Starred Review Selecting poets and poems to represent a century of poetry, especially the riotous twentieth century in America, is a massive undertaking fraught with peril and complication. Poet Rita Dove Pulitzer Prize winning former U.S. poet laureate, professor, and presidential scholar barked on what became a consuming four-year odyssey. She reports on obstacles and discoveries in an exacting and forthright introduction, featuring striking quotes, vivid profiles, and a panoramic view of the evolution of poetic visions and styles that helped bring about social as well as artistic change. Dove credits Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound with building "the framework for modern poetry" in the U.S., then applauds the first women poets who "breached the ramparts of male power" y Lowell, H. D., and Gertrude Stein. Dove writes incisively about African American poets and other poets of color and has included poems by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sherman Alexie, Sandra Cisneros, Kevin Young, and Elizabeth Alexander. Dove's incisive perception of the role of poetry in cultural and social awakenings infuses this zestful and rigorous gathering of poems both necessary and unexpected by 180 American poets. This landmark anthology will instantly enhance and invigorate every poetry shelf or section.