Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present

just in time - book like new, thanks , I recommend them

Lehman's collection of prose poems in this volume is outstanding. He covers a wide expanse of authors, beginning with Poe and Emerson and ending with young poets working today. The selection of poems gives the reader an excellent sense for how this genre/form of poetry has evolved from its very early, experimental days in the late 19th century as 'lyric prose' to its more complex and integrated (almost sui generis) incarnation today. If you find prose poetry, or flash fiction, to be an interesting form of writing, I would definitely recommend this book. I am a college English professor, and I am strongly considering proposing a course on prose poetry in the near future that will take this collection as its central text. The only slightly negative thing I have to say about the book is the fact that Lehman's introductory essay, which is written with his usual insight and clarity (those familiar with the Best American Poetry anthologies for which he is the series editor will know what I'm talking about here), is just not a deep enough study of the form of prose poetry. --As an academic, I am naturally holding Lehman to a higher standard than other readers in terms of his theorizing, and the theoretical cross-pollination that prose poems give rise to is something that interests me (again, academically) a great deal. Even though he gives a good historical accounting of how prose poetry arose as a viable poetic form, the central questions of how we differentiate prose poems from other, non-prose poems and whether or not the prose form of a poem affects how a poem means what it means, are dealt with only cursorily. For those who can and will enjoy these poems non-academically (!), this is pretty much not a concern at all. Dive in and relish them.

Love this book! I've worked with poetry students for many years and placed my own poems with traditional publishers for a decade or so beyond that, but I just never got into prose poetry. When I finally decided to study the genre seriously, this book happened to arrive first with its luscious lines giving insight into the quality, subject matter, and poetic characteristics of prose poems written in America, from Poe (actually Emerson, whose name didn't contribute to the alliterative P's going in the title) to the present day.Beginning with David Lehman's learned but reader-friendly Introduction, the book provides an overview of the form, which nicely prepared me to understand or, at least, better appreciate the prose poems I was about to read. As it turned out though, the poetry selected for this anthology are highly accessible on their own.I've since read more collections and explanations of prose poetry, some of which I'll comment on and recommend in subsequent reviews for Amazon. This edition, however, is my top choice for a prose poem anthology and will be most likely to get dog-eared as I re-read the lively poems again and again.

I like the idea of prose poems, but I can't say that I liked the poems in this anthology. The collection itself, however, lives up to its promise of presenting the best in American prose poetry over the centuries that the country has existed. My problem with prose poems is that many of them seem too prosaic, and they mostly offer a negative outlook.

I got this book promptly from Amazon promptly, in time for a class I'm taking in prose poetry. Lehman writes a wonderful preface to the books he edits. This is a difficult poetic form for me, and his intro illuminated what I was reading. Good reference and index, short bio of each poet. For learning purposes, I would have liked to have some of this information with the poems as individual prefaces to each author's work. That would mean less leafing through the text for vital information. However, this is not solely a teaching text and the book's format allows the poems to stand alone and speak for themselves. I am at a stage, though, where a little guidance allows me deeper into the meaning of what I am reading.

A good read, but not all poems are tony liking. This book is worth money.

I've never known that there has been so many prose poem tradition in American Literature, and, this book is able to show it. Indeed, we can read, and think about, argues and concepts in order to introduce criteria defining what could be prose poetry. This characteristic is reinforced by the chronological approach, and the mix of author styles that was choose being representative of prose poem.

Excellent survey of the prose poetry world. Definitely worth the read for anyone interested in prose poetry or flash fiction.