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I questioned the literary tastes of editor, Rita Dove, her judgement, her methodology, her results.

For all of its lofty promises that it will introduce readers to the “most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years,” there was, as I initially saw it, so much wrong with the collection so many essential poets missing or underrepresented. When I first perused Dove’s book, I confess to being a bit put off. The public discourse around Penguin’s Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry has been shaped, in large part, by noted poetry critic Helen Vendler’s curt, dismissive review in the New York Review of Books, titled, “Are These Poems to Remember?”

Editing them is largely a thankless task, and going by some of the critical response to this collection, Rita Dove has certainly been less than thanked for her efforts. There’s always too little of what’s good and too much of what’s bad, depending on who’s judging. There has yet to be an anthology published that hasn’t been met with condemnation from some critic or other. Oft criticized, rarely praised, they are the staple of survey literature courses, and the bane of students everywhere. Feared and suffered by many, loved and appreciated by few. Poetry anthologies are, in general, the bêtes noires of the literary world.