The state of the art : a chronicle of American poetry, 1988-2014 / David Lehman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lehman, David, 1948- author.

Series:

Pitt poetry series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

American poetry.

American poetry--21st century--History and criticism.

Poetics.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 198 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2015]

Summary:

"This book collects all twenty-nine forewords from The Best American Poetry series. Beginning with a new introduction by David Lehman and a foreword by poet Denise Duhamel (guest editor for The Best American Poetry 2013), the collection conveys a sense of American poetry in the making, year by year, over the course of a quarter of a century"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1988 "like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo" 1

1989 in an unlit alcove where bookstore patrons fear to tread 4

1990 to inflame passions, disturb the complacent, and arouse the anxiety of despots 7

1991 a poem entitled "Cigarettes" by a poet named Ash 11

1992 The question of poetry and its audience 14

1993 the gust of fresh air that turned into the blizzard of '93 17

1994 It's safe to say that the inaugural was the best-attended poetry reading of the decade 21

1995 At least somebody played ball in 1994 26

1996 a given volume in this series might hang question marks over all three terms in the title 31

1997 As a gimmick, if that's what it is, National Poetry-Month worked 36

The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-1997 (1998) The debate is joined 43

1998 The president spoke of having had to memorize 100 lines of Macbeth 48

1999 "Whitman rocks" 53

2000 "Now I know how poems feel" 62

2001 "Everybody else was analog and Nietzsche was digital" 69

2002 The day now marks a boundary 76

2003 "How many people have to die before you can become president?" 83

2004 canons do not remain fixed for long 92

2005 the creative writing workshop [and] the fall of civilization 99

2006 Accessibility-as a term and, implicitly, as a value 108

2007 Undoubtedly the most parodied of all poems 113

2008 Who says that hot poems can't get you into trouble in 2008? 120

2009 "that is how I should talk if I could talk poetry" 127

2010 McChrystal sent copies of "The Second Coming" to his special operators 140

2011 in Dickinsons brain, "wider than the sky" 147

2012 the "uncanny" is a category too little invoked 158

The Best of the Best American Poetry, 25th Anniversary Edition (2013) "Every time I read Pessoa I think" 163

2013 It was his poetry that kept him going 172

2014 In the antagonism between science and the humanities 180.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780822944393

0822944391

OCLC:

898158732