Reference Reviews

Lawrence Looks at Books

Facts on File Companion to World Poetry, 1900 to Present, edited by R. Victoria Arana. 532p. New York: Facts on File, 2008. 978-08160-6457-1; 2007-1831. $75.

Facts on File Companion to World Poetry, 1900 to Present The 465 entries of this encyclopedia survey the work of more than 200 poets of the past century. The scope excludes poets from the United States, Canada, Britain and Ireland with the exception of the Gaelic language work of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Typically each poet is represented by a brief biography and separate entries on at least one work, but occasionally more. Biographies examine the author’s background, education, career, writing, and other cultural or political activity. Favorite themes, genres and styles are also discussed. Entries on works feature collections or single poems, with detailed explication of language, structure, and imagery. A small number of articles examine special topics like colonialism, “ecopoetics,” écriture, modernism, Negritude Movement, performance poetry, and French rap. Most entries include a brief bibliography citing available editions and selected secondary sources. The editor took great pains to match her 82 contributors to their subject of study. Thus, John G. Peters, the translator of Takamura Kotaro’s Chieko poems, provides entries on both the poet and the collection. European poets receive the most coverage, but when grouped Latin America, Asia and Australia, and Africa and the Middle East are represented by 30-40 writers. The index provides access by name (including many authors not featured with entries), title of books or poems, placename, or topic. Subjects like apartheid, autobiography, god, communism, democracy, ecology, folklore, Franco, human pain, metaphysics, reality, politics, social injustice, and women include many subheadings frequently citing individual poets. This excellent introduction to modern poetry will handily serve audiences in high school, public and academic libraries.
—John R.M. Lawrence