Description
Book SynopsisIn the twentieth century more people spoke English and more people wrote poetry than in the whole of previous history, and this
Companion strives to make sense of this crowded poetical era. The original contributions by leading international scholars and practising poets were written as the contributors adjusted to the idea that the possibilities of twentieth-century poetry were exhausted and finite. However, the volume also looks forward to the poetry and readings that the new century will bring.
The Companion embraces the extraordinary development of poetry over the century in twenty English-speaking countries; a century which began with a bipolar transatlantic connection in modernism and ended with the decentred heterogeneity of post-colonialism. Representation of the ''canonical'' and the ''marginal'' is therefore balanced, including the full integration of women poets and feminist approaches and the in-depth treatment of post-colonial poets from various nat
Trade Review
"Roberts has brought together an extraordinary collection of 48 engagingly written and informative essays. This reviewer is aware of no other volume covering the full range of English-language poetry in the twentieth century. Recommended for all collections, this title will be a welcome reference and guide for undergraduate students and useful for specialists."
--Choice
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Neil Roberts
PART I Topics and Debates
1 Modernism and the Transatlantic Connection 7
Hugh Witemeyer
2 Modernist Poetry and its Precursors 21
Peter Brooker and Simon Perril
3 The Non-modernist Modern 37
David Goldie
4 Poetry and Politics 51
Reed Way Dasenbrock
5 Poetry and War 64
Matthew Campbell
6 Poetry and Science 76
Tim Armstrong
7 Poetry and Literary Theory 89
Joanne Feit Diehl
8 Poetry and Gender 101
Edward Larrissy
9 Interrupted Monologue: Alternative Poets of the Mid-century 113
Philip Hobsbaum
PART II Poetic Movements
10 Imagism 127
Jacob Korg
11 The New Negro Renaissance 138
William W. Cook
12 Poetry and the New Criticism 153
Stephen Burt and Jennifer Lewin
13 Black Mountain and Projective Verse 168
John Osborne
14 The Beats 183
John Osborne
15 Confessionalism 197
Lucy Collins
16 The Movement 209
Stephen Regan
17 Language Poetry 220
Simon Perril
PART III International and Postcolonial Poetry in English
18 West Indian Poetry 235
Victor Chang
19 African Poetry 249
Kwadwo Osei-Nyame
20 Poetry of the Indian Subcontinent 264
Vinay Dharwadker
21 Australian Poetry 281
Livio Dobrez
22 New Zealand Poetry 293
Terry Sturm
23 Canadian Poetry 304
Cynthia Messenger
24 Scottish Poetry 318
Jeffrey Skoblow
25 Welsh Poetry 329
Douglas Houston
26 Irish Poetry to 1966 343
Alex Davis
PART IV Readings
27 Thomas Hardy: Poems of 1912–13 359
Tim Armstrong
28 Robert Frost: North of Boston 369
Alex Calder
29 T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land 381
John Haffenden
30 D. H. Lawrence: Birds, Beasts and Flowers 392
David Ellis
31 William Carlos Williams: Spring and All 403
Lisa M. Steinman
32 Wallace Stevens: Harmonium 414
Philip Hobsbaum
33 Marianne Moore: Observations 427
Elizabeth Wilson
34 W. B. Yeats: The Tower 437
Terence Brown
35 W. H. Auden: Poems 448
Peter McDonald
36 Elizabeth Bishop: North & South 457
Jonathan Ellis
37 Ezra Pound: The Pisan Cantos 469
A. David Moody
38 Robert Lowell: Life Studies 481
Stephen Matterson
39 Louis MacNeice: The Burning Perch 491
Peter McDonald
40 Sylvia Plath: Ariel 500
Sue Vice
41 Ted Hughes: Crow 513
Rand Brandes
42 Seamus Heaney: North 524
Bernard O’Donoghue
43 John Ashbery: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror 536
David Herd
44 Derek Walcott: Omeros 547
Bruce Woodcock
PART V The Contemporary Scene
45 Contemporary American Poetry 559
Roger Gilbert
46 Contemporary British Poetry 571
Sean O’Brien
47 Contemporary Irish Poetry 585
Lucy Collins
48 Contemporary Postcolonial Poetry 596
Jahan Ramazani
Index 610
