Poetry anthologies are now expected to make holy war; but what to do with The New Poetry, which strives so earnestly to turn its trumpet-majors into angels? The 55 poets collected here are, it seems, seraphs of a benevolent novelty, somehow singing their good news at once uniquely and in shimmering unison. 'A multicultural society,' write the editors in their introduction, 'challenges the very idea of a centre, and produces pluralism of poetic voice.' This plurality has, in the last decade, produced a new poetry, one which 'emphasises accessibility, democracy and responsiveness, humour and seriousness, and reaffirms the art's significance as public utterance. The new poetry highlights the beginning of the end of British poetry's tribal divisions and isolation, and a new cohesiveness - its constituent parts "talk" to one another readily, eloquently and freely, while preserving their unique identities.'

LRB 5 August 1993 | PDF Download