worth buying and reading.

David Lehman's 'Great American Prose Poems' gives an interesting and insightful look into the world of the questionable - yet undeniably fascinating - genre of prose poetry. First providing the reader with an engaging introduction on the origins and essentials of prose poetry, Lehman proceeds to include a good basic range of authors. Gertrude Stein has a particularly impressive contribution, as do several others. This is a thought-provoking and highly recommended read for anyone interested in learning about the basics of prose poetry -- my only real annoyance was the absence of Leonard Cohen: while he is not American, he is Canadian, like several others featured in Lehman's collection, and (as an example) his work 'How to Speak Poetry' is utterly classic.

Lehman's collection of prose poems in this volume is outstanding. He covers a wide expanse of authors, beginning with Poe and Emerson and ending with young poets working today. The selection of poems gives the reader an excellent sense for how this genre/form of poetry has evolved from its very early, experimental days in the late 19th century as 'lyric prose' to its more complex and integrated (almost sui generis) incarnation today. If you find prose poetry, or flash fiction, to be an interesting form of writing, I would definitely recommend this book. I am a college English professor, and I am strongly considering proposing a course on prose poetry in the near future that will take this collection as its central text. The only slightly negative thing I have to say about the book is the fact that Lehman's introductory essay, which is written with his usual insight and clarity (those familiar with the Best American Poetry anthologies for which he is the series editor will know what I'm talking about here), is just not a deep enough study of the form of prose poetry. --As an academic, I am naturally holding Lehman to a higher standard than other readers in terms of his theorizing, and the theoretical cross-pollination that prose poems give rise to is something that interests me (again, academically) a great deal. Even though he gives a good historical accounting of how prose poetry arose as a viable poetic form, the central questions of how we differentiate prose poems from other, non-prose poems and whether or not the prose form of a poem affects how a poem means what it means, are dealt with only cursorily. For those who can and will enjoy these poems non-academically (!), this is pretty much not a concern at all. Dive in and relish them.

I had this is a text book in one of my advanced poetry writing classes and I loved it. It's a great introduction to, or review of, prose poetry and a book I still visit often. It gives you a few from each notable writer so you get a full sampling of their individual styles and techniques. This book teaches (and inspires) prose poetry in a way that lecture can't.

I always worry about book prices when a new semester starts, but I was thankful that this book was a bargain!

Love this book! I've worked with poetry students for many years and placed my own poems with traditional publishers for a decade or so beyond that, but I just never got into prose poetry. When I finally decided to study the genre seriously, this book happened to arrive first with its luscious lines giving insight into the quality, subject matter, and poetic characteristics of prose poems written in America, from Poe (actually Emerson, whose name didn't contribute to the alliterative P's going in the title) to the present day.

Beginning with David Lehman's learned but reader-friendly Introduction, the book provides an overview of the form, which nicely prepared me to understand or, at least, better appreciate the prose poems I was about to read. As it turned out though, the poetry selected for this anthology are highly accessible on their own.

I've since read more collections and explanations of prose poetry, some of which I'll comment on and recommend in subsequent reviews for Amazon. This edition, however, is my top choice for a prose poem anthology and will be most likely to get dog-eared as I re-read the lively poems again and again.

I've never known that there has been so many prose poem tradition in American Literature, and, this book is able to show it. Indeed, we can read, and think about, argues and concepts in order to introduce criteria defining what could be prose poetry. This characteristic is reinforced by the chronological approach, and the mix of author styles that was choose being representative of prose poem.

This is a great book, an American book, a prose book full of poems, a poetry book full of prose, an American book you can take to Paris, a book with a cover like none you've ever seen, a collage you can take to college. Yes, I dig it.