Written by a leading authority on William Carlos Williams, this book provides a wide-ranging and stimulating guide to twentieth-century American poetry. A wide-ranging and stimulating critical guide to twentieth-century American poetry. Written by a leading authority on the innovative modernist poet, William Carlos Williams. Explores the material, historical and social contexts in which twentieth-century American poetry was produced. Includes a biographical dictionary of major writers with extended entries on poets ranging from Robert Frost to Adrienne Rich. Contains a section on key texts considering major works, such as ‘The Waste Land’, ‘North & South’, ‘Howl’ and ‘Ariel’. The final section draws out key themes, such as American poetry, politics and war, and the process of anthologizing at the end of the century.

The essays collected in this volume survey the major works of modern American poetry, from magnificent epics like Hart Crane's "The Bridge" and Wallace Stevens's "Auroras of Aurmn," to such central lyrics as Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and Maranne Moore's "Poetry." the complexity of modern American poetry has demanded appreciation and analysis of an especially high order, and the list of critics included here makes up a veritable all-star team of close readers, from Kenneth Burke to Helen Vendler, from Richard Poirier to David Bromwich.