I’d never heard of the poet Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980). Okay, I may be a cretin, but in my defense, she died while my poetry diet was generally confined to the British crows (Romantics, Victorians, Moderns), and the famous American poets like Edgar Les Masters, Sara Teasdale, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg.
Two years ago, Library of America has a sale, and included were a slew of volumes of “selected poems” for their American Poets Project. Among the many poets included were collections by Sandburg, Anne Stevenson, John Berryman, Edna St. Vincent Millary, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edith Wharton, and many others. One of those “others” was Rukeyser.
Muriel Rukeyser: Selected Poems was published in 2004. The list price for a new copy on Amazon is $20. LOA still has it on sale for $7.00. I bought the LOA volume, along with several other books and avoided shipping costs. Copies of her collections, collected poems, and selected poems are still in print; the benefit of the LOA version is that it provides a concise introduction to her poetry ,and it was edited by poet Adrienne Rich (1929-2012).(I’d previously read Rich’s poetry. I’m not a total cretin.)
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
3 – Contingencies – poem by L.L. Barkat at Every Day Poems.
“Crossing the Bar,” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Crawling Down Wombat Holes: Australia Poems – Lucas Smith at The Sprawl of Quality.
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