American poetry is a vast and perplexing literature valuing tradition as much as novelty. Some
have claimed that America needs a poetry equal to the country's distinctiveness. Others point
out that American poetry welcomes techniques styles and traditions that originate from far
beyond its borders. In this introduction to American poetry David Caplan pays close attention
to American poets' verse forms meters and styles. Examples range from Anne Bradstreet to the
poets of the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers how other major figures such as T.S.
Eliot Phillis Wheatley Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson W.H. Auden and Langston Hughes
emphasize convention or idiosyncrasy and turn to American English as an important artistic
resource. This concise examination of American poetry enriches our understanding of both the
literature's distinctive achievement and the place of its most important writers within it.
