The contemporary American poets: American poetry since 1940
by Mark Strand
Category: American poetry

"By 1940 the revolution we call Modernism had run its course; the battle against the nineteenth century had been won with time's help. and the poetry of experimentation was so secure that it became a new academicism. Whereas we had gone out of our way in earlier decades to make a pact with the most radical poet of the nineteenth century, Walt Whitman, we accepted quite matter-of-factly our association with Longfellow. In fact, it is part of the character of American poetry since 1940 to have made friends with everyone. ..."--Mark Strand, from the Preface.