Dazzling in its range, exhilarating in its immediacy and grace, a collection that gathers together, from every region of the country and from the past forty years, the poems that continue to shape our imaginations.From Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery and Adrienne Rich, to Robert Haas and Louise Glück, this anthology takes the full measure of our poetry's daring energies and its tender understandings.Other poets Sylvia PlathJames MerrillAmy clampittJorie GrahamW. S. MerwinCharles SimicAllen GinsbergFrank O'HaraAnne SextonRobert CreeleySharon OldsMary OliverRobert PinskyMark StrandDenise LevertovRichard WilburMay SwensonMichael PalmerMark DotyYusef Komunyakaa
May Swenson Book order (chronological)
Anna Swenson stands as one of mid-twentieth-century America’s foremost poets. Her work is celebrated for its precise and beguiling imagery, offering personal and imaginative observations. Swenson possessed a unique ability to draw out the metaphysical implications of the material world, while also infusing her poetry with a lighthearted, even joyous, perspective on life. Her distinctive voice captures both profound insights and a vibrant appreciation for existence.
From spoonriveranthology.net: "Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology was an immediate commercial success when it was published in 1915. Unconventional in both style and content, it shattered the myths of small town American life. A collection of epitaphs of residents of a small town, a full understanding of Spoon River requires the reader to piece together narratives from fragments contained in individual poems."