Homegrown

100 AMERICAN POEMS (184 pp.)--Edited by Selden Rodman--Penguin Signet [25-c-].

Selden Rodman has collected 100 American poems, ranging from the twisted, Donne-like prayers of colonial minister Edward Taylor to a fine elegy by 31-year-old Robert Lowell. To introduce the poems, Rodman has written a breathless essay which takes the reader on a dizzy, profitless tour of American poetic history. Most readers will prefer to skip Rodman's off-the-hip grading of American poets and go directly to their work. On the whole, his selections are very good. He has omitted such chestnuts as The Raven and 0 Captain! My Captain! and included less well-known poems. The book is spiced by anonymous folk verse, including The Whore on the Snow-Crust, a frank 18th Century New England broadside in defense of bundling. For a quarter, a good buy.

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