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Rating:  - An Invitation into the World of American Poetry
If you love poetry, one book will never satisfy your hunger or lifelong search for poem perfection. Each book offers a unique perspective and The Oxford Book of American Poetry seeks to present an American viewpoint with over 200 poets revealing their most intimate thoughts. The poems warmly present insights into the viewpoint of the poets as they comment on cultural norms or decry conditions of their times.
The first poems seem to set a tradition of extensive stories to blend observations in nature with descriptions of insights into moments. Poems like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Bridge" have a soft beauty and thoughtful reflective quality. "To One in Paradise" by Edgar Allen Poe is stunning and revelatory in its romantic appeal. "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" also appear.
Many of the poems retain a historical significance and present a record of the emotions felt by those viewing the birth of new freedoms. The delicious culinary poem about "Hasty-Pudding" was a sweet surprise.
"I am the poet of the body,
And I am the poet of the soul."
~Walt Whitman
I will say that I became entranced by Walt Whitman's enthusiastic portrayal of life and his poems are an especially luminous moment that spans across many pages, which are needed because The Song of Myself (1855 edition) is included and takes up 48 pages! His soul seems to dance between moments as if infusing all he observes with an expansive optimism steeped in appreciation for all that he experiences. I loved these lines from "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd:"
"Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines and cedars dusk and dim."
While most of the first 100 or so pages were completely new to me, hope dawned as I started to discover familiar favorites like "Wild Nights" by Emily Dickinson. "The Road Not Taken" appeared along the way and "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams reveals beautiful images of cool plums from an icebox . My favorite poem by Elinor Wylie did not make it into this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by "The Puritan's Ballad" which is very sensual:
"Within his arms I feared to sink
Where lions shook their manes,
And dragons drawn in azure ink
Leapt quickened by his veins."
If you crave the sensuality of language and longing, there is much to enjoy. While most of the poems do not focus on romantic longings, there are quite a few sensual poems. Denise Levertov explores male longing in his poem: "The Mutes" where he presents a striking reality.
"Swan and Shadow" by John Hollander is actually shaped like a swan on a lake with its reflection and was a lovely visual surprise. Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry" appears along with "Shoveling Snow with Buddha" and "Dharma." Rachel Hadas presents cool crisp images in "Riverside Park:"
"...strolling lovers vanish in the glare
flung from the river by the westering sun.
I can hardly claim to be alone.
Nevertheless, of all whom autumn's new
russet brocades are draping, none is you."
While longing and desire do seem present in many of the poems, the sheer desire of the poet to communicate the experiences seems to be the main theme throughout. Dana Gioia's "Summer Storm" brings a moment as close to our experience as it can possibly be in a poem. Rain from a sudden thunderstorm is almost symbolic of a sudden attraction that is highly memorable.
Some of the poets featured in this anthology include: Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Francis Scott Key, Julia Ward Howe, Herman Melville, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, E.E. Cummings, W. H. Auden, Kenneth Rexroth and Sylvia Plath.
It is my theory that if you find one or two new poems, then you have succeeded in your reading mission. Throughout this book I found many poems I not only liked, but I loved. Most of the poems were completely new to me and do span such an extensive time period (Poets born between 1616 and 1950), it is more than likely impossible to find all these poems in your own lifetime if you were to try to read a book by each of the poets. This is a much easier way to find poets you might enjoy and then you can select a few poetry books by poets you truly think you will love.
If you enjoy American Poetry, then "The Best American Poetry 2005" may also intrigue you. I'm working my way through the "Best American Poetry" series and have been impressed with how each book paints a picture of a year in the life of America.
~The Rebecca Review
P.S. If you enjoy poetry, I think you may love poems
by Brian Douthit and Diane Anjoue. The book "Eyes of the Poet"
is truly beautiful.
Rating: - The Gold Standard, Updated At Last
The Oxford Book of American Poetry has always been the best collection of American poetry, even when it hadn't been updated for decades. It was the standard text at UC Berkeley in my poetry classes taught by Prof. Robert Hass, a remarkable man and a brilliant teacher, who now has the distinctions not only of having been named America's Poet Laureate, but also of having been included in this latest edition. The Oxford Press has one again put out a volume without equal.
Rating:  - Unbalanced and Biased
An anthology of this type should capture representative selections of all worthy poets; given that personal bias, I find this to be an unbalanced treatment of American verse. Walt Whitman gets 68 pages (as though his work is not readily available elsewhere), while the entire contribution of Stanley Kunitz (just to note a single example) is reflected in one short poem--and many other fine poets are slighted in this lamentable fashion.
Glance through the table of contents and browse the volume itself, and you'll find tiny snippets of some of our best poets, engulfed by huge selections of the few that this editor considers laudable.
It's unfortunate that Oxford should have issued a biased and arbitrary selection of this sort, which is of very limited use to those interested in the breadth of achievement of American poets. Many other anthologies offer more generous selections of accomplished poets, and will, one imagines, be much more frequently consulted by readers looking for a favorite poem.
Rating: - Great book
The Oxford Book of American Poetry is a fine anthology of most of America's premier poets. While, as one reviewed pointed out, the South is a bit under-represented, the collection is still excellent and offers the best that American poetry has to offer. The book is strongest in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the more modern stuff not quite as good or as generously selected--most contemporary poets have very little of their work represented here.
This book's greatest non-literary asset, though, is its affordability. While a Norton anthology can run between $70 and $80 (and they are usually worth it), this book just costs $35 and is even cheaper here on Amazon. The Oxford Book of American Poetry is not only a good anthology, it's a steal.
And yes, this book really does look impressive on the shelf (though of course it won't be on the shelf often, if you're a poetry lover).
Rating: - The Only American Poetry Book You Need
So far as I know, this is the best anthology of American poetry to date. It's exhaustive, covering over three hundred years of major and minor writers. All the classics are in here (Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, etc.) alongside names that are probably less familiar to the lay reader. I'd suggest reading the whole thing slowly; Lehman's introduction is a wonderful primer, and there are helpful notes throughout. The only drawback is the weight of the thing (beware of hernias), but that's not enough to knock it out of a 5-star rating because it's way cheaper than other books carrying the same material. And, frankly, it looks handsome on the shelf. All in all, you can trust that you're absorbing only the best of the best. It's delightful to see how strong our country's poetic tradition is: at turns dynamic, expansive, precise, experimental, rapturous.
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