The poetry in this collection demonstrates the full range and power of the contemporary American imagination. The verve, freedom and boldness of American English are combined with the harmonies of modern cadence. Here are distillations of 20th-century thought and reflections of changing social realities, scientific and psychoanalytical insights and the strong voices of feminism and black consciousness. Included are works by: Sylvia Plath; John Berryman; Amy Clampitt; Allen Ginsberg; Rita Dove; Robert Lowell; Wallace Stevens; John Ashbery; Adriennce Rich; Robert Hayden; Theodore Roethke; Langston Hughes; and Louise Gluck.