The poem is you Sixty contemporary American poems and how to read them

Stephanie Burt, 1971-

Book - 2016

Contemporary American poetry has plenty to offer new readers, and plenty more for those who already follow it. Yet its difficulty--and sheer variety--leaves many readers puzzled or overwhelmed. The critic, scholar, and poet Stephen Burt sets out to help. Beginning in the early 1980s, where critical consensus ends, Burt canvasses American poetry of the past four decades, from the headline making urgency of Claudia Rankine's Citizen to the stark pathos of Louise Glück, the limitless energy of J. F. Herrera, and the erotic provocations of D. A. Powell. The Poem Is You: Sixty Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them is a guide to the diverse magnificences of American poetry today. It presents a wide range of poems selected by Burt... for this volume, each accompanied by an original essay explaining how a given poem works, why it matters, and how the poem speaks to other parts of art and culture. Included here are some classroom classics (by Ashbery, Komunyakaa, Hass), less famous poems by very famous poets (Glück, Kay Ryan), prizewinning poets near the start of their careers (such as Brandon Som), and others who are not--or not yet--well known. The Poem Is You will appeal to poets, teachers, and students, but it is intended especially for readers who want to learn more about contemporary American poetry but who have not known where or how to start. It describes what American poets have fashioned for one another, and what they can give us today. --

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Subjects
Published
Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2016.
Language
English
Main Author
Stephanie Burt, 1971- (author)
Physical Description
vii, 419 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-396) and index.
ISBN
9780674737877
  • Paradoxes and oxymorons / John Ashbery (1981)
  • tito madera smith / Tato Laviera (1981)
  • The Ride / Richard Wilbur (1982)
  • my dream about the second coming / Lucille Clifton (1982 / 1987)
  • Possession / Carla Harryman (1982)
  • Songs & sonnets / John Hollander (1983)
  • More music / Carl Dennis (1984 / 1985)
  • Saxophone / Liam Rector (1984)
  • Incantation / Czesław Miłosz, trans. Robert Pinsky and Czesław Miłosz (1984)
  • Shoe from the waves / Robert Grenier (1984)
  • Lightnin' blues / Rita Dove (1986)
  • Target / A.R. Ammons (1987)
  • Facing it / Yusef Komunyakaa (1987 / 1988)
  • Hamatawk / Diane Glancy (1988 / 1991)
  • Domestic mysticism / Lucie Brock-Broido (1988)
  • Above the inland empire today / Killarney Clary (1989)
  • Modern love / John Yau (1989)
  • Oh / Robert Creeley (1990)
  • December journal / Charles Wright (1990)
  • The piano player explains himself / Allen Grossman (1991)
  • An atlas of the difficult world XIII (Dedications) / Adrienne Rich (1991)
  • Lamium / Louise Glück (1992)
  • Self-portrait in Tyvek windbreaker / James Merrill (1992 / 1995)
  • Salt / Linda Gregerson (1993 / 1996)
  • Emptiness / Kay Ryan (1993)
  • "A wooden eye, an 1884 silver dollar, a homemade explosive, a set of false teeth, and a 14-Karat gold ashtray" / Albert Goldbarth (1995 / 1998)
  • honey jars of hair / Harryette Mullen (1995)
  • Halley's Comet / Stanley Kunitz (1995)
  • Letters to Zanzotto : Letter 3 / Michael Palmer (1995)
  • Our Lady of the Snows / Robert Hass (1996)
  • Key episodes from an earthly life / C.D. Wright (1996)
  • Blood on the wheel / Juan Felipe Herrera (1999)
  • A song that we still sing / Carter Revard (2001)
  • Epigraph / Allan Peterson (2001)
  • Our nature / Rae Armantrout (2001)
  • Race / Elizabeth Alexander (2001)
  • A / ppeal A / pple A / dam A / dream / Liz Waldner (2002)
  • Please forward & / kari edwards (2003)
  • Tonight / Agha Shahid Ali (1996 / 2003)
  • [when he comes he is neither sun nor shade : a china doll] / D.A. Powell (2004)
  • Sans serif / Angie Estes (2005)
  • To the wires overhead / W.S. Merwin (2005 / 2007)
  • On sleep / Bernadette Mayer (2005)
  • Moab / Donald Revell (2005 / 2007)
  • The blue terrance / Terrance Hayes (2006)
  • Futures / Jorie Graham (2007 / 2008)
  • Miss Weariness / Laura Kasischke (2007)
  • Song of the mortar and pestle / Frank Bidart (2008)
  • Lustron : the house America has been waiting for / Robyn Schiff (2008)
  • Q is for the quick / Mary Jo Bang (2009)
  • Viagra / Lucia Perillo (2009)
  • The workhorse / Melissa Range (2010)
  • Prescription / Joseph Massey (2011)
  • Date : post glacial / dg nanouk okpik (2012)
  • Class / Rosa Alcalá (2012)
  • Oversized T-shirts / Gabby Bess (2012 / 2013)
  • Hide-and-seek with God / Brenda Shaughnessy (2012)
  • You and your partner go to see the film / Claudia Rankine (2014)
  • Oulipo / Brandon Som (2014)
  • Weeping / Ross Gay (2015).
Review by Choice Review

Poet, critic, and scholar Stephen Burt (Harvard) offers here a unique book that is both an anthology of contemporary US poetry and a work of elegant criticism. He selected 60 poems (all written since 1980) by 60 poets (some recognizable to general, informed readers and many not) and for each provides a brief sensitive, close reading along with helpful background context. One learns how each poem fits into a body of work that is itself situated within the larger culture of contemporary poetry. Some readers might wonder about the omission of any number of poets, including some luminaries and poets laureate. In his rich, informative introduction, Burt explains that his selection does not imagine any hierarchy of US contemporary poetry--quite the contrary. He is most interested in trends and tendencies, and the book is most valuable in demonstrating the variety, diversity, and vibrancy of contemporary American poetry. Each essay is a tribute to the poem being discussed and to the art of poetry itself. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Barry Wallenstein, CUNY City College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Poet and critic Burt's (Belmont) ambitious anthology of recent poems by American authors, from 1981 to 2015, creates a coherent body of work out of the vast landscape of recent American poetry. Burt's 60 selections are eclectic, mingling instantly recognizable names (John Ashbery, Adrienne Rich) with newer talents (Lucia Perillo, Claudia Rankine.) His short reflections don't offer close reading so much as thorough contextual grounding, lingering more on biography, traditions, influences, criticism, and social critique than on form, scansion, and imagery. Burt's many ways of looking at a poem will inspire new students and accomplished poets, especially as many of his meditations circle the question of what poetry does, or should do: making readers pay attention, ask questions, and experience new things. Burt's formidable breadth of knowledge about the practice of poetry, from Virgil up to 2015, allows him to make nimble connections among authors and establish an ars poetica for current American lyric poetry, an impressive feat given the diverse selection just within this book, in which "the recondite and the demotic, the accessible and the challenging, mingle." (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Review by Library Journal Review

Critic Burt (English, Harvard Univ.) here analyzes 60 contemporary poems. His critique is not only accessible to most all readers, but it also shows his depth of knowledge and love of American poetry. His essays are very good at finding the meaning of the work while placing each poem in context within the landscape of poetry. The poets selected for this book are a solid representation of the direction that the genre has taken in the early 21st century, ranging from Robert Creeley and Rita Dove to Claudia Rankine and Gabby Bess. With these selections, Burt shows that he is keeping up with the trends and that there is no standard definition of modern American verse. Instead, there are sometimes competing, sometimes complementary, diverse versions and viewpoints. By placing them all together in one anthology, equal respect is given to each of the featured pieces, highlighting even lesser-known writers or those working on the outer fringes of traditional American poetry. VERDICT This book is for anyone interested in the state of American poetry today--academic and general readers alike will find it engaging. For public libraries and libraries with special poetry collections.-Jeremy Spencer, Univ. of California, Davis, Law Lib. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.