The Best American Poetry 2000 (Hardcover)

~ David Lehman (Editor), Rita Dove (Narrator)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In her introduction to The Best American Poetry 2000, Rita Dove offers the key to honest appreciation: read the work for itself, not for its creator's name and rank on the great chain of poetic being. With luck it will take the top of your head off, though some poems may only elicit a tingle the first time around. Put those away and come back another time, in another mood. "A poem must sing," she writes, "even if the song elicits horror." And the 75 she ultimately chose--by such poetic senior citizens as Lucille Clifton, Thom Gunn, W.S. Merwin, and the as yet unacknowledged--both sing and explode. Her harvest is as varied and abundant as the garden (and gardener!) Stanley Plumley celebrates in "Kunitz Tending Roses":

Still, there he is, on any given day,
talking to ramblers, floribundas, Victorian
perpetuals, as if for beauty and to make us
glad or otherwise for envy and to make us
wish for more--if only to mystify and move us.

Dove does find certain trends, ranging from "the interpolation of personal chronicles with the larger sweep of events" to "elegies for the passing of heroes, of good times, of innocence." Certainly, more than one therapist pops up here--in, for instance, Pamela Sutton's mesmerizing "There Is a Lake of Ice on the Moon" and in Denise Duhamel's intricate "Incest Taboo" (which is a lot more subtle than its title would give out). This dislocating double sestina's 13 stanzas juggle a fear of birds, a brother's death, alcoholism, familial expectations, and so much more. Set free by the form's constraints--the same end-words must recur in each stanza--this poet uses such phrases as "parrot," swoop," "wrong, "hover," hum," and "mother" to great effect, ironies and tragedies accreting. As Duhamel writes in the contributors' notes: "I felt as though I were doing a strenuous combination of math, crossword puzzles, and particle physics."

Some poems are definitely augmented by their creators' explanations--and their prose is often as eloquent as their verse. Others require none. Yet what threatens to steal the poetic show occurs after these comments. The series wizard, David Lehman, asked past and present guest editors to cite their top 15 20th-century American poems, in alphabetical order. It's impossible not to gravitate to this section and silently argue with some selections, approve others wholeheartedly, discover a few for the first time, and remonstrate over certain absences. How marvelous, if unsurprising, to see so many poets voting for Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop (who scores particularly high), and two whom John Hollander wittily terms "the transatlantic problematics," Auden and Eliot. If only Lehman had asked each editor to expound on his or her choices. In this list context, Louise Glück's refusal to "prefer merely fifteen" proves as inspiring as others' elections. Still, it's amusing to watch such poets as Mark Strand, A.R. Ammons, and Lehman himself look for loopholes and stuff the ballot box with also-rans. --Kerry Fried --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Perhaps it is the too-familiar audacity of the title, or sour grapes over the always big-name guest editors, but no series arouses quite as much po-biz rancorAvociferous nit-picking over choices and kibitzing in generalAas this 13-years-and-running institution, overseen by poet and critic David Lehman (The Daily Mirror; The Last Avant-Garde; etc.). None of that matters to the many consumers who make this book their only verse purchase of the year, though, and this year's outing, edited by Pulitzer-winner and former Poet Laureate Rita Dove, should reach that target market nicely. Dove's volume improves over John Hollander's (1998) and Robert Bly's (1999) respective orthodoxies, but offers fewer surprises than those of John Ashbery (1988) or Adrienne Rich (1996). Dove is drawn to nervous, careful, archaism-strewn monologues (Erin Belieu's free verse, Denise Duhamel's double sestina, Mark Jarman's prose "Epistle"), and to fine but unspectacular work from big names (Carolyn Kizer, Yusef Komunyakaa, Michael Palmer, Robert Pinsky, Mary Oliver, Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur and others). She includes outwardly comic, inwardly serious lists and invocations by younger poets (Christopher Edgar, Karl Elder, Oleana Kalytiak Davis, Dean Young), even-voiced reportage from global scenes of horror (Linh Dinh, Gabriel Spera) and reports from more quotidian trials (Ray Gonzalez, David Kirby), but there's nothing that absolutely floors. Fifty pages of contributors' notes and biographies introduce the poets and poems, along with introductions from Lehman and Dove. Most intriguing here may be the appendix, "The Best American Poetry of the Twentieth Century," which has all 14 editors of the series so far (including Lehman) listing their bests or favorites from the previous 100 years of poetry. The results will send many back to Berryman, Crane, Frost, Hayden, Moore, Stein and others, if not to many of the poets actually represented here. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Scribner Poetry; 1996 edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684842815
• ISBN-13: 978-0684842813
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,859,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #21 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dove, Rita
  #25 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Dove, Rita

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memorable, but challenging poetry., September 18, 2000

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Best American Poetry 2000 (Paperback)

For the past ten years or so, I've been lured to this annual anthology with its title promising "the best" poetry of a given year, and every year I encounter a few poets whose poems here prompt me to read their work beyond this best-of series. (Last year, for instance, I discovered the poetry of Billy Collins, which I recommend.) However, although the poetry in this series is worthwhile, I often wonder if it is really "the best" poetry published during that year.

The seventy-five poems editor and Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, Rita Dove, includes in this year's collection are mostly memorable and often challenging, but probably not truly great. At least for me, some of the poems are difficult, if not impenetrable. However, for anyone who enjoys reading poetry, this book is worthwhile. This year, I especially liked Julianna Baggott's "Mary Todd on Her Deathbed" (p. 32); W. S. Merwin's "The Hours of Darkness" (p. 116), in which he writes, "how small the day is/ the time of colors/ the rush of brightness" (p. 118); Mary Oliver's "Work" (p. 123), in which she writes, "when the sparrow sings, its whole body trembles" (p. 124), "words are the thunders of the mind" (p. 125), and "it may be the rock in the field is also a song" (p. 127); and Dean Young's "The Infirmament" (p. 205).

Also, for those who like such lists, this year's anthology concludes with John Ashberry's, Donald Hall's, Jorie Graham's, Mark Strand's, Charles Simic's, Robert Bly's, and Rita Dove's favorite poems of the last century (pp. 269-285), together with Louise Gluck's explanation why it would be an impossible task for her to create such a list. "There can't be," she writes, "the best of the great" (p. 276).

G. Merritt

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best BAP so far, December 30, 2000

By	"joely1" (Trenton) - See all my reviews

First, to answer the reviewer below as to why no Ashbery, no Ruth Stone: Ashbery has been braindead for years and Ruth Stone is minor, minor, minor, in ambition and in achievement. Not to say that others here won't prove to be minor too, but Dove's anthology is the most stylistically diverse yet(Howard's came close) and its real strength is that instead of including the usual stuff from the usual suspects, she made the effort to find young/emerging poets whose work, taken poem by individual poem, is as interesting if not more so. For example, Olena Kalytiak Davis' poem and Linh Dinh's poem are terrific. No disrespect to the man who revolutionized American poetry--respect, indeed, to the body of his work--but why include rehashed and weaker versions of what he used to write when you can include fresh voices full of energy, pointing forward? Sure, there are plenty of lame poems here, but fewer than usual, and Dove's anthology also feels hugely honest and energetic: she didn't settle for the same old same old but also didn't grind a silly axe. She found what she liked and what she likes is wonderfully wide-ranging. Thanks, Rita!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the Best Bets, March 14, 2001

By	"katejohns" (Azalea Garden (The Thames)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Poetry 2000 (Paperback)

Picking the best involves making bets, and one reason I like this series is the willingness of the editors to make big wagers. This year's volume gives me plenty to like -- including poets I'd not previously encountered (like Linh Dinh, Christopher Edgar, Olena Kalytiak Davis) as well as familiar names (Ammons, Merwin, Wilbur). Any book that can span the gamut from radically chic Michael Palmer on one end to prim Mary Jo Salter on the other is a perfect paradigm of psotmodern values. (Did I really write that?)The concluding section in the book, where the editors of the series going back to John Ashbery pick their favorite poems of the 20th century, is not only fun, it performs an important service in directing attention to great poems easily overlooked. As always I look forward with huge interest to next year's volume. This anthology quickens the appetite for more, always more.