There are several useful anthologies representing American poetry from Colonial times to the present. But they invariably include much secondary material. For, where the aim is comprehensiveness, anywhere between sixty and a hundred poets must be exhibited. Profusion brings confusion. There is some need, then, for a compact anthology restricted to sizable selections from the works of only the proven and best American poets. This attempts to be just such an anthology.
Editors Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig concentrate on the work of twenty major American poets. They include sizable selections from the poetry of: