Summary

20th Century Poetry and Poetics is considered the most important teaching anthology published in Canada for poetry courses at the college and university market. The greatly anticipated fourth edition of the anthology was published in the Spring of 1996 and the number of poets included was expanded by more than fifty per cent. The twenty-five poets new to this edition - - twelve women and thirteen men - are from Canada, the UK, the United States, and the Commonwealth. The list of new poets include Nobel Prize winner Dereck Walcott; well-known American poets Sharon Olds, Louise Gluck, Denise Levertov, Galway Kinnell, Robert Hass, Robert Bly, John Ashbery, Philip Levine, and Rita Dove; Irish poet Eavan Boland; Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy; and Canadians Patrick Lane, Sharon Thesen, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Don McKay, Daphne Marlatt, Gary Geddes, Bronwen Wallace, Robert Kroetsch, Lorna Crozier, Tim Lilburn, Roo Borson, and bpNichol. The book provides in-depth selections from the work of each poet, and where possible, places the poems in the significant context of the poets' own views on poetics. In addition, there are useful biographies and comments on the poets in the form of headnotes that appear at the beginning of each poet's work.