The Best American Poetry 1996

by Adrienne Rich (Editor), David Lehman (Series Editor)

Now in its ninth year, The Best American Poetry is universally acclaimed as the best anthology in the field. The compilation includes a diverse abundance of poems published in 1995 in more than 40 publications ranging from The New Yorker to The Paris Review to Bamboo Ridge.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Works, notably Diving into the Wreck (1973), of American poet and essayist Adrienne Rich champion such causes as pacifism, feminism, and civil rights for gays and lesbians.

A mother bore Adrienne Cecile Rich, a feminist, to a middle-class family with parents, who educated her until she entered public school in the fourth grade. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe college in 1951, the same year of her first book of poems, A Change of World. That volume, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and her next, The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems (1955), earned her a reputation as an elegant, controlled stylist.

In the 1960s, however, Rich began a dramatic shift away from her earlier mode as she took up political and feminist themes and stylistic experimentation in such works as Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law (1963), The Necessities of Life (1966), Leaflets (1969), and The Will to Change (1971). In Diving into the Wreck (1973) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978), she continued to experiment with form and to deal with the experiences and aspirations of women from a feminist perspective.

In addition to her poetry, Rich has published many essays on poetry, feminism, motherhood, and lesbianism. Her recent collections include An Atlas of the Difficult World (1991) and Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991–1995 (1995).

Reviews

[Tessa Calvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ehh there is a reason we tend to look for 4.6 ✨& above. Just not for me!

[B.]

FULL REVIEW & RATING TBD

[Caydon Dial · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a great collection of poems.

[Liz Mourant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thnk the main thing to note about this particular book in the long "Best American Poetry" series is its reaching into other and for difference in the poetry than the normal canonical choices. It is a brave and an intriguing set of selections. Some choices fail, but MANY are gloriously written, and succeed in being MORE than the other "Best American," had been attempting. Harold Bloom despised this one edition to an unreasonable degree. It is noteworthy that he, as a poetic figure, has so much bile and vitriol to offer to a single year's selections obviously, because he is the standard bearer for the status quo. I gave this book five stars for the ATTEMPTS it makes to find a superior poetry across the board and multiculturally-- including political poetry written at times, in ghastly witness, yet not without redemption, for the poems in my opinion
are what redeems the irredeemable. Other books from this series are interesting to some degree but they have failed to move me to the extent of this particularly strong litany...In other words, I have yet to find in this series (Ironically other than Bloom's own choices for a "Best of the Best Of,) a book of anthologized poetry and verse as strong as the 1996 version as of my reading and I have partaken of three years to this date plus Best Of Best Of. As a series, fits and starts but better by a longshot than other anthologies, particularly the canonized doctrinaire poet's corner of the modernist variety and ilk. It helps to read across genres of poetry and sub genres. I enjoy GOOD prose poetry for example. There are those who turn their noses up at this and they might not like this book either. I will continue to think that their lack of support and understanding for other than the main poets featured time after time shows a narrow-minded=ness I am glad at least, not to possess and not to be invoked in my mind.

[Catherine]

poetry

[Avery Guess · Rating 4 out of 5]

i quite love martin espada's "rednecks," beth ann fennelly's "poem not to be read at your wedding," and jane kenyon's "reading aloud to my father."

[Richard Jespers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some strong poems but not consistent throughout.