The Best American Poetry 2000

The Best American Poetry 2000

"The Best American Poetry 2000" (ISBN 0-743-20033-0), a volume in "The Best American Poetry series", was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Rita Dove.

In her introduction, Dove defended the idea that poets should be politically committed: " [W] e poets cannot afford to shut ourselves away in our separate discipline, honing our specialized tools while the barbarians — no matter if they are religious fanatics or materialistic profitmongers — continue to sharpen their broadswords. Stepping into the fray of life does not mean dissipation of one's creative powers [...] The reward is a connection on a visceral level with the world [...] ."

Speaking of her selection process, Dove indicated that once potential selections had been identified, either via her own reading or as submitted to her by the series editor, David Lehman, " [m] y method was simple: Read the poems without looking at the author's name, if possible, and put aside for further consideration only those pieces which made me catch my breath. The final criterion was Emily Dickinson's famed description--if I felt the top of my head had been taken off, the poem was in." [ Dove, Rita, Introduction "The Best American Poetry 2000", 2000 ]

Michael Shannon Friedman, reviewing the book in "The Charleston Gazette", noted that Dove had admitted the "subjectivity" of her selections, and observed that, in his own view, the year's best selections were poems by Barbara Hamby, Thomas Lux, Stanly Plumly, Susan Wood and Mary Oliver. [ [ ] Friedman, Michael Shannon, "Editor of 'best' admits subjectivity", book review, "The Charleston Gazette, Charleston, West Virginia, November 19, 2000, page P3F, as accessed from Newsbank.com Web site, October 13, 2007]

Poets and poems included

Best American poems of the twentieth century

For this book in the series, Lehman, the general editor "invited his 14 past and present guest editors to list their choices for 15 best poems of the century. Most did, but Adrienne Rich refused flat out, and Louise Glück wrote a thoughtful letter, also declining. It said, in part: 'There can't be, I think, the best of the great ... What remains is preference.'" [ [http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/12/06/bestof/index2.html] Gutin, JoAnn, "Freedom from choice", "Salon", December 6, 2000, accessed January 21, 2007]

From the responses Lehman got, he drew up a composite list of 32 poets whose work was nominated by at least two guest editors. In alphabetical order:

*A. R. Ammons
*W. H. Auden
*John Ashbery
*John Berryman
*Elizabeth Bishop
*Gwendolyn Brooks
*Hart Crane
*Robert Creeley
*T. S. Eliot
*Robert Frost
*Robert Hayden
*Langston Hughes
*Randall Jarrell
*Kenneth Koch
*Robert Lowell
*James Merrill
*Marianne Moore
*Frank O'Hara
*Sylvia Plath
*Ezra Pound
*Kenneth Rexroth
*Edwin Arlington Robinson
*Theodore Roethke
*James Schuyler
*Delmore Schwartz
*William Stafford
*Gertrude Stein
*Wallace Stevens
*Robert Penn Warren
*Richard Wilbur
*William Carlos Williams
*James Wright

ee also

* 2000 in poetry

Notes

External links

* [http://bestamericanpoetry.com/archive/?id=14 Web page for contents of the book] , with links to each publication where the poems originally appeared


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Best American Poetry — series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy five poems.The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general editor of the series, each year… …   Wikipedia

  • The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988-1997 — a volume in The Best American Poetry series , was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Harold Bloom, who chose the poems.Bloom selected poems from every entry in the series through 1997, with the exception of the 1996 volume, edited by Adr …   Wikipedia

  • The Best American Poetry 1999 — a volume in The Best American Poetry series , was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Robert Bly.Poets and poems includedee also* 1999 in poetryNotesExternal links* [http://bestamericanpoetry.com/archive/?id=13 Web page for contents of th …   Wikipedia

  • The Best American Poetry 1990 — a volume in The Best American Poetry series , was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Jorie Graham.Graham chose, as one of the best American poems published in the 12 month period, a work by her husband [ [http://www.mipoesias.com/Volume1 …   Wikipedia

  • The Gettysburg Review — is a quarterly literary magazine featuring short stories, poetry, essays and reviews. Work appearing in the magazine often is reprinted in best of anthologies and receives awards. The little magazine is recognized as one of the country’s premier… …   Wikipedia

  • 2000 in poetry — yearbox2 in?=in poetry in2?=in literature cp=20th century c=21st century cf=22nd century yp1=1997 yp2=1998 yp3=1999 year=2000 ya1=2001 ya2=2002 ya3=2003 dp3=1970s dp2=1980s dp1=1990s d=2000s da=0 dn1=2010s dn2=2020s dn3=2030s|Events* Griffin… …   Wikipedia

  • The Virginia Quarterly Review — Infobox Newspaper name = The Virginia Quarterly Review type = Quarterly Magazine format = Magazine foundation = Spring, 1925 owners = University of Virginia headquarters = Charlottesville, VA price = $14 editor = Ted Genoways ISSN = 0042 675X… …   Wikipedia

  • The Missouri Review — Type Quarterly magazine Format Magazine Owner University of Missouri Editor Speer Morgan …   Wikipedia

  • American literature — Introduction       the body of written works produced in the English language in the United States.       Like other national literatures, American literature was shaped by the history of the country that produced it. For almost a century and a… …   Universalium

  • 2001 in poetry — yearbox2 in?=in poetry in2?=in literature cp=20th century c=21st century cf=22nd century yp1=1998 yp2=1999 yp3=2000 year=2001 ya1=2002 ya2=2003 ya3=2004 dp3=1970s dp2=1980s dp1=1990s d=2000s da=0 dn1=2010s dn2=2020s dn3=2030s|Events* Immediately… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”