The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature

A collection of 150 poems dealing with the relationship between man and nature, by such authors as Margaret Atwood, James Dickey, William Stafford, and Nancy Willard

YA--These 150 selections focus on a sense of discovery and the relationship between humankind and nature, offer ing a consciousness-raising awareness of the threats to our environment. While there is no specific biographical infor mation on the contibutors, the introduc tion analyzes many of the poems as re lated to the theme and the poet's interest. Margaret Atwood, James Dick ey, William Stafford, and Nancy Wil lard are among the 93 poets represented. Useful for curriculum support and for young adult readers, whose future world is in jeopardy.

Julia M. Losinski, for merly at Prince George's County Memo rial Library, Hyattsville, MD

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

This anthology contains a selection of poems about nature from 93 contemporary American poets, ranging from our one indisputably great poet, Czeslaw Milosz, to major figures like A.R. Ammons and Donald Hall, to a good number of less-well-known authors. Oddly enough, it excludes one of our most potent poets of nature, Robert Bly, whose more polemical anthology News of the Universe (LJ 5/15/80) addresses similar concerns but includes major figures in world literature from the Romantic period to our own. Merrill's selection is prompted by current concern for the fate of the earth, but it is hard to see how some of these poems are about nature. The result is an agreeable miscellany in which the quality of the poems varies greatly. Most readers will find something to enjoy, but few will find it an essential purchase.
- Frank Lepkowski, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.