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Loading... America a Prophecy: A New Reading of American Poetry from Pre-Columbian Times to the Presentby George Quasha (Editor), Jerome Rothenberg (Editor), Jerome Rothenberg (Editor)
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When Thoreau wrote in his Journal in 1841, Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets, and when Whitman describes Leaves of Grass as a language experiment, they are expressing an approach to poetry that never ceased and has grown continuously during recent decades. This ground-breaking anthology of the early 1970s takes such an approach in presenting the poetry of the North American continent. It includes many recognized poets of the period, though appearing here in often unexpected contexts, and others who have been overlooked but whose contributions to the development of poetry are revolutionary. Starting from their own moment, the editors have read back into the more distant past and selected from broad American traditions works that had thitherto been considered outside the realm of poetry proper: the native poetry of the American continent, African-American sermons, blues and gospels, and the sacred, often innovative poetry of such radical religious groups as the Shakers. The book takes its title from William Blake's poem presenting the American Revolution as not only a powerful, promising and problematic historical event but the birth of a new development in man's consciousness-one that finds complex expression in the poetry of a continent. Selections mostly appear non-chronologically in juxtapositions suggesting what T. S. Eliot called the simultaneous order of all poetries of all times. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)811.008Literature English (North America) American poetry Specific kinds of poetry {only by more than one author} Modified standard subdivisions Collections of literary textsLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.5)
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Wikipedia in English
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I tend to mainly collect poetry collections that I think embody remarkable scholarliness & this one takes the cake & runs w/ it thru the wildflowers (or something). The apparent diversity of the comp really just highlights the unifying visonary nature of the poetry presented. The title is taken from a William Blake poem & the editors do a very, very impressive job of choosing material that takes Blake to the inner & outer limits (& absence thereof).
There's even a Pittsburgh poet that I've never heard of called Haniel Long. & there's a Clayton Eshleman "Ode to Reich" (as in Wilhelm Reich) that references André´Breton's "Ode to Fourier" wch I've mentioned elsewhere.
The bk has an introduction followed by a section called "RE BEGINNINGS"; followed by another called "MAP ONE: ORIGINS"; then "A BOOK OF RITES & NAMINGS" wch is subdivided into "Definitions & Namings", "Rites & Events", & "Sound Poems & Incantations"; then: "MAP TWO: LOSSES"; "A BOOK OF HISTORIES"; "MAP THREE: VISIONS" subdivided into "Magic & Vision" & "Sacred Plants"; "A BOOK OF MUSIC"; "MAP FOUR: RENEWALS" subdivided into "Image-Making" & "Symposium of the Whole"; ending w/ "A BOOK OF CHANGES".
Interspersed are scholarly editorial notes putting things in historical context, giving critical commentary that helps tie the poems together into the theme of the section they're in, etc.. The overall FEEL of this bk is of humans trying to work it all out & to transcend, TRANSCEND thru a variety of inspired means.
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