![]() ![]() ![]() It was, after all, an anthology, but its regal presentation tempted me into believing it promised to be something more. I felt I was about to sink my teeth into an indulgent treat, but I expected it to be filled with the sort of sweet that I’ve tasted time and again. When I received the gorgeously hardbound text, its stately cloth-wrapped burnt-orange cover adorned with recessed, shimmering chocolate-cherry lettering, aroused an expectation of decadence. And although, some areas feel underrepresented, Rita Dove successfully sifted through the endless possibilities and crafted a deliciously rich collection that did not rest solely on the expected canon of usual suspects. The multitudes of poets and poems that flower the era seem endless. This, as we can imagine, was no easy task. Her multigenerational, cross-cultural collection aims to put into historical perspective the broad and meaty scope of poetry’s artistic development over those 100 years. Poet Laureate Rita Dove crafted The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs.” This, I believe, is the impetus from which former U.S. Pablo Picasso once stated that, “Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry, Edited by Rita Dove, Reviewed by Mary Wise ![]()
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