Three Great American Poets

Describes the different sorts of poetry Whitman, Dickinson, and Melville wrote, their comparable reasons for writing, and the posthumous critical effects of their having done so.

These four timeless poetry collections showcase the pioneering work of some of America’s most beloved and influential poets. New Hampshire by Robert Frost: This Pulitzer Prize–winning collection features some of Frost’s most enduring works, all inspired by the cold and wild New Hampshire winter. Along with the title poem, this volume includes “Fire and Ice,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” which Frost himself called “my best bid for remembrance.” Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein: Stein’s first published work of poetry, this avant-garde meditation on ordinary living is presented in three sections: “Objects,” “Food,” and “Rooms.” Emphasizing rhythm and sonority over traditional grammar, Stein’s wordplay has garnered praise from readers and critics alike. Selected Poems by T. S. Eliot: This twenty-four poem volume is a rich collection of Eliot’s greatest works—including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Gerontion,” “Sweeny Among the Nightingales,” and others—all of which expertly explore the desires, grievances, failures, and heart of modern humanity. Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson: This collection of poems by “one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time” includes some of Dickinson’s best-known works, reflecting her thoughts on nature, life, death, the mind, and the spirit (Poetry Foundation).

Contains three books by author Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- Life on the Mississippi -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A unique collection of poems from three writers living under the shadow of the Civil War Three great American poets, all of whom preferred the solitary life, and yet each responded, in very different ways, to the greatest social event of their times: the challenge of living in a country recovering from civil war. The selection from Melville aims to show the range of his shorter verse, from the public poet intensely concerned with the Civil War and its meaning for humanity, to the private poet, as he withdrew from the eyes of the world. Robinson's quintessential and much anthologised famous poems can be read set alongside the less widely-read pieces also included here. Tuckerman is a neglected poet, whose poems reflect his friendship with Tennyson and his grief for the loss of his wife."

Hammer and Blaze provides a true cross-section of the best contemporary poets writing in North America today. Editors Ellen Bryant Voigt and Heather McHugh have brought together the work of sixty poets who have taught at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, one of the most respected and influential writing programs of its kind. The stellar group of contributors includes MacArthur fellows Campbell McGrath, Anne Carson, Edward Hirsch, Eleanor Wilner, Susan Stewart, and Lucia Perillo. Also represented here are works by Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn and Louise Glück; Ruth Lilly Prize winner Carl Dennis; and Robert Wrigley, Thomas Lux, and B. H. Fairchild, winners of the Kingsley Tufts Award. From the couplets of Pablo Medina to the neoclassical lyricisms of Carl Phillips, this anthology appropriately reflects the cross-cultural nature of contemporary North American poetry with its most diverse and prestigious voices. A number of the poems are previously unpublished, including work by Joan Aleshire, Stuart Dischell, Stephen Dobyns, Stephen Dunn, Roland Flint, Carol Frost, Barbara Greenberg, Edward Hirsch, Pablo Medina, Steve Orlen, Gregory Orr, Kathleen Peirce, Kenneth Rosen, Daniel Tobin, Alan Williamson, and Eleanor Wilner. Hammer and Blaze, a gathering of our best poets, should garner attention from the literary world at large as well as from students of contemporary poetry and creative writing.

A comprehensive overview of America's vast poetic heritage, Three Centuries of American Poetry features the work of some 150 of our nation's finest writers. It includes selections from Anne Bradstreet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, e. e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and Gertrude Stein, as well as significant works of lesser-known American poets. From the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to the Romantic Era and the Gilded and Modern Ages, this unrivaled anthology also presents a memorable array of rare ballads, songs, hymns, spirituals, and carols that echo through our nation's history. Highlights include Native American poems, African American writings, and the works of Quakers, colonists, Huguenots, transcendentalists, scholars, slaves, politicians, journalists, and clergymen. These discerning selections demonstrate that the American canon of poetry is as diverse as the nation itself, and constantly evolving as we pass through time. Most important, this collection strongly reflects the peerless stylings that mark the American poetic experience as unique. Here, in one distinguished volume, are the many voices of the New World.

In The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, editors Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton present the definitive collection of black verse in the United States--200 years of vision, struggle, power, beauty, and triumph from 52 outstanding poets. From the neoclassical stylings of slave-born Phillis Wheatley to the wistful lyricism of Paul Lawrence Dunbar . . . the rigorous wisdom of Gwendolyn Brooks...the chiseled modernism of Robert Hayden...the extraordinary prosody of Sterling A. Brown...the breathtaking, expansive narratives of Rita Dove...the plaintive rhapsodies of an imprisoned Elderidge Knight . . . The postmodern artistry of Yusef Komunyaka. Here, too, is a landmark exploration of lesser-known artists whose efforts birthed the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movements--and changed forever our national literature and the course of America itself. Meticulously researched, thoughtfully structured, The Vintage Book of African-American Poetry is a collection of inestimable value to students, educators, and all those interested in the ever-evolving tradition that is American poetry.