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The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry
Penguin’s landmark poetry anthology, perfect for learning poems by heart in the age of ephemeral media
Recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Wallace Stevens Award (Dove)
Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry . Now available in paperback, this indispensable volume represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities—with varying styles, voices, themes, and cultures—while balancing important poems with vital periods of each poet. Featuring works by Mary Oliver, Derek Walcott, John Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kevin Young, Terrance Hayes, Li-Young Lee, Joanna Klink and A.E. Stallings, Dove’s selections paint a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry.
Recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Wallace Stevens Award (Dove)
Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry . Now available in paperback, this indispensable volume represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities—with varying styles, voices, themes, and cultures—while balancing important poems with vital periods of each poet. Featuring works by Mary Oliver, Derek Walcott, John Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kevin Young, Terrance Hayes, Li-Young Lee, Joanna Klink and A.E. Stallings, Dove’s selections paint a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry.
599 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2011
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About the author
Rita Dove
95 books256 followersRita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, and musician, lives in Charlottesville, where she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
March 23, 2024
Penguin publishing touts this book, edited by poet, Rita Dove, as “introduc(ing) readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years.” I found the collection challenging and at times, breath-taking.
This may constitute “puffery” but, if challenged, I am sure Penguin can justify those words in some fashion. I was struck by how many authors were new to me and I was delighted to make their acquaintance. I will place several examples below. Though it may look as if there is a gender imbalance, it is more because the poems by women (that I liked best) were too long to include.
Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Donald Hall - My Son My Executioner
My son, my executioner,
I take you in my arms,
Quiet and small and just astir
An whom my body warms.
Sweet death, small son, our instrument
Of immortality,
Your cries and hungers document
Our bodily decay.
We twenty-five and twenty-two,
Who seemed to live forever,
Observe enduring life in you
And start to die together.
In Cold Storm Light by Leslie Marmon Silko
(inventive positioning of sentences not quite right)
In cold storm light
I watch the sandrock
canyon rim.
The wind is wet
with the smell of pinon.
The wind is cold
With the sound of juniper
And then
out of the thick ice sky
running swiftly
pounding
swirling above the treetops
The snow elk come,
Moving, moving
white song
storm wind in the branches.
And when the elk have passed
behind them
a crystal train of snowflakes
strands of mist
tangled in rocks
and leaves.
Crows in a Strong Wind by Cornelius Eady
Off go the crows from the roof.
The crows can’t hold on.
They might as well
Be perched in an oil slick.
Such an awkward dance,
These gentlemen
In their spotted-black coats.
Such a tipsy dance,
As if they didn’t know where they were.
Such a humorous dance,
As they try to set thing right,
As the wind reduces them.
Such a sorrowful dance.
How embarrassing is love
When it goes wrong
In front of everyone.
4.5*
This may constitute “puffery” but, if challenged, I am sure Penguin can justify those words in some fashion. I was struck by how many authors were new to me and I was delighted to make their acquaintance. I will place several examples below. Though it may look as if there is a gender imbalance, it is more because the poems by women (that I liked best) were too long to include.
Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Donald Hall - My Son My Executioner
My son, my executioner,
I take you in my arms,
Quiet and small and just astir
An whom my body warms.
Sweet death, small son, our instrument
Of immortality,
Your cries and hungers document
Our bodily decay.
We twenty-five and twenty-two,
Who seemed to live forever,
Observe enduring life in you
And start to die together.
In Cold Storm Light by Leslie Marmon Silko
(inventive positioning of sentences not quite right)
In cold storm light
I watch the sandrock
canyon rim.
The wind is wet
with the smell of pinon.
The wind is cold
With the sound of juniper
And then
out of the thick ice sky
running swiftly
pounding
swirling above the treetops
The snow elk come,
Moving, moving
white song
storm wind in the branches.
And when the elk have passed
behind them
a crystal train of snowflakes
strands of mist
tangled in rocks
and leaves.
Crows in a Strong Wind by Cornelius Eady
Off go the crows from the roof.
The crows can’t hold on.
They might as well
Be perched in an oil slick.
Such an awkward dance,
These gentlemen
In their spotted-black coats.
Such a tipsy dance,
As if they didn’t know where they were.
Such a humorous dance,
As they try to set thing right,
As the wind reduces them.
Such a sorrowful dance.
How embarrassing is love
When it goes wrong
In front of everyone.
4.5*
June 23, 2020
Poetry anthologies are, in general, the bêtes noires of the literary world. Feared and suffered by many, loved and appreciated by few. Oft criticized, rarely praised, they are the staple of survey literature courses, and the bane of students everywhere.
There has yet to be an anthology published that hasn’t been met with condemnation from some critic or other. There’s always too little of what’s good and too much of what’s bad, depending on who’s judging. Editing them is largely a thankless task, and going by some of the critical response to this collection, Rita Dove has certainly been less than thanked for her efforts.
The public discourse around Penguin’s Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry has been shaped, in large part, by noted poetry critic Helen Vendler’s curt, dismissive review in the New York Review of Books, titled, “Are These Poems to Remember?”
When I first perused Dove’s book, I confess to being a bit put off. For all of its lofty promises that it will introduce readers to the “most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years,” there was, as I initially saw it, so much wrong with the collection; so many essential poets missing or underrepresented. So many weak, lackluster poets included. Surely Vendler was correct?
On first full reading, I bristled. I cursed. I said dismissive things about the book. I questioned the literary tastes of editor, Rita Dove, her judgement, her methodology, her results. Then, after taking the time to compare it with rival anthologies covering the same period, and reading it through a second time, I promptly changed my mind.
At 600 pages of poetry by 175 poets, the book is much more a tasting menu than a buffet. It will likely seem to many critics, as it did to Vendler, to be a stunted, flaccid, and perhaps overly broad representation of what is a truly golden age of American poetry.
Still, the reader gets a lot of literary bang for their buck. And that, I think is part of the point of this collection, and an important consideration for any critic.
When evaluating an anthology, it’s tempting to think just in terms of what’s good and what’s bad. Or to ask if we could have chosen better poems than the ones the editor chose. Surely, if cost were no object, many people could do better. But before we pick up Vendler’s cause and pillory Dove for a weak collection, we might do well to consider the three factors that drive every poetry anthology ever made. Those factors are scope, quality, and price. An anthology can be comprehensive, it can be good, or it can be cheap. It can be any two, but never all three at once.
A number of anthologies opt for good and comprehensive, but not cheap. Among the best are: Carry Nelson’s two volume Anthology of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry at over 1600 pages total, and well over one hundred dollars for the two volumes; Norton’s Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volumes 1 & 2 at 2400 pages, and well over one hundred dollars for the two volumes; and Library of America’s two book American Poetry: The Twentieth Century at 2000 pages, and eighty dollars for the 2 volumes, ending at May Swenson, with an entire third volume still to produce. Dana Gioia’s single volume Twentieth Century American Poetry is nearly 1200 pages and also expensive.
And that’s one of the problems. For students, anthologies are generally heavy, cumbersome, and expensive. Penguin, continuing its tradition of offering solid literary value for the money, has opted for good and cheap, if not comprehensive. And handsome. The book is well made and nice to look at.
So what of the poems? It’s true that the anthology’s lack of scope works against its efforts early on. Mainly by short-changing great writers by giving equal time to clearly inferior writers. And there are some glaring omissions, including Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, and Allen Ginsberg, among others. But most of the major modernists are included, and many of their major poems.
Other omissions include Jack Gilbert, Bill Knott, Jean Valentine, Linda Gregg, Alice Notley, Laura Jensen, and Thom Gunn. Most painfully, the collection omits the poetry of Jim Harrison, Raymond Carver and Denis Johnson, three major post-modern American writers and, I would argue, first-rate poets. All three are writers whose prose is best informed by their poetry and poetic impulse. It’s an unfortunate absence.
It is in the poets born after the mid-1950s and writing in the late part of the century where the absence of literary giants is most keenly felt. Where, in this most educated, MFA-infused generation is the Auden, or the Pound, the Stevens, the Bishop, or the Williams? Where is the Allen Ginsberg or John Berryman, the John Ashbery, the James Wright, or the Anne Sexton? There simply isn’t one. Collectively, their poems are, for the most part, utterly anodyne and forgettable. Informed neither by lives fully lived, nor by minds tapping the deepest parts of the poetic imagination. But this is not the fault of Rita Dove, whatever you may think of her choices.
Under Dove’s hand, Penguin has given us a book that will not only speak to professors and students of poetry, but will likely have an even broader audience appeal, partly due to Dove’s notoriety, and partly due to the breadth and accessibility of her selection. Chronicling the poetry of the last century as well as she did, in such a handsome, solidly crafted book at the modest price of twenty-five dollars is practically a public service.
When all is said and done, when all of the factors that make a good anthology are weighed, I think there is a logic and soundness to the book that, even with its myriad flaws, balances literary value and volume with economic value in a way that will serve both teachers and students, and likely appeal to numerous readers. Critical noise aside, if there were an award for Best mid-priced anthology of 20th century American Poetry, Dove’s book would be a surely be a strong contender.
There has yet to be an anthology published that hasn’t been met with condemnation from some critic or other. There’s always too little of what’s good and too much of what’s bad, depending on who’s judging. Editing them is largely a thankless task, and going by some of the critical response to this collection, Rita Dove has certainly been less than thanked for her efforts.
The public discourse around Penguin’s Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry has been shaped, in large part, by noted poetry critic Helen Vendler’s curt, dismissive review in the New York Review of Books, titled, “Are These Poems to Remember?”
When I first perused Dove’s book, I confess to being a bit put off. For all of its lofty promises that it will introduce readers to the “most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years,” there was, as I initially saw it, so much wrong with the collection; so many essential poets missing or underrepresented. So many weak, lackluster poets included. Surely Vendler was correct?
On first full reading, I bristled. I cursed. I said dismissive things about the book. I questioned the literary tastes of editor, Rita Dove, her judgement, her methodology, her results. Then, after taking the time to compare it with rival anthologies covering the same period, and reading it through a second time, I promptly changed my mind.
At 600 pages of poetry by 175 poets, the book is much more a tasting menu than a buffet. It will likely seem to many critics, as it did to Vendler, to be a stunted, flaccid, and perhaps overly broad representation of what is a truly golden age of American poetry.
Still, the reader gets a lot of literary bang for their buck. And that, I think is part of the point of this collection, and an important consideration for any critic.
When evaluating an anthology, it’s tempting to think just in terms of what’s good and what’s bad. Or to ask if we could have chosen better poems than the ones the editor chose. Surely, if cost were no object, many people could do better. But before we pick up Vendler’s cause and pillory Dove for a weak collection, we might do well to consider the three factors that drive every poetry anthology ever made. Those factors are scope, quality, and price. An anthology can be comprehensive, it can be good, or it can be cheap. It can be any two, but never all three at once.
A number of anthologies opt for good and comprehensive, but not cheap. Among the best are: Carry Nelson’s two volume Anthology of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry at over 1600 pages total, and well over one hundred dollars for the two volumes; Norton’s Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volumes 1 & 2 at 2400 pages, and well over one hundred dollars for the two volumes; and Library of America’s two book American Poetry: The Twentieth Century at 2000 pages, and eighty dollars for the 2 volumes, ending at May Swenson, with an entire third volume still to produce. Dana Gioia’s single volume Twentieth Century American Poetry is nearly 1200 pages and also expensive.
And that’s one of the problems. For students, anthologies are generally heavy, cumbersome, and expensive. Penguin, continuing its tradition of offering solid literary value for the money, has opted for good and cheap, if not comprehensive. And handsome. The book is well made and nice to look at.
So what of the poems? It’s true that the anthology’s lack of scope works against its efforts early on. Mainly by short-changing great writers by giving equal time to clearly inferior writers. And there are some glaring omissions, including Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, and Allen Ginsberg, among others. But most of the major modernists are included, and many of their major poems.
Other omissions include Jack Gilbert, Bill Knott, Jean Valentine, Linda Gregg, Alice Notley, Laura Jensen, and Thom Gunn. Most painfully, the collection omits the poetry of Jim Harrison, Raymond Carver and Denis Johnson, three major post-modern American writers and, I would argue, first-rate poets. All three are writers whose prose is best informed by their poetry and poetic impulse. It’s an unfortunate absence.
It is in the poets born after the mid-1950s and writing in the late part of the century where the absence of literary giants is most keenly felt. Where, in this most educated, MFA-infused generation is the Auden, or the Pound, the Stevens, the Bishop, or the Williams? Where is the Allen Ginsberg or John Berryman, the John Ashbery, the James Wright, or the Anne Sexton? There simply isn’t one. Collectively, their poems are, for the most part, utterly anodyne and forgettable. Informed neither by lives fully lived, nor by minds tapping the deepest parts of the poetic imagination. But this is not the fault of Rita Dove, whatever you may think of her choices.
Under Dove’s hand, Penguin has given us a book that will not only speak to professors and students of poetry, but will likely have an even broader audience appeal, partly due to Dove’s notoriety, and partly due to the breadth and accessibility of her selection. Chronicling the poetry of the last century as well as she did, in such a handsome, solidly crafted book at the modest price of twenty-five dollars is practically a public service.
When all is said and done, when all of the factors that make a good anthology are weighed, I think there is a logic and soundness to the book that, even with its myriad flaws, balances literary value and volume with economic value in a way that will serve both teachers and students, and likely appeal to numerous readers. Critical noise aside, if there were an award for Best mid-priced anthology of 20th century American Poetry, Dove’s book would be a surely be a strong contender.
July 24, 2013
This is a beautiful book. I heard Dove interviewed by Bill Moyers, and immediately bought the book. I have been ending the day at school reading a poem twice. Not talking about it, as Dove requested, just reading it. The poems selected in the volume have a range and depth to them. Dove's notes on each author are helpful insights to the poems.
I also have to comment on the physical beauty of the book. When I got it I walked it around my classroom and let the students feel each page, and feel the cover. This is what books used to feel like all the time, I told my class. Lucky for me, I have a class of readers, and they were all suitably impressed.
I also have to comment on the physical beauty of the book. When I got it I walked it around my classroom and let the students feel each page, and feel the cover. This is what books used to feel like all the time, I told my class. Lucky for me, I have a class of readers, and they were all suitably impressed.
January 2, 2023
If this was a perfect world, everyone would have this book on the bookshelf in one's family room. And an extra copy for every bedside table.
Alas, this is not a perfect world and even if I beg you, even if I plead with you to make this purchase for your home, some will scoff and snort. "Poetry! Bah. Humbug."
If you are not one of those people, the poetry nay-sayers, the people that make this a sadder world, trust me on this: This is the best poetry collection that exists on this planet.
Second Read:
All
the
best
poetry
of
the
last
century.
Alas, this is not a perfect world and even if I beg you, even if I plead with you to make this purchase for your home, some will scoff and snort. "Poetry! Bah. Humbug."
If you are not one of those people, the poetry nay-sayers, the people that make this a sadder world, trust me on this: This is the best poetry collection that exists on this planet.
Second Read:
All
the
best
poetry
of
the
last
century.
August 23, 2023
This took me like two years to read, primarily because it was hard to read more than twenty or thirty pages without getting vexed at the dismal quality of poetry included and having to put it down for a couple weeks (or months). It tells an interesting story of american poetry, emerging from the 19th century epoch of trivial rhymstery and exploding into the famous modernists, of which we can see that Moore and Bishop, Cummings and Stevens were the ones who made an impact on the domestic poesie scene (and not those that went over to salmon around in Europe). It seems to me a series of epochs followed, perhaps each worse than the last (not dissimilar to how Thomas Peacocke surmised verse up to the start of the 19th century): first the experimental poets of the 50s, Ashbery and Olson and all that gang; then a series of sensitive mediations on charged symbols, mostly from political philosophy; and finally a dull epoch of memoirs transposed into poetry. What stands out to me is the abundance of these charged symbolists, who seem to me to exemplify Deleuze and Guattari's criticism of semiotics -- there's not particularly much of 'interpretosis', as they call it, there is definitely no shortage of what they call the other great mental illness, 'signifiance': so many poems that take an Ashberyian or Moore-esque tone and then mediate on some symbol, the holy relation between women or the pastoral beauty of the American south or west, endless tales of terse modern romances out of a 1957 issue of the New Yorker. My vagueness might make you think that I'm trying to veiledly criticize black poetry, although that genre is probably the most successful of any included here, committing most vividly to details and undertaking the actual work of expanding language and meaning ... although I would be lying if I said I didn't get tired very quickly of the many poems about eating tortillas or rice with negligible details beyond the inclusion of some foreign words to 'speak their truth'. What irks me much more is the academic style of poetry, dull petit-bourgeois ramblings about memories of walking around in a city or going for a drive or arguing with their wife or looking at nature they don't seem to know how to describe; this, out of the mouths of people reared on a decade or three of postmodern philosophy, and incidentally affirming what I've always suspected about the fallout of Foucault, Deleuze and Derrida: not that people would take their philosophy and embrace nihilism, but rather that people would abhorrently misunderstand it and begin defiantly babbling out their mundanest thoughts under the illusory blessing of 'discourse' and 'haecceity'.
This book did, to its credit, turn me onto the excellent Charles Simic, who, as it turned out, died fewer than 30 miles from me on the very day prior to my reading his poems included here. Rest in peace!
This book did, to its credit, turn me onto the excellent Charles Simic, who, as it turned out, died fewer than 30 miles from me on the very day prior to my reading his poems included here. Rest in peace!
May 6, 2012
My only complaint with this anthology is that I wish it included more bio information on each poet and a bit about their style and what makes their poetry important.
November 19, 2016
Very good read for poetry lovers. Nice collection, actually even if you are not the typical poetry lover, there is even one or two poems there for you. I loved "You can have it", "Poem about my Rights", "Populist Manifesto", to name a few.
May 20, 2017
Beautiful anthology. Dove's poems were some of my favorites. So many new discoveries.
March 28, 2024
A wonderful overview of modern poets and poetry. Favs include Clifton, to my last period. Pound, in the station of the metro ( a long time fav) Kunitz, The portrait.
June 12, 2024
Never thought I would love an anthology but here I am!!!! An amazing collection of poets spanning the 20th century, enough to get a good glimpse of what people wrote about thematically and stylistically throughout time, makes me PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 also has a great variety of poets’ genders, races, and sexualities which is something I did look out for specifically. GOD BLESS AMERICAAAAA USA USA USA!!!!!
January 7, 2022
This is a great Anthology for American Poetry! I just wished that there are footnotes that provide details for the poems included in this anthology. I think some may feel a bit torn with the lineup of poets and poems in this anthology but it's also great to discover other American poets from the twentieth-century that I haven't read back when I was in college.
December 31, 2025
Not giving this a star rating because one, I haven't read at least most of the poets featured in this collection, and two, I'm not sure what I'd rate this. I do appreciate the diversity of poets showcased here. I like how Rita Dove, more often than not, chose poets outside of the white male literary canon. There were quite a few new names for me in this collection, including but not limited to Amy Lowell, Sonia Sanchez, and Etheridge Knight.
I just wish that some of the poets had more of their poems included. This collection felt like it had more breadth than depth. Like Audre Lorde? Please, please, give me more of her. However, I understand that this is probably due to the hassles that come with getting the copyright to feature poems in anthologies like this.
I just wish that some of the poets had more of their poems included. This collection felt like it had more breadth than depth. Like Audre Lorde? Please, please, give me more of her. However, I understand that this is probably due to the hassles that come with getting the copyright to feature poems in anthologies like this.
November 29, 2012
My caveat is that 20th century American poetry is neither my forte nor my favorite.
However, I enjoyed this very much. Dove obviously spent a lot of time working to select the most appropriate pieces for the anthology. And although one might quibble with some of the choices, she did a good job of covering a lot of ground.
However, I enjoyed this very much. Dove obviously spent a lot of time working to select the most appropriate pieces for the anthology. And although one might quibble with some of the choices, she did a good job of covering a lot of ground.
April 17, 2025
Rita Dove has taken a broad approach to this anthology, published in 2011. Although she doesn't shy away from including multiple poems per poet or even including some long poems, her goal was clearly to make sure there was representation from the beginning of the century to the end and across the varied tapestry of the American cultural landscape. At the end of her 52pg introduction, she talks frankly about the financial challenges of putting the anthology together and how those challenges resulted in some key people (she names Plath and Ginsberg) being left out. However, she also included many poets that often get short shrift when it comes to these sorts of anthologies, such as Muriel Rukeyser and Russell Edson.
The anthology starts with people who wrote into the 20th Century but were born in the latter half of the 19th, so the span across 570 pages stretches from Edgar Lee Masters to Terrance Hayes. The introductions to the poets are spare, providing birthplaces, colleges attended and taught at, a list of books, book prizes and other hallmarks of importance, and then where the poet lives or died (and the cause of death in many cases).
This anthology strikes me as a good first volume for someone who was only exposed to earlier poetry in high school and is wondering what happened during the 20th Century. It's surprising how many people aren't aware of all of the poetry published in the US over that 100 year stretch. It really deserves two full volumes to cover it. Considering the impossible task Rita Dove was asked to finesse, she did an excellent job of providing us with a worthwhile, inclusive anthology of 20th Century poetry.
The anthology starts with people who wrote into the 20th Century but were born in the latter half of the 19th, so the span across 570 pages stretches from Edgar Lee Masters to Terrance Hayes. The introductions to the poets are spare, providing birthplaces, colleges attended and taught at, a list of books, book prizes and other hallmarks of importance, and then where the poet lives or died (and the cause of death in many cases).
This anthology strikes me as a good first volume for someone who was only exposed to earlier poetry in high school and is wondering what happened during the 20th Century. It's surprising how many people aren't aware of all of the poetry published in the US over that 100 year stretch. It really deserves two full volumes to cover it. Considering the impossible task Rita Dove was asked to finesse, she did an excellent job of providing us with a worthwhile, inclusive anthology of 20th Century poetry.
December 26, 2020
Overall, by the end this anthology provided exactly what I had hoped for when I bought it — a list of other poets I should read. I enjoyed the romp through some familiar names and many unfamiliar ones. In particular, I am grateful for discovering Larry Levis from this book!
There were some long stretches of boredom, though, waiting for the next poet to really catch you. As one could expect, there are plenty of poems in here that are going to fall flat for you and not be in your favored style.
I hungered for a little bit more biographical and style detail in the intro for each post, and a sense of what concerns this particular poet dealt with in their work and life. Particularly for the poets whose work I didn’t care for, without the contextualization upfront I was left feeling puzzled by what was so special about them.
As we got closer to the present, the omission of some of the bigger names of contemporary poetry was a bit jarring (Louise Glück, Billy Collins, etc), even though Dove had mentioned at the beginning that getting permissions (and paying for them with a limited budget) became onerous. It did contribute to the feeling of the first half being far stronger than the second, though.
Overall, an imperfect anthology (as all anthologies end up being!) but one that helped me discover voices I hadn’t heard and add to my “to read” list. Grateful to have all of these in one place to return to again.
There were some long stretches of boredom, though, waiting for the next poet to really catch you. As one could expect, there are plenty of poems in here that are going to fall flat for you and not be in your favored style.
I hungered for a little bit more biographical and style detail in the intro for each post, and a sense of what concerns this particular poet dealt with in their work and life. Particularly for the poets whose work I didn’t care for, without the contextualization upfront I was left feeling puzzled by what was so special about them.
As we got closer to the present, the omission of some of the bigger names of contemporary poetry was a bit jarring (Louise Glück, Billy Collins, etc), even though Dove had mentioned at the beginning that getting permissions (and paying for them with a limited budget) became onerous. It did contribute to the feeling of the first half being far stronger than the second, though.
Overall, an imperfect anthology (as all anthologies end up being!) but one that helped me discover voices I hadn’t heard and add to my “to read” list. Grateful to have all of these in one place to return to again.
February 19, 2022
An excellent anthology of American poetry of the 20th century. Rita Dove has pulled together old and new and brought forth a diverse collection of American voices.
I'm comparing this to two other American collections that I read which were both released in the first half of the 20th century--A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (1944) edited by Conrad Aiken and The New Pocket Anthology of Amerian Verse edited by Oscar Williams (1955). Those were books of their time. While both focused on all centuries of American poetry--many voices were missing and the voices that were left were white, mainly male, and frankly represented our pull from European and British shores. I still liked those books--and when you hit Whitman --wow, America starts to shine.
This book rectifies the missing by presenting the beauty of the true America which is made up of many voices with different experiences. This is a wonderful anthology. I could turn to random pages 1,000 times and still find beauty and something new. So many names in this anthology to read more of and learn about. All kinds of experiences contained-- African, Asian, Latino, and Indigenous voices, male, female, and LGBTQ. This is the America I love.
I'm comparing this to two other American collections that I read which were both released in the first half of the 20th century--A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (1944) edited by Conrad Aiken and The New Pocket Anthology of Amerian Verse edited by Oscar Williams (1955). Those were books of their time. While both focused on all centuries of American poetry--many voices were missing and the voices that were left were white, mainly male, and frankly represented our pull from European and British shores. I still liked those books--and when you hit Whitman --wow, America starts to shine.
This book rectifies the missing by presenting the beauty of the true America which is made up of many voices with different experiences. This is a wonderful anthology. I could turn to random pages 1,000 times and still find beauty and something new. So many names in this anthology to read more of and learn about. All kinds of experiences contained-- African, Asian, Latino, and Indigenous voices, male, female, and LGBTQ. This is the America I love.
June 8, 2019
Do I like anthologies so much because I'm still nostalgic about school?
This had all the old hits, plus many new surprises. And spates of boredom, sure.
I liked Rita Dove's introduction. But I found the introductory paragraph about each poet unreadable. It says where they were born, where they went to school, what books they've published, what awards they've won, and where they died. These are the least interesting facts about poets. I felt lost regarding the work's relevance and it's connection to other pieces and larger literary movements. There wasn't even a date attached to the poems, so for poets with long careers you had no idea if something was written in the 50s or the 90s.
Also, in what is probably an unpopular opinion, I wanted footnotes to explain obscure literary and historical references.
This had all the old hits, plus many new surprises. And spates of boredom, sure.
I liked Rita Dove's introduction. But I found the introductory paragraph about each poet unreadable. It says where they were born, where they went to school, what books they've published, what awards they've won, and where they died. These are the least interesting facts about poets. I felt lost regarding the work's relevance and it's connection to other pieces and larger literary movements. There wasn't even a date attached to the poems, so for poets with long careers you had no idea if something was written in the 50s or the 90s.
Also, in what is probably an unpopular opinion, I wanted footnotes to explain obscure literary and historical references.
February 17, 2025
I didn't read this anthology front to back; rather, each day I'd flip to a couple of poems by a poet I'm interested in and tried to fully absorb what was being said on the page. Kept a little journal to jot down thoughts (which I plan on keeping with me for any other book I read0.
Poetry was always quite elusive to me; I never fully grasped what it was saying, and while the natural descriptions left me stunned, I never could connect the individual stanzas to a larger theme. However, the journal helped open my mind again and I truly plan on coming back to this beautiful collection to fully digest what is being said.
Poetry was always quite elusive to me; I never fully grasped what it was saying, and while the natural descriptions left me stunned, I never could connect the individual stanzas to a larger theme. However, the journal helped open my mind again and I truly plan on coming back to this beautiful collection to fully digest what is being said.
August 26, 2020
I wish there had been more introduction at the beginning of each poet's entries. The introduction at the beginning of the anthology was a bit slap-dash and in some places, even with my limited knowledge, not quite right. Disappointing that Plath wasn't included, though it was done for budgetary purposes. Pretty surprising how biting Dove comes across as in condemning the rights holders. "Alas, the legacy of the dead can still be enslaved by the living." Wow.
Still, it's wonderful to be able to read through the progression of American poetry so easily.
Still, it's wonderful to be able to read through the progression of American poetry so easily.
November 15, 2025
Some of the most flawless poems ever written. So many greats here from W.S. Merwin, to Robert Frost, to T.S. Elliot and more. These poems are sometimes silly, sometimes serious, sometimes extremely Vulgar, sometimes perfectly clean, but what unites them all is how profound and incredible they are. The twentieth century was a time in poetry where thinks simultaneously became more avant garde but also more simple, and this reflects it perfectly. An essential book for any reader, most likely the greatest collection of poetry ever conceived.
July 31, 2024
The two stars do not rate all the poems included in this anthology (although I have to say that most poems after the modern period are hit or miss, mostly miss for me) but for the work of the editor, Rita Dove. With volumes like this, I want to have some form of commentary on the poems that have been selected. What you get here is a general introduction about American poetry of the 20th century and then hundreds of poems without any interesting or enlightening context.
September 30, 2019
A fantastic collection of poetry by some of America's greatest poets. This is a well-thought collection that pushes beyond the obvious and often challenges the reader with poems that are complex, troubling, enlightening, and sometimes difficult to read. If you love poetry, this is an indispensable collection to own. If you write poetry, this is sure to inspire you. Highly recommended.
August 15, 2022
It took me over a year, but I read this whole thing. I skimmed some of the longer poems and poets I didn't care for, but this anthology shows an incredible amount of breadth. I especially admire that Rita Dove included some lesser-known BIPOC poets. There are notable names missing (such as Louise Gluck), but I imagine that has more to do with copyright issues than an oversight.
January 22, 2025
A large collection such as this, that spans a century is expected to be a mixed bag, and it is. There are stunners, bores, deep thinkers, lovers, fighters, and so on.
The practice of reading a poem (or three) with the first cup of coffee every morning brought the unexpected benefit of easing me into the day - much better than brain scrolling a to-do list.
The practice of reading a poem (or three) with the first cup of coffee every morning brought the unexpected benefit of easing me into the day - much better than brain scrolling a to-do list.
February 4, 2018
The cover in the picture is not the cover of my book. What a beautiful book! Well done all around. The selection is good, the spacing on the page is just right, and the book feels right in the hand too. It's so good a friend of mine pinched it!
September 26, 2019
We have been reading from this for class. A lot of the ones my professor has selected are good, but I have enjoyed exploring the book as a whole. It covers a wide range of topics and styles which was really cool to see.
December 13, 2020
Not a bad anthology at all. Good for people trying to get a taste of 20th century poetry. I did feel like there were some authors that were left out. I don't know if they were intentionally left out or if it was a copyright thing but still it was a good collection.
September 20, 2021
Dove has gathered an eclectic collection of the 20th Century’s “best” poems, from Edgar Lee Masters to Terrance Hayes. Unfortunately, the short introductions are perfunctory, omitting the most interesting aspects of each poet.
June 3, 2024
a beautiful and careful 600 page collection of the most significant, mainstream, popular, and less well-known of america’s most glorious poems and poets. the cover of mine is not the same as what is on Goodreads, mine is cooler and is one of my favorite covers on my bookshelf :)
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September 23, 2025Not my favorite collection, but I liked how the authors were compiled by birth year. You could see the current issues of their years often when they were about 20 or 30 years old in their writing. War veterans of several times, civil rights activists, and more.
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