The poetry in this volume was selected by Molloy for use as an introduction to American poetry for high school students about 15 - 16 years of age and contains mostly short poems by 55 authors. I haven't read a lot of poetry and most of what I have read was from poets of the British Isles (except for Shel Silverstein collections and other children's books for K-6). However I was a bit surprised by how many of these poets were completely unknown to me. Since I was extremely rusty at reading poetry I took this collection very slowly, reading each one again the next day. Most were pretty good and I think that I will track down some more by William Carlos Williams. There were a handful that I've always liked and I was glad to see Fog by Carl Sandberg and Stopping By Woods... by Robert Frost. Over all a good introduction to American poetry for the period covered, especially for those with little experience of poetry.