The Contemporary American Poets

by Mark Strand (editor)

This anthology includes work by 92 American poets. The poems were written between 1940 and 1969. Experience the poetry of A. R. Ammons, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Creeley, Louise Gluck, LeRoi Jones, X. J. Kennedy, Kenneth Koch, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, W. D. Snodgrass, May Swenson, Constance Urdang, Diane Wakoski, James Wright, and more. Brief bios on each of the poets begin on page 380.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

408 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Mark Strand was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. He was a professor of English at Columbia University and also taught at numerous other colleges and universities.

Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.

He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many poets included here that I had not heard of before, as well as the biggies like Ginsberg, O'Hara, Levertov, Sexton. Very much worth it for Mark Strand's "Keeping Things Whole", I think, a very beautiful, transcendent piece (as follows)...

Keeping Things Whole

In a field
I am the silence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move to keep things whole.
(1963)

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book the summer after 10th grade, while I was in the poetry class at the PA Governor's School of the Arts. I had written a few poems on my own, mostly imitative, especially of Emily Dickinson.
Our teacher, Peter Balakian, used this book to blow the lid off of contemporary poetry for the roomful of high school poets. We all were taken aback by poems by Gregory Corso, Galway Kinnell, and Randall Jarrell,shocked by imagism and blunt allegories, like Philip Levine's "Animals are passing from our lives," etc.
Mark Strand was a gifted anthologist as well as poet. We burned one manuscript after another, dropping them down the incinerator shoot conveniently located outside our classroom.
I carried that paperback for years while it honed my definition of good poetry. It is still one of my favorite anthologies. Rest in peace, Mark Strand.

[Peter]

I learned from this book that Louise Gluck is pretty awesome.

[Chris Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this off and on. Good choice for that sort of poetry reading, covers A LOT of ground and for a casual reader seems like a relatively comprehensive attempt to cover the intended range of American Poets. I found the work itself hit and miss for my tastes, but really enjoyed the variety.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as solid as the Carruth edited anthology I read earlier this year, but it has a narrower scope. More than a few great finds in here, but the book as a whole is weighed down by oddly mannered poems and not a few instances of goopy male egocentrist absurdity.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the time, an excellent introduction to what was happening in modern American poetry. I was introduced to many new poets in this volume.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite anthologies