Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry

by J.D. McClatchy

Dazzling in its range, exhilarating in its immediacy and grace, this collection gathers together, from every region of the country and from the past forty years, the poems that continue to shape our imaginations. From Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery and Adrienne Rich, to Robert Haas and Louise Gluck, this anthology takes the full measure of our poetry's daring energies and its tender understandings.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Classics, Fiction, Literature, 20th Century, College

656 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

McClatchy is an adjunct professor at Yale University and editor of the Yale Review. He also edits the "Voice of the Poet" series for Random House AudioBooks.

His book Hazmat (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) was nominated for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. He has written texts for musical settings, including eight opera libretti, for such composers as Elliot Goldenthal, Daron Hagen, Lowell Liebermann, Lorin Maazel, Tobias Picker, Ned Rorem, Bruce Saylor, and William Schuman. His honors include an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991). He has also been one of the New York Public Literary Lions, and received the 2000 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award.

In 1999, he was elected into the membership of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in January 2009 he was elected president. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1987), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets (1991). He served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1996 until 2003. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Will]

We used this book in my first poetry class and despite my expanding collection of these authors' collected works, I still enjoy leafing through them here. I think this was my first introduction to a number of amazing poets: Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Richard Wilbur, Denise Levertov, James Dickey, Frank O'Hara, James Merrill, A.R. Ammons, James Wright, Adrienne Rich, Mary Oliver, Louise Gluck...

I reckon I wouldn't know nothin' if'n I ain't a read this pack 'o pomes.

[Eddie]

This book has some old favorites, but it also turned me on to some amazing poets I hadn't known before. A fantastic anthology if you like poetry--and who doesn't like poetry?

[Holly]

While this collection does cover a wide swath of poets it seems to have been edited by someone who was going through a bitter divorce. All the poems about relationships are bitter or, at best, bittersweet. No complaints about those selections either, but sometimes I turn to poetry to find words for my happiness and couldn't find them here. Best for a bleaker mood, I guess.

[Vicky Hunt]

This is a five star collection of significant poets from the past century; roughly from Robert Lowell who began writing in the forties, to Carl Phillips who is writing today. These are organized chronologically, and includes a handful of their most notable poems. You are sure to find the mix very helpful, and some you will appreciate more than others. Maybe its my age but I found myself mostly familiar with the earlier ones, and not so much the more contemporary. I actually checked it out from the library twice to have time to become acquainted with them all. It is an extensive set sure to widen your horizons.

[Edgar Trevizo]

No encuentro nada afortunada la selección. Encontré muy pocos poemas que me conmocionaran. El compilador tiene una notoria preferencia por los poemas largos, pero muy pocos poetas tienen el talento de Robert Pinsky, por ejemplo, para mantener su intensidad o interés. Así que lo que me ocurrió con demasiada frecuencia es que perdía el interés a la mitad del poema o incluso mucho antes. Es una de las antologías de poesía que menos he disfrutado. Esta y la de poesía inglesa, editada por Philip Larkin.

[Rach]

Such a great collection of poets. I Absolutely loved reading the original introduction by McClatchy, and the updated forward from him as well.

Really well rounded group of poets, a great mix of classics and lesser known.

[Bill]

A large collection of poetry mostly from the 30's-70's. Each port is introduced with brief biographies that are often way too infected with pseudo-literary show-offy writer's workshop leader blather. Some of the poems are wonderful. I have not read poetry in decades and this was a great way to get a feel for the landscape.

[Brian]

I didn't think I could get back into poetry after I graduated with a BA in English. I was wrong. This stuff is essential. Thank the Good Lord for poets and hip-hop artists for their artistry with the language.

[Annyun]

A book of amazing poems but lacks representation of people of colour.

[Adam]

I found the Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry through one of my cooperating teachers who recommended I read this collection of poems. The collection covers 75 poets, so it is tough to pick one to emphasize just how amazing this collection really is. The collection is arranged by poets, with a short biography on their lives followed by a collection of their most significant poems. Usually there are 7 or 8 poems but depending on length there may be only 4 or 5. Some of the poems I absolutely loved on my first read and found I had a pretty good understanding of. Other poems I had to read several times over and over again, and still found I was rather confused by their content and meaning. I guess that is the nature of poetry. The poets I really enjoyed reading include Donald Justice, W.S. Merwin, Robert Pinsky, and James Wright. This is because these poems tend to focus on death and reality, real emotional things that I can grasp and contemplate. Some poets in this collection were just too out there for me, or a little too dated. It is one thing for me to read a poem, “The Assassination” and understand exactly what it is about. I am sure there is a hidden layer to this, but the meaning is right there in the title. Then there is “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, which just confuses me to no end. The title says it is about a fish, but is it really about the fish, or something else entirely? I wasn’t sure how exactly to go about writing a review of a collection of poems like this. I thought including my favorite poets would help. I would recommend this book to older readers, high school students who are ready for a challenge. Poetry is not easy, and it never has been for me, but there are wonders of delight hidden between these pages for the eager student. In the classroom, I would love to focus on a specific poet from this collection for a week or so, diving into each of their poems. Perhaps we could pick one per person to study for a day, then rotate.

[Rachel]

Needed this book for my advanced poetry writing class back in 2017, but we only read a small handful of poems. I read the whole thing off and on beginning in 2020 to expand my poetry reading habits and hopefully discover some new-to-me poets I like. Of the 75 poets included, I really only vibed with 10 of them overall even though I did mark more individual poems as ones I really like.

Since this poetry anthology definitely doesn't include the most diverse range of poets and doesn't include consistent numbers of examples per poet, there are probably far better contemporary American anthologies out there.

[Nick Milinazzo]

"so you must, and, in that whiteness, into that face, with what / candor, look."

Collected within these pages are 75 of the most influential and noteworthy American poets. Their scope and range is broad and far-reaching: there is a style for all types of readers. As it is impossible to describe each poet or their work entirely, instead I will list the poets who I preferred -- those I would like to investigate further, those whose words spoke to me:
Robert Lowell
William Meredith
Howard Nemerov
James Wright
Anne Sexton
Philip Levine
Mark Strand
Frank Bidart
Sharon Olds
Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Henri Cole

[Addie Haughey]

I was revisiting some old reads on my bookshelf recently and spent some time on this one. I found myself skipping most of the men and focusing in on the female poets, who are somewhat underrepresented in this collection.

[Simon Gonzalez]

I read this for my poetry class in college. No rating because there’s so many poems in here and I can’t just rate the whole book based on the ones I liked. In general, almost all the poems I read were good. Allen Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara really touched my heart.

[Humphrey]

Superb anthology. Yes, there are always poets one might wish to add; yes, there are some better poems one might wish to swap in. But this is a great selection with good breadth and just the right number of poems per poet. One wishes there were something so good for the subsequent decades.

[Bertha]

Found some great poets to further read their other works. Gives analysis on each poet, as well as the personality of their writing style’s. Sat with this book for a long time and i’m glad I did, many of these poems take awhile to digest and need more than one read thru.

[Rachel Anne]

We didn't read this book cover to cover for class, but we read enough that I'm counting it. Work the system.

[Megan Wahman]

Turns out I hate poetry but I’m also not a quitter.

[Molly Nelson]

A great exposition on the modern infatuation with garbage.

[Laura Beasley]

Skimmed several. Found a few poems I liked. Will reread sometime.

[Nathan Nicolau]

The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry is better in my opinion, but this is solid.

[Jonathan Bentley]

A very good collection and great starting place for poets and those wanting a survey of mid to late 20th century American Poetry.

[Lizzy]

Finally sat down and read them all in order instead of trying to find good ones at random. Now I've marked the poems worth re-reading. :)
Would have liked more diversity.

[Matt Lemains]

Fantastic exhaustive selection

[Brenna]

finally finished all the readings for my poetry workshop!!!!!!!! bless up

[Tim Nason]

65 poets with 3 to 7 poems each; some poets are given more representation, namely Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. Merlin, James Wright, Charles Simic and Berryman form a second tier, with the others following with fewer pages. Publication dates range from 1946 to 1990. The introduction by editor J.D. McClatchy provides an excellent overview. Each poet gets a short biographical note. A bibliography and acknowledgments appear at the end.

I gave it a 3-star rating because I think it suffers by having too many poets and consequently too few poems by most of the group. Also, the choice of poems seems odd, but how does an editor choose 3 poems from a poet’s lifetime of work unless by a subjective process that might not mesh perfectly with some readers’ preferences?

The Houghton-Mifflin Contemporary American Poetry (3rd edition, 1980) covers some of the same ground but with only 40 poets and offering many more poems by each one. Several poets in the book don’t make it into the Vintage anthology, such as Imamu Amiri Baraka, Robert Bly, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Donald Hall, Stanley Kunitz and William Stafford, which may merely indicate editor choice or may show a sifting of the canon during that 10-year period.

[M. M. Sana]

This is an awesome book to keep in your library and read a little bit at a time, if you don't read poetry but write it. If you read and write poetry GET THE BOOK!!! It presents different styles of contemporary poetry and you could really learn a lot from it. Also, it has an introduction on each poet before their style is presented. It was a required text and I read parts of it Spring 07 in a creative writing class, then Fall 07 it was required in my poetry class and I read most of it... After the class was over, I finished reading it as I played around with different styles of poetry writing. It really helped. If you like poetry, real poetry and not Hallmark card poetry, you'll like this!

[Aeisele]

This is a pretty good collection, edited by J.D. McClatchy. There's a ton of good anthologies, but this one has a good smattering of the best American poets after the modern era (the "Pound Era," as it were). It starts with Lowell and Bishop, and goes through Jarrell, Berryman, Warren, Nemerov, Rich, up to a bunch of people I've never heard of. Good collection.

[Izlinda]

Because the book store ordered the wrong book most of us, myself included, got photocopies from our teacher's copy. In a way, that ruined my pleasure of using this book, even though we did save money in the end since we didn't read many poems to make it worth buying.

I found it an alright anthology.

[Stewart]

Superb all-purpose anthology of contemporary American poetry, covering most of the majors (Lowell, Bishop, Roethke, Sexton, Plath, O'Hara, et. al.) and many of the minors.... or at least, minors in comparison with the majors. Or upcoming majors, anyway. Favorite discoveries: W. D. Snodgrass and Ed Hirsch. Gorgeous.