From Publishers Weekly
The growing American preoccupation with spirituality could seek refinement and identity from this anthology compiled by Halpern (The American Poetry Anthology). Defining his criteria of selection more as anomalous power of voice and vision than anything representative, he assembles a powerful gallery. (And excludes some writers-Whitman, Dickinson, et al.-who might otherwise be at home with his theme.) Readers can wander from Rumi's (1207-1273) playfully moralistic "Dervish at the Door," a poem of story and dialogue, to Rimbaud's "perilous path" in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," onward and inward to Rilke's Duino Elegies: "Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'/ hierarchies?," and finally encounter the "angelheaded hipsters" of Allen Ginsberg's Howl. The many textures of spiritual experience seem to sway and deepen with a reader's passage. The translators include Robert Bly, Jane Hirshfield and Stephen Mitchell.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
If this were an anthology with literary history instead of packaging as its concern, one might wonder how it is possible to get from Rumi, Lalla, and Mirabai-three poets from Eastern, oral traditions-to Blake, Rimbaud, and Rilke and to wind up with Yeats, Hart Crane, and Allen Ginsberg. Each poet has a similar "texture," according to editor and well-known poet Halpern (forget about issues of translation), and has "reached," rather vaguely, "into...the holy fire of the soul, has been baptized by fire and has emerged, via the poem." While these editorial principles are shaky at best, the volume may be of some interest to readers who would be drawn to poetry for its "visionary" (read also "spiritual" or "occult") qualities. It is therefore recommended for merchandising public libraries without reserves in this area.
Steven R. Ellis, Brooklyn P.L.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
