Models of the Universe : An Anthology of the Prose Poem

by Stuart Friebert (Editor), David Young (Editor)

Here at last is a comprehensive anthology of one of the world's most fascinating literary hybrids. This strange sub-genre encompasses the history of modern poetry, from its beginnings in romanticism (Bertrand, Turgenev, Baudelaire), its adolescence in Symbolism (Mallarme, Rimbaud, Trakl), its maturity in high modernism (Stein, Williams, Kafka, Montale, Follain, Char, Vallejo, H.D., and others), and its middle age in post-modernism (Cortazar, Bishop, Ashbery, Simic, Edson, Bly...) up to the present.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

Reviews

[Granny]

The older I get, the more I appreciate and enjoy prose poetry. This is a good, broad look at the form.

[Kallie Oliver]

Lines from poems in this book still come back to me, years after I read it.

This is a fantastic anthology of prose poetry. This thing is THICK

It spans the history of prose poetry from the beginning of the genre to contemporary poets.

[Charles Dee Mitchell]

Great anthology of one of those genres I've never quite believed in. Are they poems? Especially the ones by those who are not otherwise poets. And now we have the "lyric essay" to further muddy the waters. But as a moniker, I don't suppose "Thoughtfully Written Prose" would hold up.

Great examples here from the expected sources: Borges, Elisabeth Bishop, Francis Ponge, Ginsberg, Kafka. But also many Europeans who have previously been only names to me.

[Jenni]

Very well-edited. One of my favorites, as far as anthologies go. It's chronological, so you can get a full sense of how the prose poem has evolved.

[Guillermo]

eh,

nice little collection. some worth reading, others seem too bland.

[Oriana]

This was one of the books I used for my senior thesis. Excellent.

[Nina]

Are they prose? Are they poems? No one knows!

[Luphi]

I read this while working on my MFA thesis. It's a great anthology of prose poems.

[Meen]

Oooh, more proetry!

[Julene]

This is an anthology of the prose poem, also for the prose poem class I'm taking.