Nineteenth-Century American Poetry (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: Nineteenth-Century American Poetry
Review: Rather than collecting poems from a wide spectrum of poets, this volume's editors instead chose to concentrate on 17 writers, including nearly 300 poems altogether. The writers collected here are Joel Barlow, William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jones Very, Henry David Thoreau, James Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, Emily Dickinson, Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, Sidney Lanier, and Edwin Arlington Robinson. The most space is given to Whitman, Melville and Dickinson. While I can't fault the editors for most of their selections, I would have omitted Barlow, Holmes, Lowell and Piatt and opted instead for Christopher Pearse Cranch, Henry Timrod, Stephen Crane, and Trumbull Stickney. Those latter four certainly seem stronger than the former group.

While I can understand the inclusion of Barlow, Holmes, and Lowell, since once they were viewed as quite important poets, though no longer, the logic of including Mrs. Piatt escapes me. Her inclusion is rather meekly defended in the introduction, since she can make "the most conventional sentiments believable." So what? The finest poets say rare, unique things. They are individuals. They do not write about the superficial, but, like John Webster in T.S. Eliot's poem, (taking it slightly out of context) they see the skull beneath the skin.

As to those who were included in this volume, it is gratifying to see Melville getting so much respect as a poet in this and other recent anthologies: he was marginalized too long. Tuckerman is unknown to most people, but he could write wonderful sonnets and "The Cricket" is gold. Although Longfellow was overrated in his time, since then he has consistently been underrated. He's treated pretty decently in this book, so I hope it indicates that his reputation will finally get some balance in the near future. Bryant is a skilled poet, but not necessarily a gifted one. Still, he wrote some excellent poems. Whittier wasted most of his talents writing political propaganda, although when he got off his high horse he could really write some memorable stuff. Jones Very is quite an intense poet - too bad he burnt himself out so young. Lanier is a poet of exceptional ability, but unfortunately this anthology doesn't include his best: "The Revenge of Hamish" isn't a very good poem; but "The Marshes of Glynn," "Song of the Chattahoochee," and "A Ballad of Trees and the Master" are, only you won't find them here. Emerson, Poe, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson and Robinson are old favorites. All in all, it's a fine anthology.