The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry Paperback – Illustrated, April 8, 2003

I have loved reading and writing poetry most of my life. I prefer reading the older poetry masters in most cases rather than most of the contemporary poets, but I did like many of the poets in this collection. When I saw this huge 617 page volume (The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry Second Edition by J.D. McClatchy) of poetry for a bargain price on Amazon I immediately purchased it. Even though the copy I got was marked up a lot by previous readers; nevertheless, it did not take away from the enjoyment of reading this book.This volume has so many poems from some of the greatest poets that this review cannot do it justice. Even though I have always preferred short (One page or less) poem forms over the long drawn out and sometimes boring poems; nevertheless, this collection has something for every poetry lover. Some of the many poets who have contributions in this volume include the following: Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Robert Penn Warren, J. V. Cunningham, Robert Hayden, May Swenson, Mona Van Duyn, Howard Moss, James Dickey, Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, John Wright, Ann Sexton, Mary Oliver, Jay Wright, Henri Cole and many, many other poets.One of the many things I like about this book is the way they introduce each poet showing their date of birth (and death of the poet) and a short bio about each poet. I admit I enjoyed reading most of the poems in this collection, but as I mentioned previously I am not a fan of the long free verse poems.If you are a poem lover this is a book you should check out.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: The Samurai Soul: An old warrior’s poetic tribute).

This is a beautiful collection of poetry, regardless of if you’re familiar with the work or poets in here. I got this for a class, but I still love reading these poems and looking at them with a grown up mindset and more life experience, that’s just the way literature works after time. I highly recommend this collection of poetry and the work by these poets.

But I don't understand why some poets aren't represented as extensively as others. Rita Dove has a great body of work but there are only three of her poems in here, they aren't lengthy either. Gjertrud Schnackenburg is another example. Most of the poets that got slighted are at the back of the book. Perhaps the editor ran out of room.With that said this anthology was a step up from my previous poetry reading endeavors. There is great variety in this book ranging from very "accessible" classics like Roethke's "The Waking" and Wright's "A Blessing", and much longer and more difficult (for me) poems like Merrills "Lost in Translation". The introductory mini-biographies are cool and the general introduction is interesting. I also like the clever cover art. Nothing says America like a blank billboard.To a poetry neophyte like myself this book is a challenge, but not overwhelming. I look forward to buying the complete works of many of the poets I discovered in it.As to certain omissions, it seems like this anthology was geared toward the academic highbrow crowd. Hence no Bukowski, Wendell Berry, Stephen Dobyns, Thomas Lux or Raymond Carver....oh the list could go on. There is nothing wrong with these voices, they are distinctly American though and at least one "rough" voice would have been cool.On a final note why is there no William Carlos Williams in here? Maybe he missed the cutoff date and was a little too old. Oh well.

It was an ok college textbook

Well, I already submitted a review. Wonder how many you want, but will say this will be the last one I write on this purchase. The book was for a poetry class I am taking. The order came very quickly, but happened to be the wrong book! Checked and rechecked my original order, and indeed the info I gave was correct. Contacted the vendor immediately by email and got an immediate reply. They sent, priority mail, my requested book at no cost to me, and I received it in just a couple of days. They told me to keep the mistaken book and I am enjoying reading the short stories and will pass it on to Friends' of Library sale. End of story!

I'm no poetry aficionado, but I've fallen asleep with this book clutched to my chest. Always a good sign.

I purchased this book for a poetry class, but I take great pleasure still in opening to a random page and finding something new. This is a dense, thorough anthology, good for revisiting known pieces and discovering poets to look into further. Great introduction to someone interested in learning more about poetry, but is substantial enough that it isn't a kiddy introduction.

Nice selection of modern classic poetry...I like this book better than the Vintage Book of Short Stories.