This literary companion carries you into the lives and poetic lines of 41 of America's most admired poets from the last century. From popular favorites such as Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg to the more esoteric T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, this handbook also introduces you to living poets, such as Rita Dove, who are still inscribing their places in literary history. The book opens with an approach to analyzing poetry, and each author-specific chapter includes sections devoted to Chief Works, Discussion and Research Topics, and a Selected Bibliography.

Complete list of authors covered in this comprehensive guide: Edgar Lee Masters, Edward Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, John Crowe Ransom, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Jean Toomer, Louise Bogan, Hart Crane, Allen Tare, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Countée Cullen, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, James Dickey, Denise Levertov, A.R. Ammons, Allen Ginsberg, W. S. Merwin, James Wright, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Amiri Baraka, Wendy Rose, Joy Harjo, Rita Dove, Cathy Song