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Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays
A fearless, wide-ranging book on the state of poetry and American literary culture by Tony Hoagland, the author of What Narcissism Means to Me
Live American poetry is absent from our public schools. The teaching of poetry languishes, and that region of youthful neurological terrain capable of being ignited only by poetry is largely dark, unpopulated, and silent, like a classroom whose shades are drawn. This is more than a shame, for poetry is our common treasure-house, and we need its vitality, its respect for the subconscious, its willingness to entertain ambiguity, its plaintive truth-telling, and its imaginative exhibitions of linguistic freedom, which confront the general culture's more grotesque manipulations. We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through. We need its previews of coming heartbreak, survival, failure, endurance, understanding, more heartbreak.
―from "Twenty Poems That Could Save America" Twenty Poems That Could Save America presents insightful essays on the craft of poetry and a bold conversation about the role of poetry in contemporary culture. Essays on the "vertigo" effects of new poetry give way to appraisals of Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, and Dean Young. At the heart of this book is an honesty and curiosity about the ways poetry can influence America at both the private and public levels. Tony Hoagland is already one of this country's most provocative poets, and this book confirms his role as a restless and perceptive literary and cultural critic.
Live American poetry is absent from our public schools. The teaching of poetry languishes, and that region of youthful neurological terrain capable of being ignited only by poetry is largely dark, unpopulated, and silent, like a classroom whose shades are drawn. This is more than a shame, for poetry is our common treasure-house, and we need its vitality, its respect for the subconscious, its willingness to entertain ambiguity, its plaintive truth-telling, and its imaginative exhibitions of linguistic freedom, which confront the general culture's more grotesque manipulations. We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through. We need its previews of coming heartbreak, survival, failure, endurance, understanding, more heartbreak.
―from "Twenty Poems That Could Save America" Twenty Poems That Could Save America presents insightful essays on the craft of poetry and a bold conversation about the role of poetry in contemporary culture. Essays on the "vertigo" effects of new poetry give way to appraisals of Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, and Dean Young. At the heart of this book is an honesty and curiosity about the ways poetry can influence America at both the private and public levels. Tony Hoagland is already one of this country's most provocative poets, and this book confirms his role as a restless and perceptive literary and cultural critic.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 4, 2014
31 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
Tony Hoagland
48 books191 followersTony Hoagland was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He earned a BA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of Arizona.
Hoagland was the author of the poetry collections Sweet Ruin (1992), which was chosen for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and won the Zacharis Award from Emerson College; Donkey Gospel (1998), winner of the James Laughlin Award; What Narcissism Means to Me (2003), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Rain (2005); Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (2010); Application for Release from the Dream (2015); Recent Changes in the Vernacular (2017); and Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God (2018).
He has also published two collections of essays about poetry: Real Sofistakashun (2006) and Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays (2014). Hoagland’s poetry is known for its acerbic, witty take on contemporary life and “straight talk,” in the words of New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner: “At his frequent best … Hoagland is demonically in touch with the American demotic.”
Hoagland’s many honors and awards included fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. He received the O.B. Hardison Prize for Poetry and Teaching from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Award, and the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. Hoagland taught at the University of Houston and in the Warren Wilson MFA program. He died in October 2018..
Hoagland was the author of the poetry collections Sweet Ruin (1992), which was chosen for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and won the Zacharis Award from Emerson College; Donkey Gospel (1998), winner of the James Laughlin Award; What Narcissism Means to Me (2003), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Rain (2005); Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (2010); Application for Release from the Dream (2015); Recent Changes in the Vernacular (2017); and Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God (2018).
He has also published two collections of essays about poetry: Real Sofistakashun (2006) and Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays (2014). Hoagland’s poetry is known for its acerbic, witty take on contemporary life and “straight talk,” in the words of New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner: “At his frequent best … Hoagland is demonically in touch with the American demotic.”
Hoagland’s many honors and awards included fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. He received the O.B. Hardison Prize for Poetry and Teaching from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Award, and the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. Hoagland taught at the University of Houston and in the Warren Wilson MFA program. He died in October 2018..
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 17, 2015
I read this in 24 hours. I ignored people important to me and nothing practical got done. It's the second book about poetic craft I read this week by Hoagland. The first was Real Sofistikashun which was also fabulous. If I had to differentiate between the two, I'd say that the RS provided a touch more practical advice on poetic choice making and aesthetics. This book also does plenty of that , but it focuses more on discussing those choices through the study of some fantastic individual poets. The chapters on Robert Bly and Dean Young alone are worth buying this book for. I am incredibly thankful for Hoagland's wealth of poetic knowledge, but even more so for his repeated (in both books) and courageous contention that American poetry needs BOTH the poets and poetics of fragmentation and chaos and the poets and poetics of the rage for order and balance. He clearly understands the variety of techniques "difficult" poets use to make their poems quite obscure and sometimes impenetrable. Hoagland has respect for these poets and for many of the poems--which happen to be the fashion of the day. But he's not cowed by the sometimes dismissive intellectualism of this poetics and offers elegant and compelling alternatives (the chapter about Marie Howe for instance) throughout.
June 7, 2018
Hoagland's poetic writing is highly mixed: he is full of close readings and sound poetic advice, but he is also given to off-hand generalization and under-defining poetic movements to which he disproves. His writing here does remain largely for the already initiated despite fairly populist branding. The first few essays are primarily on aesthetic choices. His points on idiomatic language are hardly new, but his examples of how can they are often used The essays on Marie Howe, Dean Young, and Robert Bly are excellent, offering up a positive vision of aesthetics and alternatives to high intellectualism in poetic trends, but he often is too dismissive of the origins of some of those trends. He also is given to jargon that he does not define: the way he uses post-modernism is unclear. His dismissals of a lot of avant garde's historical baggage doesn't define what that historical baggage is, etc. Yet, his wrestling with the nuances of language and metaphor are strong, his call for sounder pedagogy around poetics hits home. His reminder that “Even a small poem is as complex as a swiss clock, full of pendulums and cogs" is both obvious and yet often forgotten. While one could quarrel with 20 poems he includes in his summary essay, but his readings of them and advocacy for each are strong. I would use essays in this collection even with high school students approaching poetry despite having some major hesitations about some of Hoagland's claims.
September 15, 2022
Hoagland’s zeal for poetry is intoxicating. Reading this was a promenade down an avenue of a lively town, gazing at some of America’s most phonetically dazzling, austerely pensive, fractured, clean, politically-charged, naturalist, faddist, and timeless poems that could help to inflame our culture with meaning and verve. Hoagland is a seamless writer and I appreciate his astute, but not overly-pedantic synopses and essays. I’m a poetry super novice, but it was nice to hear some name-drops of poets I’ve read before like CK Williams and Dean Young. I walked away with many more recommendations and an invigorated impetus to dig further into my poetic consumption, perception, and appreciation.
October 19, 2017
Recommended if you like his poetry.
Recommended if you think you don't like poetry.
Hilarious and eye-opening, Tony entertains as he teaches you to read in new ways.
I was inspired to write this review like a poem, sorry.
Easy 5 stars.
Recommended if you think you don't like poetry.
Hilarious and eye-opening, Tony entertains as he teaches you to read in new ways.
I was inspired to write this review like a poem, sorry.
Easy 5 stars.
November 3, 2016
Tony, Tony Tony...
I loved this book. I did.
Even though he has frequent
epileptic-like fits of jargonalia
and academic-ish B.S. that drive
even a PhD completely over the edge,
I still loved this book.
Besides, the final essay,
"Twenty Poems That Could Save America"
is worth the price of the entire book. I read that one
four or five or more times...
It was that good.
I loved this book. I did.
Even though he has frequent
epileptic-like fits of jargonalia
and academic-ish B.S. that drive
even a PhD completely over the edge,
I still loved this book.
Besides, the final essay,
"Twenty Poems That Could Save America"
is worth the price of the entire book. I read that one
four or five or more times...
It was that good.
Read
May 30, 2025DNF. I wanted more poem, less essay.
November 14, 2016
Tony Hoagland, Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays
Oh Tony, how I loved reading this book! This is Hoaglands second collection of essays. I read the first, Real Sofistikashun, and don’t remember being so bowled over, but perhaps I’ll read it again. At a different time of life, the same book seem a different book entirely.
The first few essays in Twenty Poems That Could Save America (even their titles excite me) concern diction, idiom (he’s all for common speech — think William Stafford, Billy Collins) — the shape and structure of poems, and their effects.
— Je Suis ein Americano: The Genius of American Diction
— Idiom, Our Funny Valentine
— Litany, Game, and Representation: Charting the Course from the Old to the New Poetry
— Poetic Housing: Shifting Parts and Changing Wholes
— Facts and Feelings: Information, Layering, and the Composite Poem
— Vertigo, Recognition, and Passionate Worldliness
These chapters are followed by several on specific poets, such as Dean Young; Frank O’Hara et al., Sharon Olds; Marie Howe, Jane Hirshfield, and Linda Gregg; and Bly. I was less interested in the chapters on specific poets. I liked best the one on Sharon Olds and least the one on Bly.
But the last, the title essay (which originally appeared in Harper’s online), about contemporary poetry and its potential (rightful?) place in American contemporary life, is the best and brightest. I wanted to underline everything. I have already reread more than once. Hoagland has strong opinions about the importance of language and poetry, how language has been co-opted and corrupted by business, politics, the media, and how its modern uses have made us distrustful — of language! It’s true.
I know that poets and critics are always going on about whether or not poetry is relevant to contemporary life and about how maligned poetry is. People I know don’t so much say they dislike it as that they don’t understand it. And, indeed, Hoagland maintains that many people think that poetry belongs to high culture and that they’re not clever enough to understand it or else that poetry just has nothing to say to them, nothing practical to say about the world.
As a remedy, Hoagland argues for an overhaul of the way poetry is taught in school, as well as a big change in the specific poems taught, so that poetry can be seen as contemporary and vital and full of meaning for ourselves, our country, the world. He believes that poetry can elevate our level of discourse, enrich us and our culture. He offers 20 poems that he believes have a lot to say to the citizens of contemporary America — not the only 20 such poems out there, but a selection. And they are wonderful. They reward many rereadings and endless musing.
Overall, a wonderful and passionate book about both the practice of poetry and the ways in which it can enrich our lives — "...for poetry is our common treasure house, and we need its aliveness, its respect for the subconscious, its willingness to entertain ambiguity; we need its plaintive truth telling about the human condition and its imaginative exhibitions of linguistic freedom, which confront the general culture's more grotesque manipulations. We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through. We need its previews of coming attractions: heartbreak, survival, failure, endurance, understanding, more heartbreak."
Aslide: I was perplexed by the inclusion in Hoagland’s 20 of Whitman’s “I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” It’s a poem I’ve always disliked, but then I’m strongly opposed to championing anti-intellectualism. There’s a place for gazing at the stars, sure, but there’s also a place for learning. And how much more astounding the heavens, how much greater our wonder, when our gazing is informed by science!
Oh Tony, how I loved reading this book! This is Hoaglands second collection of essays. I read the first, Real Sofistikashun, and don’t remember being so bowled over, but perhaps I’ll read it again. At a different time of life, the same book seem a different book entirely.
The first few essays in Twenty Poems That Could Save America (even their titles excite me) concern diction, idiom (he’s all for common speech — think William Stafford, Billy Collins) — the shape and structure of poems, and their effects.
— Je Suis ein Americano: The Genius of American Diction
— Idiom, Our Funny Valentine
— Litany, Game, and Representation: Charting the Course from the Old to the New Poetry
— Poetic Housing: Shifting Parts and Changing Wholes
— Facts and Feelings: Information, Layering, and the Composite Poem
— Vertigo, Recognition, and Passionate Worldliness
These chapters are followed by several on specific poets, such as Dean Young; Frank O’Hara et al., Sharon Olds; Marie Howe, Jane Hirshfield, and Linda Gregg; and Bly. I was less interested in the chapters on specific poets. I liked best the one on Sharon Olds and least the one on Bly.
But the last, the title essay (which originally appeared in Harper’s online), about contemporary poetry and its potential (rightful?) place in American contemporary life, is the best and brightest. I wanted to underline everything. I have already reread more than once. Hoagland has strong opinions about the importance of language and poetry, how language has been co-opted and corrupted by business, politics, the media, and how its modern uses have made us distrustful — of language! It’s true.
I know that poets and critics are always going on about whether or not poetry is relevant to contemporary life and about how maligned poetry is. People I know don’t so much say they dislike it as that they don’t understand it. And, indeed, Hoagland maintains that many people think that poetry belongs to high culture and that they’re not clever enough to understand it or else that poetry just has nothing to say to them, nothing practical to say about the world.
As a remedy, Hoagland argues for an overhaul of the way poetry is taught in school, as well as a big change in the specific poems taught, so that poetry can be seen as contemporary and vital and full of meaning for ourselves, our country, the world. He believes that poetry can elevate our level of discourse, enrich us and our culture. He offers 20 poems that he believes have a lot to say to the citizens of contemporary America — not the only 20 such poems out there, but a selection. And they are wonderful. They reward many rereadings and endless musing.
Overall, a wonderful and passionate book about both the practice of poetry and the ways in which it can enrich our lives — "...for poetry is our common treasure house, and we need its aliveness, its respect for the subconscious, its willingness to entertain ambiguity; we need its plaintive truth telling about the human condition and its imaginative exhibitions of linguistic freedom, which confront the general culture's more grotesque manipulations. We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through. We need its previews of coming attractions: heartbreak, survival, failure, endurance, understanding, more heartbreak."
Aslide: I was perplexed by the inclusion in Hoagland’s 20 of Whitman’s “I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” It’s a poem I’ve always disliked, but then I’m strongly opposed to championing anti-intellectualism. There’s a place for gazing at the stars, sure, but there’s also a place for learning. And how much more astounding the heavens, how much greater our wonder, when our gazing is informed by science!
Read
May 8, 2016Tony Hoagland writes a dozen essays here, sharing his ample opinions, knowledge, and advice on the contemporary poetry scene. He opens with "Je Suis win Americano The Genius of American Diction" and shows us how word choice plays such an important role in poetry. It's only reasonable that this be followed by "Idiom, Our Funny Valentine," in which he shows the role of everyday idioms in not-so-everyday poems. Some poets pull it off with flair.
"Litany, Game, and Representation: Charting the Course from the Old to the New Poetry" examines the ancient but always new power of the list poem. A lot of these poems can be done well but, in the wrong hands, can look like a grocery list or something. That'd be my litany poem. Perhaps my favorite was his essay on composite poems. These poems often read like modern art, which people just love to disdain Hoagland finds kindness in his heart for some of them, and explains why.
After a series of essays on the craft of poetry, Hoagland devotes some words to various poets themselves: Dean Young (never heard his name til reading this), the New York School Poets (Frank O'Hara and followers), Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, and Robert Bly (the "Village Troublemaker," as TH calls him). Sure, many, many others are mentioned and quoted -- some poems partially and some in whole -- along the way, and sure, you learn something, but, as is true with all essay collections, you're going to like some better than others.
The final essay is the title effort, and the 20 choices sure looked random to me. I think he could have easily come up with another twenty, I mean. It's more his point about teaching and poetry. It's a disaster. Too many teachers do not bring it into their classrooms. Hoagland's mission is to change that. He even started an effort with that in mind, calling it Five Powers Poetry. So I look it up and what do I find? I find a seminar for teachers with Tony presiding right up the road in Acton. Too bad it happened in November.
A day late.
A dollar short.
Once upon a time
that was someone's idea
of a poem.
"Litany, Game, and Representation: Charting the Course from the Old to the New Poetry" examines the ancient but always new power of the list poem. A lot of these poems can be done well but, in the wrong hands, can look like a grocery list or something. That'd be my litany poem. Perhaps my favorite was his essay on composite poems. These poems often read like modern art, which people just love to disdain Hoagland finds kindness in his heart for some of them, and explains why.
After a series of essays on the craft of poetry, Hoagland devotes some words to various poets themselves: Dean Young (never heard his name til reading this), the New York School Poets (Frank O'Hara and followers), Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, and Robert Bly (the "Village Troublemaker," as TH calls him). Sure, many, many others are mentioned and quoted -- some poems partially and some in whole -- along the way, and sure, you learn something, but, as is true with all essay collections, you're going to like some better than others.
The final essay is the title effort, and the 20 choices sure looked random to me. I think he could have easily come up with another twenty, I mean. It's more his point about teaching and poetry. It's a disaster. Too many teachers do not bring it into their classrooms. Hoagland's mission is to change that. He even started an effort with that in mind, calling it Five Powers Poetry. So I look it up and what do I find? I find a seminar for teachers with Tony presiding right up the road in Acton. Too bad it happened in November.
A day late.
A dollar short.
Once upon a time
that was someone's idea
of a poem.
February 11, 2021
I love good essays, and I love Tony Hoagland, uh, literarily that is. I read real sofistikashun: essays on poetry and craft by Tony Hoagland a little over two years ago and loved it. As soon as I knew this one was out, I ordered it, and promised myself I would only read one essay a night. I mostly succeeded.
I feel like I’ve had college-level classes on how to write poetry not just from a good teacher, but from a man who loved poetry and wanted to share his love with the world. My perception is he wanted everyone to enjoy poetry as much as he did. Out of the twelve essays, there were one or maybe two I didn’t care for all that much, a couple I loved, and the rest were merely wonderful. His enthusiasm for the craft comes through the printed word.
The last, and title essay had me laughing out loud in places. He was lamenting that poetry never got a really good foothold in the US schools, and will present 20 poems to take the place of some of the old standbys, but this sentence grabbed me. “Let us blame instead the stuffed shirts who took an hour to explain that poem in their classrooms, who chose it because it would NEED an explainer; pretentious ponderous ponderosas of professional professors will always be drawn to the poems that require a priest.” Yep, I think he nailed it, why a lot of us never ‘got’ into poetry until we were adulting.
A wonderful book, full of wisdom and explanations in plain everyday English. Even if you don’t read (or write) much poetry, I think you’d find lots to like in this book.
I feel like I’ve had college-level classes on how to write poetry not just from a good teacher, but from a man who loved poetry and wanted to share his love with the world. My perception is he wanted everyone to enjoy poetry as much as he did. Out of the twelve essays, there were one or maybe two I didn’t care for all that much, a couple I loved, and the rest were merely wonderful. His enthusiasm for the craft comes through the printed word.
The last, and title essay had me laughing out loud in places. He was lamenting that poetry never got a really good foothold in the US schools, and will present 20 poems to take the place of some of the old standbys, but this sentence grabbed me. “Let us blame instead the stuffed shirts who took an hour to explain that poem in their classrooms, who chose it because it would NEED an explainer; pretentious ponderous ponderosas of professional professors will always be drawn to the poems that require a priest.” Yep, I think he nailed it, why a lot of us never ‘got’ into poetry until we were adulting.
A wonderful book, full of wisdom and explanations in plain everyday English. Even if you don’t read (or write) much poetry, I think you’d find lots to like in this book.
Read
June 15, 2021On the basis of this book, Hoagland must have been a wonderful teacher. His response to contemporary American poetry is truly inspiring. For example, if you liked Sharon Olds before reading this book (as I did), your estimation of her work will soar after reading Hoagland's essay. Hoagland's reassessment of O'Hara is equally invigorating. Although I wasn't sufficiently interested to read Haogland's musings on Robert Bly, I thought that the title essay was a masterstroke, one that ought to be required reading for all who teach contemporary poetry. I was also very taken with the essays devoted to American diction and idiom. 'Poetic Housing' is helpful as both critical terminology as well as a guide to free-verse: "Let us liken a poem to an internal combustion engine. It is mounted, or housed, inside a sturdy fram. The structure must be sturdy because the contents of the poem are combustive; the vibrations are fierce. The housing contains and directs the explosive force of combustion with precision.'
July 24, 2019
I’m always looking for ways to improve my embarrassingly low poetry reading ability, so when I saw this collection of essays on contemporary poetry, I jumped at it.
Some of the essays review poetic techniques: diction, something he calls poetic housing, and composite poems. Others look at individual poets: Sharon Olds, Robert Bly. Others talk about specific categories of poetry: the New York School, spiritual poems. And the title essay, saved for last, bemoans the teaching of poetry and makes some suggestions for a core curriculum, and what life lessons that curriculum might teach.
I picked a terrible time to read this, however: I was in the middle of a move, so my concentration was terrible. I plan to buy a used copy to use when I tackle the next Pushcart; not sure it'll help, but it can't hurt.
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense.
Some of the essays review poetic techniques: diction, something he calls poetic housing, and composite poems. Others look at individual poets: Sharon Olds, Robert Bly. Others talk about specific categories of poetry: the New York School, spiritual poems. And the title essay, saved for last, bemoans the teaching of poetry and makes some suggestions for a core curriculum, and what life lessons that curriculum might teach.
I picked a terrible time to read this, however: I was in the middle of a move, so my concentration was terrible. I plan to buy a used copy to use when I tackle the next Pushcart; not sure it'll help, but it can't hurt.
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense.
August 6, 2025
I read a book recently and in that book there was a quote from a poem by Tony Hoagland. To be honest I had never heard of this poet writer. So at first I read "Priest Turn Therapist Treats Fear of God". I was intrigued I went to look for other books and stumbled across this one. And while reading through it felt like I was auditing a college course at times the conclusion was breathtaking. Could we actually bring back America's soul by teaching poetry to children throughout schools at all levels? I must admit the question intrigues me. I have vowed to at least familiarize myself with the 20 poems that could save America which Hoagland lists at the end of this book. I encourage others to try it as well.
October 7, 2019
This is teeth and heart. I read this as slowly as I could, one chapter a day (or way less) all summer long, so that I could think long about each theme -- which makes it sound like the prose is thick. It isn't! It's clear and his arguments refreshingly frank. I kept wanting to talk about every one of his examples with non-poetry reading friends, only to realize he said it best and I'd end up reading large swaths of chapters aloud.
I am extra sorry to lose this voice.
I am extra sorry to lose this voice.
July 4, 2019
Understanding Poetry for the first time
This is an amazing book that explains tone of voice
and the evolution of modern poetry. I have been
awakened into a new and deeper understanding
of a vast new world which is fabulous and rich.
This is an amazing book that explains tone of voice
and the evolution of modern poetry. I have been
awakened into a new and deeper understanding
of a vast new world which is fabulous and rich.
June 7, 2020
Essays on American poetry.
Right.
Stepping out of my comfort zone I plunged in, and learned a few things and was generally intrigued and enlightened as I read. Found some poems to think about s as well.
Right.
Stepping out of my comfort zone I plunged in, and learned a few things and was generally intrigued and enlightened as I read. Found some poems to think about s as well.
April 14, 2024
Loved. SUCH good analysis and thoughts about the role and value of literature. Fun blend of craft-focused essays and deep looks into specific author's strengths and weaknesses. Genuinely incredible advice for any kind of writing, was very very good to be reading as I finish my capstone lol
September 24, 2020
This is not a collection of poems but essays on writing and teaching poetry
March 11, 2017
Frankly, I will need to spend time with this book, rereading it and contemplating it. I am not stupid but Mr. Hoagland did not write it for the faint of heart! He expects the reader to wrestle with metaphors and language the way one does when writing poetry so I will give him his due. I will reread it. I will because it is magnificently written and well-worth the reread. Then, I will write a review... it may take awhile. Sorry!
It did take awhile but it was so very worth the effort. Mr. Hoagland wrote a book that describes American poetry today, its background, its changes, its present state, its controversies, and its wonders. I am so very glad to have read it. I will need to reread it once more to absorb what Mr. Hoagland so easily conveys to his readers with seemingly so little effort. He is eloquent beyond words. Some critics beat him up for using language that is "tough to understand" or "over our heads" well, how does one grow but to struggle with something new. How does one become a better writer, reader, or thinker if you do not read something or someone who is clearly more intelligent that you are. I am not afraid to say so. Mr. Hoagland has taught me something which I am grateful for. He has suggested that poetry be included in the American English language curriculum. I have a hunch that in the school I taugh history in, we did include it. He has 20 poems which he feels would be wonderful to inspire students in our time. I applaud his efforts. I could also suggest more poems to include however, every teacher has his/her own creative ideas. No matter, let it roll. I loved the book, I will reread it.
It did take awhile but it was so very worth the effort. Mr. Hoagland wrote a book that describes American poetry today, its background, its changes, its present state, its controversies, and its wonders. I am so very glad to have read it. I will need to reread it once more to absorb what Mr. Hoagland so easily conveys to his readers with seemingly so little effort. He is eloquent beyond words. Some critics beat him up for using language that is "tough to understand" or "over our heads" well, how does one grow but to struggle with something new. How does one become a better writer, reader, or thinker if you do not read something or someone who is clearly more intelligent that you are. I am not afraid to say so. Mr. Hoagland has taught me something which I am grateful for. He has suggested that poetry be included in the American English language curriculum. I have a hunch that in the school I taugh history in, we did include it. He has 20 poems which he feels would be wonderful to inspire students in our time. I applaud his efforts. I could also suggest more poems to include however, every teacher has his/her own creative ideas. No matter, let it roll. I loved the book, I will reread it.
March 17, 2015
"...for poetry is our common treasurehood, and we need its aliveness, its respect for the subconscious, its willingness to entertain ambiguity; we need its plaintive truth telling about the human condition and its imaginative exhibitions of linguistic freedom, which confront the general culture's more grotesque manipulations. We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through. We need its previews of coming attractions: heartbreak, survival, failure, endurance, understanding, more heartbreak."
March 14, 2015
Essays on poetic elements: diction and idiom for instance. Essays on contemporary poetry's voice: distracted and hapless. Essays on individual poets from Sharon Olds to Robert Bly, the latter I had dismissed completely.
And the point of the collection, Twenty Poems. I've taught "The Emperor of Ice Cream" and my students got it, but teaching isn't about virtuosity and his suggested curriculum works very well.
And the point of the collection, Twenty Poems. I've taught "The Emperor of Ice Cream" and my students got it, but teaching isn't about virtuosity and his suggested curriculum works very well.
March 10, 2015
This book of essays and poems is very readable and enjoying.
Hoagland is a good poet as well as teacher and critic. He
writes of the many ways to analyze the body of the poem with
great examples. Some of the poets examined are Matthew Zapruder,
Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, and Robert Bly. An exciting book.
Hoagland is a good poet as well as teacher and critic. He
writes of the many ways to analyze the body of the poem with
great examples. Some of the poets examined are Matthew Zapruder,
Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, and Robert Bly. An exciting book.
March 22, 2015
Not a book of poetry, but a book about the craft of poetry. Most of the chapters didn't interest me much since reading about poems is nowhere close to actually reading poems. The title essay, however, redeemed the book in its astute exploration and examples of what poetry can mean to us.
November 8, 2015
Hoagland is always engaging, and this book is no exception. I was actually surprised by his praise of poets I wasn't sure he'd even like (e.g., Sharon Olds, Linda Gregg), though I bought the book for his discussions of technique (e.g., diction, layering).
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