The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry
Beginning with an essay that establish es the seriousness and diversity of po ets' ``imaginative claims'' to personal territory, Vendler presents poets who preserve American culture that would lapse unrecorded were it not for art. She chooses 35 exponents of that voicefrom Wallace Stevens and Langston Hughes through Jorie Gra ham and Rita Dove. Diverse as the se lection is, readers are bound to ask about the missingGalway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Bly. Each poet is represented with a generous sam pling; brief biographies appear at the end. It is Vendler's wish that these po ems will provoke a ``sharp and relieving pang'' from the reader: ```Heavens, I recognize the place, I know it!''' (Eliza beth Bishop). Rosaly DeMaios Roff man, English Dept., Indiana Univ. of PennsylvaniaCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.