In the 1980s and 1990s the commercials grew increasingly shy of publishing poetry at all, no matter how mature. By the 1980s, moreover, the competing poetry competitions, sponsored by Wesleyan, Princeton, Missouri, Louisiana State University, and others, and often assisted by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, had shaded out Yale's entries. In all candor, and judging from Bradley's selections, I cannot find in the past decade or so of the series poetry as exciting as could be found in the earlier years. Bradley's sampling from the more recent volumes seems to me wan, as though the poems had not yet gained quite enough confidence to sally into the sun. Nobody is entitled to first publication, after all.
Some people welcome poetry anthologies, for they shorten the task of choosing what to read.
I dislike them, in general, preferring to make choices for myself. The Yale Younger Poets Anthology will interest readers who care about the nature and direction of American poetry and about the factors of taste, audience, leadership, and opportunity that govern what we are allowed to read. Peter Davison was a Yale Younger Poet in 1963. He has been the poetry editor of The Atlantic since 1972. All rights reserved.