American poetry is a vast and perplexing literature, valuing tradition as much as novelty. Some have claimed that America needs a poetry equal to the country's distinctiveness. Others point out that American poetry welcomes techniques, styles, and traditions that originate from far beyond its borders.

In this introduction to American poetry, David Caplan pays close attention to American poets' verse forms, meters, and styles. Examples range from Anne Bradstreet to the poets of the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers how other major figures such as T.S. Eliot, Phillis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, W.H. Auden, and Langston Hughes emphasize convention or idiosyncrasy, and turn to American English as an important artistic resource. This concise examination of American poetry
enriches our understanding of both the literature's distinctive achievement and the place of its most important writers within it.