THE PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY Edited by Rita Dove

Rita Dove’s just published collection is raising plenty of eyebrows: no Allen Ginsberg, no Sylvia Plath. We’re getting Rita Dove’s take on American 20th Century poetry and there are more than a few surprises. I haven’t been able to find a copy of the Table of Contents online so I’m just going to list all the poets in this volume so you get a sense of its range. I’m finding plenty of poets new to me to explore! GRADE: A

24 thoughts on “THE PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY Edited by Rita Dove

    1. george Post author

      Rita Dove is taking lot of heat for including obscure poets, Patti. I’m working my way slowly though the volume discovering some new writers.

      Reply
  1. Richard R.

    An interesting list, absolutely. Sorry no Ferlinghetti, glad to see Hughes, many – very many – names new to me as well, George. I wonder how much overlap there is with collections I already have in hand. How are they arranged, George, alpha by author, chronologically, by author with earliest published as a sort, or?

    Reply
  2. Bob Grumman

    Close to worthless. The good poets in it are already amply anthologized. Whole schools of the best American poets of the last forty years of American Poetry are entirely ignored. The one with Robert Lax in it for just one example. The editors of POETRY will find little in it, or not in it, to complain about–which is proof of how bad it is.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      I haven’t finished reading THE PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY yet, Bob, but I can see your point. Some of the Norton Anthologies of poetry are more representative.

      Reply
  3. kglnyc

    hmmm…. No Oppen, no Plath, no Gluck — but Billy Collins and Joanna Klink? Yes, it’s good to see Seidel and Ai make it in there, but to leave out a Plath in order to leave room for the likes of a Joanna Klink is just ridiculous.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Yes, there are some strange choices in THE PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY OF 20TH CENTURY POETRY, Kglnyc. But, maybe its quirky choices are part of the marketing.

      Reply
  4. Anderson

    Maybe she had some weird problem with permissions for Plath? But hell, before I simply omitted her, I’d have included a page with her name and “the copyright holder refused to allow any poetry by Plath to be included.”

    Betting pool, anyone? # of days until a second/revised edition appears?

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      There have been SF anthologies where Asimov listed stories he wanted to include, but couldn’t get the permissions, Anderson. So you might be right.

      Reply
  5. Fred Viebahn

    >>Maybe she had some weird problem with permissions for Plath? But hell, before I simply omitted her, I’d have included a page with her name and “the copyright holder refused to allow any poetry by Plath to be included.”<<

    That's basically what Rita Dove does in her introduction to the anthology. And she goes even further in explaining Plath's omission in an interview in the current (Dec. 2011) issue of the AWP "Writer's Chronicle".

    Reply
  6. Anderson

    Thanks for the info, Fred. I’ll have to track those down and see what new lunacy the Plath copyright holders have embarked upon now.

    Reply

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