The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry: Sixty-Five Outstanding Poets

by J.D. McClatchy (Editor)

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

592 pages, Paperback

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of three books I keep for coverage of 20th Century American poetry, the other two being The Voice That Is Great Within Us (ed. Hayden Carruth) and The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry (ed. Rita Dove).

This is one of those tomes that's used in college lit classes. It has 590 pages of poetry. Though it starts with James Lowell, the oldest poet is Robert Penn Warren and the youngest is Carl Phillips. It was published in 1990 and again in 2003 and has the usual lack of representation of women and anyone who isn't white. It does include Robert Hayden (but not Gwendolyn Brooks), Audre Lorde and Michael S. Harper, and Rita Dove among one or two other African Americans. McClatchy does a better job of including women. This is all to say: don't expect anything out of the ordinary for a anthology of this type during this time period.

Of the 75 poets in this volume, 33 had won Pulitzers and others had won either a National Book Award or the Book Critics Circle Award. Each poet had 3-9 poems to represent their work, with the exceptions of Lowell and Bishop, who McClatchy used to introduce the volume and allotted more generous selections of their poetry. McClatchy's introductions to each poet read very much like brief, appreciative scholarly reviews of their work.

I approached this anthology in an unusual way. I was treating each poem as inspiration for writing prompts. This resulted in a slower, closer reading than usual. I wouldn't read more than one poet's selection in a given day. There were many more familiar names in this book than new ones but this slower style of reading resulted in a new interest in poets I've read before, such as Howard Nemerov and Mark Doty. However, for the most part this was nostalgic. Many of the poets whose work never moved me much still doesn't move me and those I do love I still love.

In general, I feel like it's worth reading this sort of anthology every once in a while as a form of review of the not-to-distant past. It reminded me of who I haven't read a full volume of (hello Adrienne Rich) and who is really fun to visit even if I don't want to live there (yes, you, Frank O'Hara).

Though part of me would happily let this go out into the wilds of rural Alabama now that I've read it, it does serve as a quick reference for favorite poems instead of having to dig out my individual volumes of Robert Hayden, Richard Wilbur, Mona Van Duyn or Sylvia Plath. Many favorite poems are here. But the main reason I'll be keeping it is because I've rooted the prompt project in it so I'll want the original poems for reverence.

Would I recommend this book? Perhaps in a few instances. If a person wants some background on contemporary American poetry, this works fine (given the limitations about diversity stated above) though it may be a bit much as a first sampling. If you're someone who had such a book for a class but during school you were too rushed to really absorb it or really appreciate any of it, this would be a good book to get reacquainted with what you missed in the moment for survival's sake. It's also good for a thorough review of the poetry that received recognition during the second half of the 20th Century, which is primarily the purpose it served for me.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Rachel Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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

[Molly Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great exposition on the modern infatuation with garbage.

[Laura Beasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Nathan Nicolau · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Jonathan Bentley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic exhaustive selection

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Tim Nason · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Thalia]

don’t know if i can add this because i haven’t read Every poem in this collection, but it introduced me to mark strand, frank o’hara, audre lorde, edgar bowers, adrienne rich…lots of great poems and poets in this anthology. mostly, though, i remember it because it includes what’s now my favorite poem, providence by yusef komunyakaa.

[Nathanimal]

I don't know crap about poetry. Really, it's all blah blah blah to me at this point. But I think I'd like to get to know it better, so if you have any recommendations of some book or poet I might dig, let me know.