Eight American Poets

The effect of this companionable canonical anthology is like that of a classic, high-aiming radio talk show as Conarroe assembles a selective generational gathering of remarkable current or recent American poets. His choices from the work of Roethke, Bishop, Lowell, Berryman, Sexton, Plath, Ginsberg and Merrill are meticulously reliable, but the volume is superbly orchestrated beyond that basic music, providing a brief essay about each poet, with the book itself intelligently introduced by the editor. As a sequel to Conarroe's Six American Poets, issued in 1991 and offering a view of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, Hughes, and Williams, this one brings readers up to date, in reasonable detail and depth, with later writers who are almost certain to last-and whose influence on many poets writing now is visceral and intricate. Nearly any reader will want to own this. (Oct.)