The Oxford Book of American Verse

Fifty-one poets are represented, deliberately fewer than in most anthologies, so that sufficient space can be devoted to each poet to afford a real understanding of his work. More recent and less well known poets are represented wherever possible by works of some length rather than by a scattering of short poems. Brief bibliographical notes at the end enable the reader to know in what volume of the poet's work each poem originally appeared. Mr. Matthiessen contributed a long critical introduction.