The Cambridge Companion to Modern American Poetry

Having reviewed The Cambridge Companion to American Poetry Since 1945 (Ashton, 2013) (RR 2014/178), my first concern in reviewing the present title was to distinguish it from its predecessor. In this instance, “modern” denotes the particular definition of literary modernism ranging, as Kalaidjian states in his introduction, from around 1890 to 1945. This title stretches that definition of “modern” to incorporate the evolution of American poetry up to the present day. This inclusiveness results in overlaps with the earlier title insofar as chapters across the two books share similar territories of interest, for example Chapter 7, Objectivist...