4/18/22

I recently read through another poetry anthology collection published in the 20th-century, A Comprehensive Anthology of American Verse. Like that, The New Pocket Anthology by Oscar Williams is definitely a book of its time, and therefore a lot of American voices are missing in this collection.

If I were to rank these two against each other, I would put this one, The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse above the Comprehensive Anthology.

Why? This one was published in 1961 and so it contains more poetry from the 20th-century.

This one is arranged in alphabetical order by poet, whereas the Comprehensive anthology is done chronologically and I like that. Neither has any information about the poets, and it is funny to think that someone reading them in their publication time wouldn't have access to Wikipedia and would have to look up to find more about the poets in Encyclopedias, card catalogs, etc.

What is the difference in the editors? Both were poets. Aiken was a poet laureate. Williams was more of an anthologist (he published over a dozen) while Aiken was more of a working writer (of novels and short stories).

I hope to stack rank some other collections along the way, but my leaderboard so far:

1. The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse.
2. A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry.

BTW--if you are looking for a masterclass in how to showcase the diverse voices in America--take a look at American Christmas Stories by Connie Willis ( )