BOOKS
THE MUSE AS HOUSE GUEST
NEW POEMS BY AMERICAN POETS 2. Edited by Rolfe Humphries, Bal·
lantine Books. 35c.
THE NEW POETS OF ENGLAND AND AMERI CA. An Anthology edited
end selected by Donold HolI, Robert Pock, Louis Simpson. Meridian
Books. $1.45.
POEMS 1947-1957, by Williom Joy Smith. Atlentic-Little Brown. $3.50.
AN APOLOGY BOTH WAYS. By Richord Aldridge. Indion" Univer–
sity Press. $2.75.
POETS OF TODAY IV. Scribner's. $3.95.
NO LIGHT EVADED. By Liso Grenelle. The Golden Quill Press. $2.50.
BERG, GOODMAN, MEZEY. New Ventures Press. 75c.
THE FALSE
&
TRUE UNICORN. By Jomes Broughton. Eve rgreen Books. $1,
Young America can still be heard singing, by anyone with
very sensitive auditory equipment. Writing verse, publishing volumes,
giving public readings from their work, winning prizes and fellow–
ships, a lot of young men and women continue to go about the
business of being poets.
If
this is news
to
most readers, lost as I imagine
most readers are in contemplation of "the novel," it is partly because
the poems of the young make little clamor. Resourceful leaders are also
lacking to them, and self-advocacy in the form of critical pronounce–
ments is generally not a part of their business.
Yet the younger poets are not without ample public support, as I
gather from the biographical data included in the several volumes
I have at hand. Honors, for example, abound: if a poet is unlucky
enough to miss out on one of the Borestone Mountain Awards he may
still capture the Glascock Memorial Prize or the less lugubrious-sounding
Lamont Poetry Selection, bestowed annually by the Academy of Ameri–
can Poets. Besides this group, a multitude of lesser societies for the en–
couragement of verse writing flourish, whether in Atlanta, Worcester,
Denver, or New York City. Even the Government has one, named The
Federal Poets. In some respects, moreover, conditions of publication
seem to have become increasingly favorable to the little known poet.
\
It is true that the more prominent publishers continue to list just about
