Introduction

doi:10.1017/9781009180047.001

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2023

Daniel Morris

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Daniel Morris

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Daniel Morris: Affiliation:
Purdue University, Indiana

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Summary

Noting the lack of poetry reviews in newspapers and the rise of the novel as the preeminent literary genre in the United States, Gioia, writing in The Atlantic, worries that an insulated subculture has taken custody of poetry: “Even if great poetry continues to be written, it has retreated from the center of literary life. Though supported by a loyal coterie, poetry has lost the confidence that it speaks to and for the general culture.” Contra Gioia, the success of US poet laureate Robert Pinsky’s 1997 “Favorite Poem Project,” to which, as the project website reports, “18,000 Americans wrote in to share their favorite poems – Americans from ages 5 to 97, from every state, representing a range of occupations, kinds of education, and backgrounds” – suggests a strong undercurrent of enthusiastic poetry readers.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to American Poetry and Politics since 1900 , pp. 1 - 15

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009180047.001 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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References

Works Cited

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Introduction

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