Customer Reviews

The New Anthology of American Poetry: Volume Ii Modernisms: 1900-1950

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The collaborative editorial effort of Steven Gould Axelrod, Camille Roman, and Thomas Travisano, The New Anthology Of American Poetry: Volume Two, Modernisms 1900-1950 compiles over 600 poems by sixty- five American poets from the era of 1900 to 1950, including T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and many more. Offering a diversity of styles, and themes, this second volume of The New Anthology Of American Poetry also presents introductions, bibliographies, biographies, up-to-date footnotes and endnotes, and more to assist the reader in both understanding poetry and find more works by a given author. Very highly recommended both as an introduction to early twentieth-century American poetry and as a broad smorgasbord to experience and learn from a panoply of magnificent classic works.

Edited by Steven Gould Axelrod, Thomas Travisano, and Camille Roman, this anthology is a joy. It will make you want to read--and re-read. The editors, not limited by any one canon, worked together to present the range of American poetry of the period. The anthology lays out the richness of the "modernist" American literary heritage with care and love. There are generous selections from a range of the "modernist" writers in addition to surprising selections from immigrant and native american poetry and from popular song. The introductions and notes are thoughtful and deeply intelligent. This anthology promises to be a classic.

The previous review by Mr. Freedman is misleading, I believe. I myself am quite a conservative scholar and have little time for what some call "political correctness." (I would note in passing that I never heard anyone on the Left use this silly phrase seriously until a number of useful idiots from the Reagan era took up the mantra in an effort to let bigots feel comfortable fighting back.)

Regardless, I adopted this text for my Modern American Poetry course this fall not because it features the sorts of poetry Mr. Freedman describes. (I have no intention of assigning any of it.) Rather, I adopted it because it gives a much fuller representation of modern American poetry than most of the Norton knockoffs now on the market. For instance, *The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry* doesn't offer a single line by Trumbull Stickney, one of the "Harvard poets" of the genteel tradition, who was greatly admired by the likes of Conrad Aiken. This anthology prints five poems. Moreover, several other "white penis people," in Robert Hughes's phrase, appear here after having been summarily banished from ostensibly conservative anthologies. (Here, "conservative" appears to mean "too damned lazy to read much.")

Yes, this anthology has a political agenda. However, to pretend that others don't is to insult the intelligence of readers. From my perspective (a good liberal who believes, nevertheless, in Milton, Dryden, Pope), this is a genuinely democratic anthology. True, it includes poems by Native Americans, immigrants, and migrant workers. However, it also includes "The Old Rugged Cross," "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", "You're A Grand Old Flag," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "I'm Just Wild About Harry," and "Goodnight, Irene." The anthologists' agenda, simply put, is to open the canon back up and paint a more genuinely representative portrait of American verse in the modernist era.

In sum, if Mr. Freedman fears the "The Idea of Order at Key West" can't stand the competition, all I can say is that his faith in Wallace Stevens is far weaker than mine.

I read this book in college because it was required reading for my lit class. I typically do not enjoy poetry, so when I saw this on the required reading list I just about choked. Though I can't say that it has made a poetry lover out of me, I do admit that this is by far one of the best books I have ever read....poetry or not! The selection of poets is pretty comprehensive and the poems featured by those poets are beautifully selected to help show all aspects of the poet's writing. Each poet has his/her own section, the beginning of which has a brief biography of the poet. There are copious footnotes, explanations after the poems, and bibliographies for further reading. For someone who is not a poet aficionado, this collection is simply perfection! It helped guide me to secondary sources for writing papers and the brief explanatory paragraphs at the end of the poems helped to shed some light on difficult poems without dictating one meaning.

Though I am no longer and college, years away now, I find myself going back to this book again and again. I have purchased other collections but none of them have struck me the way that one does. I have encouraged others to read it, whether they are poetry fans or not, and have been met with the same response: this anthology is superb! I have not had a chance to read the other anthologies in the collection, but if they are anything like this one...I'll take the whole set!

The collaborative editorial effort of Steven Gould Axelrod, Camille Roman, and Thomas Travisano, The New Anthology Of American Poetry: Volume Two, Modernisms 1900-1950 compiles over 600 poems by sixty- five American poets from the era of 1900 to 1950, including T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and many more. Offering a diversity of styles, and themes, this second volume of The New Anthology Of American Poetry also presents introductions, bibliographies, biographies, up-to-date footnotes and endnotes, and more to assist the reader in both understanding poetry and find more works by a given author. Very highly recommended both as an introduction to early twentieth-century American poetry and as a broad smorgasbord to experience and learn from a panoply of magnificent classic works.

This is not an anthology which aims to select and represent the finest examples of American poetry. It is an anthology which aims to ' represent' various groups, including the recognized schools of poetry, but also including ethnic and minority groups. Thus it opens with Native American verse, and closes with verse written from Japanese interred in America during the Second World War. I may be mistaken but it seems to me that it does not represent in a great way the American experience in the Second World War.
This does not mean it does not have generous selections from all the major poets. It does.
It does not mean that it does not contain tens of little known poets whose work may be interesting in one way or another. It does.
It does mean that it mixes up a vast amount of material of different levels. And that it does have a certain political agenda.
What is moving and meaningful as poetry, I would suggest, is some part of this. But the reader should certainly be able to find work here which is moving, inspiring and meaningful poetry.