Customer Reviews

Nineteenth-Century American Poetry (Penguin Classics)

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Because poetry is an interest of mine--especially in its original formatting--I bought the Kindle DX, which has the larger display, so that I could read poetry formatted as the author had intended. Toward this end, I expected long lines to wrap only when they extended beyond the width of the display. For many of the widely formatted poems in this book, this is not the case, as they are wrapped well before the width of the display is achieved.

Not only this, but there are formatting problems of one sort or another all throughout this e-book. Many of the poet biographies, which should be formatted such that the lines wrap as they reach the width of the display, are pre-wrapped--often breaking short words in half without hyphenation just about every other line. For instance, if you want to use larger print so the display is easier to read while it sits on a table at arm's length, then you have lines wrapping normally and then wrapping abnormally on the next line. If you want the text smaller because you're in a position where the display is fairly close to the face (for instance, in the driver's seat of the car while waiting for someone), then all lines are wrapped prematurely, never filling up the display. The effect is a quite jarring.

Add to this that the table of contents is drastically truncated so that none of the poems included are listed under the chapter headings. In the paperback version, of which you can preview the table of contents online via "look inside", includes all of the poems and their page numbers in the table of contents. Not only this, but the first poet is missing altogether from the table of contents in the kindle format.

When you consider that the kindle price for this book is nearly the same as the paperback price, all these formatting problems leave you feeling like you've been completely ripped off. This kind of formatting is the sort that you would expect in a free Gutenberg kindle book ported to electronic format by volunteers who have no vested interest in the presentation or accuracy of the material.

For a modest fee, I would be willing to correct this book's terrible formatting myself so I could better enjoy reading the rest of it.

As for the content, I'll only make a brief note:

Some of the best works seem to be selected from the poets included in the anthology. However, it should be warily noted that the worst poet of the lot--Walt Whitman (my opinion, of course)--is given by far the greatest attention. His material takes up a full 22% of the book's total content while other poets collectively average 4.5% between them (omitting Whitman's portion), with many of them individually granted barely 2%. This is skewed enough to just about make this a book of Whitman's poetry, allowing for only a couple of examples from a few other poets. Never mind the absolutely terrible formatting of Whitman's poetry in the kindle format. This is totally unnecessary because the reader can adjust font size and orientation to allow most of Whitman's run-on lines to fit on screen. The result of these premature line wraps in the kindle format--especially the smaller kindle--creates many tripple- and quadruple-wrapped lines with the final line wrapped prematurely, creating an effect that leaves you completely lost as to what's happening in an already bad Whitman poem.

There are many nineteenth-century American poetry anthologies, but this is an excellent one for those wanting a relatively concise, inexpensive volume. With 17 poets, nearly 300 poems, and about 450 pages, it is quite generous. The span is truly comprehensive. The first poet is Joel Barlow, born in 1754, whose first poem here was published in 1807 and strongly recalls Pope. The last poet is Edwin Arlington Robinson, born in 1869, whose last poem here was published in 1897 and who clearly points to twentieth-century Modernism. Editors William C. Spengemann and Jessica F. Roberts wisely focus on poets still widely read, which means that Whitman, Dickinson, and Melville make up about half the anthology. However, they correctly note that we cannot gauge their full impact or greatness without comparing them to contemporaries, and we thus get a strong selection of continuously read ones like William Cullen Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Poe, Holmes, Thoreau, and Lowell. Most of these were incredibly popular in their day - far more so than the trio dominating the book. This collection shows that their greatness still shines through, but many will think them well below the trinity or the greatest later writers, which makes this very valuable comparative reading. There are also several lesser-known writers - Jones Very, Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, and Sidney Lanier - who are at least as good as the ostensible second tier. Tuckerman and Piatt, the latter of whom is especially obscure, were major finds for me. I was entranced by their poetry and look forward to reading more; I am very grateful to this book for introducing them to me, as many others will surely be.

This edition's substantial supplemental material is also very valuable. The Introduction is one of the most thoughtful, measured, and helpful I have ever read. It is a useful overview from several angles, most interestingly the concept of nineteenth-century American poetry itself. For poetry enthusiasts, especially those keen on the era or critical theory, the book is worth buying for the Introduction alone. Each poet is also preceded by a short biography; these are quite helpful, especially for lesser-known writers, but they are not as good as the Introduction, often leaving out valuable information and sometimes containing errors. We also get several hundred very brief endnotes, which are again helpful but probably inadequate for absolute beginners, plus a very short bibliography.

All told, anyone wanting a nineteenth-century American poetry introduction would do well to get this.

This anthology contains a varied selection of close to twenty American nineteenth century poets. It gives the greatest amount of space to Whitman, Dickinson, and Melville. It also contains poems by Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Bryant, Crane, Whittier and others less well- known.
My own feeling about nineteenth century poetry is that however interesting individual poems by a number of these poets may be there are two giants, who have their place, among the giants of world - poetry.
Whitman who truly defined the American voice and soul in poetry, and Dickinson whose unique language and voice are so metaphorically distinct contain together the true greatness of nineteenth century American poetry.
And this anthology does wisely in presenting such a generous sample of both of their works.

I love poetry and this Book on nineteenth century american classics is must have for any one who reads books. This is a keeper and a collectors must have book. M coleman