Michael Schmidt

A valuable and brave book... reliably thoughtful and properly controversial. Furthermore, its devotion is always to poetry, not to personality

Readers who delight in the sheer diversity of 20th century poetry in English are richly catered for

Michael Schmidt is eminently well-suited to take the measure of the changes and vicissitudes that brought poetry to its current modern character

Schmidt is no despiser of popular taste for all his declared modernism, his agenda is elastic and inclusive... I can imagine teaching out of this rich, warm, generous collection for years, without getting bored, limited, or enraged with its editor

It is hard to see who could have done the job better than Schmidt

Schmidt gives us a chance to settle down with poets we wish we had known better

A satisfying selection that reminds us that Lawrence didn't just write about animals, Betjeman wasn't always jolly, and Plath is more interesting for her collapsed perspectives than for her self-exposure

The selections from the greats are generous and well chosen

Michael Schmidt’s anthology includes the work of more than a hundred poets from every part of the English-speaking world. What links their diverse voices is a common language: each poem, in its own way, adds to the resources of the medium and makes it new.<br/>
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The poems in this book are allowed to slip free of their moorings in the biography and history of the last century to create new spaces and times. They have been chosen because they are exceptional, profound and unique in what they do to language, regardless of their subject matter or the orientation of the poet. It is a powerful reminder that in the twentieth century poems did what they have never done before, and it provides us with a unique insight into the forces that will shape the poetry of the twenty-first century.

The Harvill Book of 20th Century Poetry in English

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Michael Schmidt

Praise for The Harvill Book of 20th Century Poetry in English

A valuable and brave book... reliably thoughtful and properly controversial. Furthermore, its devotion is always to poetry, not to personality

Readers who delight in the sheer diversity of 20th century poetry in English are richly catered for

Michael Schmidt is eminently well-suited to take the measure of the changes and vicissitudes that brought poetry to its current modern character

A valuable and brave book... reliably thoughtful and properly controversial. Furthermore, its devotion is always to poetry, not to personality

Readers who delight in the sheer diversity of 20th century poetry in English are richly catered for

Michael Schmidt is eminently well-suited to take the measure of the changes and vicissitudes that brought poetry to its current modern character

A valuable and brave book... reliably thoughtful and properly controversial. Furthermore, its devotion is always to poetry, not to personality

Readers who delight in the sheer diversity of 20th century poetry in English are richly catered for

Michael Schmidt is eminently well-suited to take the measure of the changes and vicissitudes that brought poetry to its current modern character

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