Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2: From Postwar to Millennium [Paperback]

Jerome Rothenberg (Editor), Pierre Joris (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 1998

As we come to the beginning of a new century, we find that the entire vista of modern poetry has dramatically changed. Poems for the Millennium captures the essence of that change, and unlike any anthology available today it reveals the revolutionary concepts at the very heart of contemporary poetry. International in its coverage, these volumes bring together the poets and poetry movements that radically altered the ways that art and language express the human condition. Volume 2 offers a dazzling chronicle of the second "great awakening" of experimental poetry in the twentieth century. Ranging from the period of World War II through the cold war to the onset of the twenty-first century, this volume presents two "galleries" of individual poets such as Holan, Olson, Rukeyser, Jabès, Celan, Mac Low, Pasolini, Bachmann, Finlay, Ginsberg, Adonis, Rich, U Tam'si, Baraka, Takahashi, Waldman, and Bei Dao. There are also samplings of local and international movements: the Beats, the Vienna Group, the Cobra poets and artists, the Arabic-language Tammuzi poets, the creators of a new "Concrete Poetry," the "postwar poets" of Japan, the Italian Novissimi and Avan-Guardia, the Chinese Misty Poets, and the North American Language Poets. In addition, an extended section is devoted to examples of the "art of the manifesto" and two smaller groupings of traditional "oral poets" and of experimenters with machine art and cyberpoetics. Poet-editors Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris provide informative and irreverent commentaries throughout. They challenge old truths and propose alternative directions, in the tradition of the manifestos that have marked the art and poetry of the twentieth century. The result is both an essential resource for experiencing the full range of contemporary poetic possibilities and an arresting statement on the future of poetry in the millennium ahead.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-This collection includes poetry from post-World War II through the Cold War and its aftermath. The poets are well known and there is a wide representation of voices. Individual poets and movements are featured: Pablo Neruda, John Cage, the Tammuzi poets, postwar Japanese poetry, "Language" poets, "Concrete" poets, "Beat" poets, Maggie O'Sullivan, James Joyce, and many others. Unlike many anthologies that highlight only a few poets with a certain perspective, this is an objective anthology of the best of this period. A must-purchase for any collection.
Linda A. Vretos, West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Any anthology of this sizeA857 pages in its prepublication formAnecessarily disarms criticism. How can anything coherent be said about hundreds of poets and a thousand poems? Drawing for this second volume (see LJ 10/1/95 for a review of the first) upon poets as familiar as Anne Sexton and Robert Duncan but also upon translations from the Japanese and Greek, the textual art of Tom Phillips, and the lyrics of Tom Waits, editors Rothenberg and Joris want not so much to make one statement through the voices of many poets as to pass along the overheard fragments of the endless poetic conversations of this century. Because so much that is considered essential in modern poetry is excludedAthere is no Ashbery, no Heaney, no Plath, to name a few-this anthology should not be any reader's introduction to the art. But the editors' introduction, and many learned notes on the poets, full of principled, anti-traditionalist, postmodern statements, are both entertaining and provocative and certain to exert an influence on young poets. For larger collections of contemporary literature.AGraham Christian, Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520208641
• ISBN-13: 978-0520208643
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Contemporary Anthology, January 7, 2007

By 

Allan Revich (Toronto, CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2: From Postwar to Millennium (Paperback)

Rothenberg and Joris have assembled an absolutely stunning collection of modernist and postmodern poets in this fat volume. Not only has he included some well-known but seldom anthologized writers like Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, but he has included Fluxus artist/writers like Dick Higgins, Jackson Mac Low, Emmett Williams and many other important, but lesser-known poets. Nearly every poet that one would expect to find in a good anthology is to be found - and many people and writers that one might not expect to find in a poetry anthology are also found here. And once found, the choices seem obvious and not forced or contrived.

With so many great poems and poets to choose from, most readers will find at least one omission, (where's Leonard Cohen? Charles Bukowski? Sylvia Plath?) but with such a huge scope these are mostly forgivable. After all it is easy to find volumes of work by Bukowski and Cohen, but a volume like this anthology presents the opportunity to expose us to equally interesting and lesser known writers.

Most of the poems are followed by a brief quote from the poet and a short vignette about the poet written be Rothenberg or Joris. Anybody who is serious about the enjoyment of reading and writing new poetry will enjoy this book and will want to add it to their library.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Filled to the brim with poetry, April 25, 2004

By 

Megan A. Burns "meganaburns" (new orleans, louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2: From Postwar to Millennium (Paperback)

Both of these volumes are tremendous works illustrating a wide range of poetry from a wide range of voices. I love how the sections are delineated, and there is a wealth of information about poets, poems, schools of thought and poetics along with the actual poems. I learned a lot about poetry just by reading these two volumes. This is truly an example of wonderful, dedicated editing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick and Efficient, August 30, 2011

By 

StudentSoph - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2: From Postwar to Millennium (Paperback)

This service was excellent. I realized I forgot to place an order for one of my textbooks and this arrived more quickly than some of the books that I had ordered over a week earlier. Terrific! Used book is spectacular condition and for a great price.