SUB Hamburg 111 THE A 2011/11828 PENGUIN ANTHOLOGY = OF = TWENTIETH- CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RITA DOVE PENGUIN BOOKS Contents Introduction by Rita Dove xxix Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950) FROM Spoon River Anthology: The Hill • 1 Fiddler Jones • 2 Petit, the Poet • 3 Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) Miniver Cheevy • 4 Mr. Flood s Party • 5 James WeldonJohnson (1871-1938) The Creation • 7 Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) 10 The Poet • 10 Life's Tragedy • 10 Robert Frost (1874-1963) 12 The Death of the Hired Man • 12 Mending Wall • 17 Birches • 18 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening • 20 Tree at My Window • 20 Directive • 21 CONTENTS Amy Lowell (1874-1925) 23 Patterns • 23 Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) 26 Susie Asado • 26 FROM Tender Buttons: A Box • 26 A Plate • 27 Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) 28 I Sit and Sew • 28 Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) 29 Grass • 29 Cahoots • 29 Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) 31 Peter Quince at the Clavier • 31 Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock • 33 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird • 34 Anecdote of the Jar • 36 The Emperor of Ice-Cream • 36 Of Mere Being • 36 Angelina Weld Grimke (1880-1958) 38 Fragment • 38 William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) 39 Tract • 39 DanseRusse • 41 The Red Wheelbarrow • 41 The Yachts • 42 FROM Asphodel, That Greeny Flower (Book I, lines 1-92) • 43 SaraTeasdale (1884-1933,) 51 Moonlight • 51 There Will Come Soft Rains • 51 CONTENTS Ezra Pound (1885-1972) 53 The Jewel Stairs' Grievance • 53 The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter • 53 In a Station of the Metro • 54 Hugh Selwyn Mauberley • 54 FROM Canto LXXXI (Libretto: "Yet / Ere the season died a-cold") • 62 Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (1886-1961) 65 Sea Rose • 65 Helen • 65 FROM The Walls Do Not Fall: 1 ("An incident here and there") • 66 FROM Hermetic Definition: "Red Rose and a Beggar": 1 ("Why did you come") • 68 2 ("Take me anywhere ...") • 68 5 ("Venice—Venus?") • 69 Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) 70 Gale in April • 70 Shine, Perishing Republic • 70 Clouds at Evening • 71 Credo • 71 Marianne Moore (1887-1972) 73 The Fish • 73 Poetry • 74 Poetry • 75 T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) 76 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock • 76 Preludes • 80 The Waste Land • 81 Claude McKay (1889-1948) 93 If We Must Die • 93 The Harlem Dancer • 93 CONTENTS Robert Hayden (1913-1980) 155 Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday • 155 Those Winter Sundays • 156 Frederick Douglass • 156 Middle Passage • 157 Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) 162 Effort at Speech Between Two People • 162 Then I Saw What the Calling Was • 163 The Poem as Mask • 163 Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) 165 The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me • 165 JohnBerryman (1914-1972) 167 FROM The Dream Songs: 4 ("Filling her compact & delicious body") • 167 14 ("Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so") • 167 29 ("There sat down, once") • 168 149 ("This world is gradually becoming a place") • 168 Henry s Understanding • 169 RandallJarrell (1914-1965) 170 90 North • 170 The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner • 171 The Woman at the Washington Zoo • 171 Next Day • 172 Weldon Kees (1914-1955) 174 For My Daughter • 174 Dudley Randall (1914-2000) 175 A Different Image • 175 William Stafford (1914-1993) 176 Traveling through the Dark • 176 At the Bomb Testing Site • 177 CONTENTS Ruth Stone (1915-) 178 Scars • 178 Margaret Walker (1915-1998) 179 For My People • 179 Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) 181 The Mother • 181 A Song in the Front Yard • 182 The Bean Eaters • 182 The Lovers of the Poor • 183 We Real Cool • 185 The Blackstone Rangers • 186 Robert Lowell (1917-1977) 188 "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" • 188 Skunk Hour • 188 For the Union Dead • 190 Robert Duncan (1919-1988) 193 Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow • 193 My Mother Would Be a Falconress • 194 Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-) 197 Populist Manifesto • 197 William Meredith (1919-2007) 201 Parents • 201 Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) 203 Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry • 203 Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) 204 The Hyacinth Garden in Brooklyn • 204 August 1945 • 205 CONTENTS Galway Kinnell (1927-) 268 The Bear • 268 After Making Love We Hear Footsteps • 271 Saint Francis and the Sow • 271 W. S.Merwin (1927-) 273 Air • 273 For the Anniversary of My Death • 274 Yesterday • 274 Chord • 275 James Wright (1927-1980) 277 A Blessing • 277 Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio • 277 Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota • 278 In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia, Has Been Condemned • 278 Donald Hall (1928-) 280 My Son My Executioner • 280 Digging • 280 Philip Levine (1928-) 282 Animals Are Passing from Our Lives • 282 They Feed They Lion • 283 You Can Have It • 284 The Simple Truth • 285 Anne Sexton (1928-1974) 287 Her Kind • 287 The Abortion • 288 Wanting to Die • 288 In Celebration of My Uterus • 290 Rowing • 291 AdrienneRich (1929-) 293 Orion • 293 Planetarium • 294 CONTENTS A Valediction Forbidding Mourning • 296 FROM Twenty-One Love Poems: XIII ("The rules break like a thermometer...") • 296 Gregory Corso (1930-2001) 298 Marriage • 298 GarySnyder (1930-) 302 Hay for the Horses • 302 Riprap • 303 Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout • 303 Derek Walcott (1930-) 304 A Far Cry from Africa • 304 Sea Grapes • 305 FROM The Schooner Flight (part 11, After the Storm: "There's a fresh light that follows...") • 306 The Light of the World • 307 FROM Omeros, Book VII, LXTV, i ("I sang of quiet Achille, Afolabe's son...") • 310 Miller Williams (1930-) 312 LetMe Tell You • 312 Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) 314 The Idea of Ancestry • 314 Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (1934-) 316 Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note • 316 An Agony. As Now. • 317 SOS • 318 BlackArt • 318 TedBerrigan (1934-1983) 320 Wrong Train • 320 A Final Sonnet • 320 CONTENTS AudreLorde (1934-1992) 322 Power • 322 Sonia Sanchez (1934-) 324 poem at thirty • 324 Mark Strand (1934-) 326 The Prediction • 326 The Night, the Porch • 326 Russell Edson (1935-) 328 A Stone Is Nobody's • 328 Mary Oliver (1935-) 329 Singapore • 329 The Summer Day • 330 Charles Wright (1935-) 331 Reunion • 331 Dead Color • 331 California Dreaming • 332 Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) 335 homage to my hips • 335 [at last we killed the roaches] • 335 the death of fred clifton • 336 to my last period • 336 June Jordan (1936-2002) 337 Poem About My Rights • 337 Frederick Seidel (1936-) 340 1968 • 340 CONTENTS xvu C. K. Williams (1936-) 342 From My Window • 342 Blades • 344 Diane Wakoski (1937-) 346 The Mechanic • 346 Michael S. Harper (1938-) 348 Dear John, Dear Coltrane • 348 Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song • 349 Grandfather • 351 Nightmare Begins Responsibility • 352 Charles Simic (1938-) 353 Stone • 353 Fork • 354 Classic Ballroom Dances • 354 Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008) 355 Grandmother • 355 Frank Bidart (1939-) 356 Ellen West • 356 Carl Dennis (1939-) 367 Spring Letter • 367 Two or Three Wishes • 368 Stephen Dunn (1939-) 369 Allegory of the Cave • 369 Tucson • 370 Robert Pinsky (1940-) 371 History of My Heart • 371 The Questions • 377 Samurai Song • 379 CONTENTS James Welch (1940-2003) 380 Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat • 380 Billy Collins (1941-) 381 Introduction to Poetry • 381 The Dead • 382 Toi Derricotte (1941-) 383 Allen Ginsberg • 383 The Weakness • 384 Stephen Dobyns (1941-) 386 How to Like It • 386 Lullaby • 387 Robert Hass (1941-) 390 Song • 390 The Pornographer • 390 The Return of Robinson Jeffers • 391 LynHejinian (1941-) 394 FROM My Life: A name trimmed with colored ribbons • 394 B. H. Fairchild (1942-) 396 The Machinist, Teaching His Daughter to Play the Piano • 396 Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) (1942-) 398 But He Was Cool or: he even stopped for green lights • 398 A Poem to Complement Other Poems • 399 William Matthews (1942-1997) 402 In Memory of the Utah Stars • 402 The Accompanist • 403 CONTENTS xix Sharon Olds (1942-) 405 The Language of the Brag • 405 The Lifting • 406 Henry Taylor (1942-) 408 Barbed Wire • 408 Tess Gallagher (1943-) 409 Black Silk • 409 Under Stars • 410 Michael Palmer (1943-) 411 IDoNot • 411 James Tate (1943-) 414 The Lost Pilot • 414 Norman Dubie (1945-) 416 Elizabeth's War with the Christmas Bear • 416 The Funeral • 417 Carol Muske-Dukes (1945-) 419 August, Los Angeles, Lullaby • 419 Kay Ryan (1945-) 421 Turtle • 421 Bestiary • 421 Larry Levis (1946-1996) 423 Childhood Ideogram • 423 Winter Stars • 424 Adrian C. Louis (1946-) 427 Looking for Judas • 427 CONTENTS Thomas Lux (1946-) 428 The People of the Other Village • 428 Marilyn Nelson (1946-) 429 The Ballad of Aunt Geneva • 429 Star-Fix • 430 RonSilliman (1946-) 433 Albany • 433 Ai (1947-2010) 435 Cuba, 1962 • 435 The Kid • 435 Finished • 436 YusefKomunyakaa (1947-) 439 Thanks • 439 Tu Do Street • 440 Facing It • 441 Nude Interrogation • 442 Nathaniel Mackey (1947-) 443 Song of the Andoumboulou: 21 • 443 Gregory Orr (1947-) 445 Gathering the Bones Together • 445 Two Lines from the Brothers Grimm • 447 Origin of the Marble Forest • 448 Roberta Hill Whiteman (1947-) 449 Reaching Yellow River • 449 Albert Goldbarth (1948-) 452 Away • 452 CONTENTS xxi Heather McHugh (1948-) 454 Language Lesson 1976 • 454 What He Thought • 455 Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-) 457 In Cold Storm Light • 457 Olga Broumas (1949-) 458 Calypso • 458 Victor Hernandez Cruz (1949-) 459 Latin & Soul • 459 Jane Miller (1949-) 461 Miami Heart • 461 David St. John (1949-) 463 Iris • 463 C.D.Wright (1949-) 465 Why Ralph Refuses to Dance • 465 Girl Friend Poem #3 • 466 Crescent • 466 Carolyn Forche (1950-) 467 Taking Off My Clothes • 467 Jorie Graham