This handy compilation (to which I myself contributed a couple of notices) covers, according to the jacket copy, 'some 1500' poets and 'charts the shift from "poetry" to "poetries" - from primarily British and American traditions to a rich diversity of younger poetic identities elsewhere'. It may be doubted whether 'poetry' is so easily dislodged in favour of 'poetries', but no editor is responsible for his jacket copy. Nonetheless, the jacket copy (like the accompanying publicity material) is a test of the current way of marketing poetry; and it is disheartening that after a brief nod to 'critical assessment' and 'biographical and bibliographical information', the jacket flap launches into its trumpeting conclusion, that '20th-century poets have lived far from humdrum lives':

LRB 26 May 1994 | PDF Download