In this generous anthology, Joel Conarroe has assembled the work of eight poets who have shaped—and to some extent defined—American verse since 1940: Elizabeth Bishop, James Merrill, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, and Robert Lowell. The 164 selections in
Eight American Poets
include widely anthologized works like Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz," several of Berryman's "Dream Songs," and Anne Sexton's "Ringing the Bells," as well as poems that are less familiar but just as haunting. Prefaced with a discerning introduction and individual biographical essays.