American poetry

Walt Whitman’s place in the history of modern American poetry is unlike that of any other poet and this can be said to distinguish American poetry from all other poetries. Poets after Whitman have had to come to terms with him, one way or another. His decision to discard all of the established poetic conventions of his time in favour of his 'new free forms” makes him a permanent source of new ideas and techniques. Leaves of Grass is a Declaration of Independence for all subsequent poets. The eleven essays in this volume explore Whitman’s work and his legacy, both direct and indirect, in modern American poetry. Covering poets as diverse as Whitman, Ezra Pound, Louis Zukofsky, Frank O’Hara, and Lorna Dee Cervantes, this collection also has the merit of bringing back into view a number of less well-known works by Ruth Benedict, Wallace Berman, Hilda Morley, and Joanne Kyger. The book is framed by a selection of poems on America by two contemporary poets, Robert Rehder and Wesley McNair, reminding us that 'the United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”