Selected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

For those overwhelmed by the recent Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren, the editor of that volume, Brandeis professor of English John Burt, has culled The Selected Poems of Robert Penn Warren. As Burt notes, while RPW was first poet laureate of the U.S. and twice the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, he, like Thomas Hardy, is still better known as a novelist, though he ""thought of himself, first and last, as a poet"" as, rightly, did Hardy. Burt's selection and cogent introduction bring readers into line with the poet's self-conception, presenting ample, accessible choices from Penn Warren's 60-plus years of published verse. ( Apr.)