“…a parcel of vain strivings…”

Book review:

An Anthology

   of the New England Poets:

    From Colonial Times

    to the Present Day

Edited by Louis Untermeyer, New York: Random House, 1948 

A hearty sampling of nearly 35 American poets, spanning 340 years. Louis Untermeyer is a first-class editor, offering rich biographical sketches of each poet.

For the beginning student of American poetry, this is a heady introduction. If you already know something about poetry, you can dive deep.

The big names are included, of course: Frost, Longfellow, Millay, Dickinson, Thoreau, Holmes, Whittier, Emerson.

The other selected poets offer a variety of voices and sensitivities and styles.

Untermeyer does first class service as editor, with a biography of each poet and a reference framework of his/her times. For my taste, the sketches of many of the poets were more informative and appealing than their works.

Untermeyer doesn’t presume to rate the poets in Anthology. He offers a well-informed understanding of the evolution and expression of poetry among New England writers.

Here’s a morsel:

“I am a parcel of vain strivings tied

      By a chance bond together,

   Dangling this way and that…”

From “I Am a Parcel of Vain Strivings Tied” by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), written in 1841

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2018 All rights reserved.

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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,

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