Poems of the American South (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series) Hardcover – August 5, 2014

This is a fine book of American poetry. I'm not a big fan of the American South, so I chose this book with some trepidation. I didn't want bible-thumping or antebellum nonsense. And the editor of this anthology did a great job avoiding these and selecting the interesting poems. My favorite is probably "Burned Man" by David Huddle, which tells the story of a man badly burned in a factory accident. Phillis Levin's "Elegy for a Magnolia" (the tree happens to be in New Jersey), Ray Gonzalez's "Rattlesnakes Hammered on the Wall," and Natasha Trethewey's "Flounder" are all exceptional poems. In fact, I like all of Trethewey's poems in this slim volume. (It helps to know something about her to appreciate them.) Of course, all the Langston Hughes poems are worth reading.Then there are some clinkers. Frank Stanford's "The Gospel Bird," way too weird and abstruse for my taste, was my least favorite. C. D. Wright's "The Ozark Odes" composed of snippets of poetry and other oddities, left me cold. But the number of poems I liked far exceeded those I didn't.The volumes in the Pocket Poets have been uniformly excellent. This one is not different. I found one typo in this book. The first I've encountered. This volume does well highlighting a region of the country with a checkered history. Recommended.

I love this book. The foreword is elegantly written (which is especially hard when writing something about the trickiness of Southern heritage). The poems themselves are great, spanning from fun and joyful to somber and thought-provoking. It's an excellent anthology.Also, the book is oddly nice in a physical sense. The art on the dust cover is beautiful, and the book itself is strikingly nice-looking. The quality of the printing is great, and they've even tapered the edges of the paper. This is definitely going out on the coffee table for guests to see!

Lovely - the book itself feels nice in your hands that adds to the read - its difficult to read more than a page or two without leaning back and letting memories and recollections take over in a day dreamy haze - some poems have your heart racing, some bring a smile and others are as languid as moss hanging in a hushed misty morning. Molly Ivans is quoted having said about the South, "discuss it only with consenting adults" - and these poems will sing to you if you have spent time in the south with all its complexities.

What a beautiful little tome! Eclectic poems from and about the South, revealing the region's style, pain, warmth and complexity in words that are both generous and frugal, fluid and gritty. I will buy several more for gifts.

Not at all what I expected or needed.

A pretty good selection from both past and present, well-organized.But does anyone out there have any explanation for why Francis Scott Key's "Defence of Fort McHenry" is categorized with poems of North and South Carolina except that the editor confused Fort McHenry with Fort Sumter?