City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology
Drawing from the 52 volumes published in the Pocket Poets series since 1956, this selection provides a handy sampler of many of the prominent avant-garde and leftist poets of the post-WWII era. Included are poems from Beat staples such as Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen, Jack Kerouac and Ferlinghetti himself. The anthology also demonstrates, however, the beyond-Beat breadth of the series, with works from William Carlos Williams, Robert Bly, Frank O'Hara, Denise Levertov and others. Arranged chronologically by publication, the collection offers a liberal dose of accomplished post-Beat writers, e.g., Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman, who claim roots in the tradition?although much of the more recent work seems simply derivative. The series' extensive international scope is highlighted in poems culled from German, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Nicaraguan and Spanish poets, including Neruda and Garcia Lorca. All in all, this is a lively, if slightly uneven, retrospective.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.