A history of American poetry

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This handbook addresses the need for fresh interpretations of both canonical and non-canonical poems through thirty-one chapters that engage with revisionary trends in poetry scholarship. It offers a critical history of American poetry that challenges conventional views while providing insightful readings of well-known poems and introducing lesser-known poets and texts. Each chapter pairs two poets in dialogue, presenting a representative text from each for comparative analysis. Alongside familiar works essential for understanding American poetry's development, the handbook includes discussions on multilingual colonial poetry, nineteenth-century Native American poetry, and contemporary experimental poetry. These paired readings encourage readers to draw connections, such as comparing communal conventions in colonial poetry with the collective poetics of contemporary performance poetry. The handbook promotes cross-period readings and includes annotated paired readings and further suggestions to inspire students to view poems as sites of historical and political significance. Serving as both a manual for current theoretical directions in literary studies and a practical criticism guide, this resource helps students explore the diversity and multiple poetic traditions within American poetry, highlighting its intersections with historical contexts and other literatures.