Romantic Poets

Library Journal

In 2011, Salem published the fourth edition of its Critical Survey of Poetry (LJ 5/15/11), in 14 volumes and some 6500 pages, at a price of $1295 (which includes access to the Salem Literature Online database). Here, Reisman (English, Charleston Southern Univ.; Contemporary Southern Men Fiction Writers) gathers the lengthy entries on individual poets into two dozen paperback volumes that treat specific movements in poetry, poets from specific countries or ethnic or religious backgrounds, and those whose work has centered on specific themes or approaches. While the selection of writers in some volumes—each contains a couple dozen or so—could be questioned (aren't many poets "visionary" or "experimental"?), readers will encounter in others, e.g., African American Poets, the figures they would expect to be included. Many volumes begin with essays from the 2011 work; others feature new introductions. Some of the new introductions unfortunately fail to pull together a narrative that unites the poets, while a few that are taken from the earlier work are more general and appropriate but fail to mention individual poets (the otherwise excellent introductory essay in Gay and Lesbian Themes addresses queer theory but mentions no poets). VERDICT Public and high school libraries that do not have a need—or budget—for the complete Critical Survey yet have class assignments or other frequent questions on specific types of poets—beat, African American, feminist, etc.—may want to purchase volumes from this set as valuable reference tools or as circulating material. Larger public and academic libraries can add these as circulating volumes to complement their "Critical Survey" reference sets.—Marcia Welsh, Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH