''The New Poetry'' is a

poetry anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically cate ...

edited by Al Alvarez, published in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

and in a revised edition in 1966. It was greeted at the time as a significant review of the post-war scene in

English poetry This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including Republican Ireland after December 1922. The earliest ...

. The introduction, written by Alvarez, is an essay called ''The New Poetry or Beyond the Gentility Principle''. It originally appeared in a magazine called ''Commentary'' (not to be confused with the better-known New-York-based monthly of the same name) as a survey describing the state of modern poetry as Alvarez saw it. It made much play of contrasts between British/American poetry, old and then contemporary poetry, and for example Brits like Philip Larkin versus Ted Hughes. The criteria for inclusion in ''The New Poetry'' were these: the poets had to be British (which excluded Sylvia Plath from the first edition); they needed to have been young enough to have made their reputations only after 1950 (this excluded the likes of W. H. Auden and

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...

); and they had to appeal to Alvarez himself. There were two exceptions to the first and second of these guidelines: Alvarez included long well-established Americans

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

and John Berryman at the start of the anthology. Alvarez concluded that Lowell and Berryman were the most influential figures on British poetry writing at that time, which justified their inclusion. Each poet was represented with a minimum of five poems. In the revised edition (1966) Alvarez relaxed these rules somewhat to allow Plath and yet another American poet, Anne Sexton, to be represented. In some senses the anthology can be seen as a reaction to Robert Conquest's ''New Lines'' anthology, which appeared a decade before. The anthology included a very brief biographical note on each of the poets. The revised edition included three poems by Sylvia Plath that were previously unpublished.

Poets in ''The New Poetry'', 1966 edition

* Kingsley Amis * John Berryman *

Arthur Boyars Arthur Boyars (28 May 1925 – 6 August 2017)Nicholas Jacobs ''The Independent'', 14 August 2017. was a British poet and musicologist, who was also a translator and critic, literary editor and publisher. His ''Poems'' were published in 1944 b ...

* Iain Crichton Smith *

Donald Davie Donald Alfred Davie, FBA (17 July 1922 – 18 September 1995) was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes. Biography Davie was born in Barnsley, Y ...

D. J. Enright Dennis Joseph Enright Order of the British Empire, OBE FRSL (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored ''Academic Year'' (1955), ''Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor'' (1969) and a wide ran ...

* John Fuller * Thom Gunn * Michael Hamburger * Ian Hamilton * Geoffrey Hill *

David Holbrook David Kenneth Holbrook (9 January 1923 – 11 August 2011) was a British writer, poet and academic. From 1989 he was an Emeritus Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. Life David Holbrook was born in Norwich in 1923. He was educated at City of N ...

* Ted Hughes * Philip Larkin *

* George MacBeth * Norman MacCaig * Christopher Middleton * Sylvia Plath * Peter Porter * Peter Redgrove * Anne Sexton * Jon Silkin * R. S. Thomas * Charles Tomlinson * John Wain *

Ted Walker Edward Joseph (Ted) Walker FRSL (28 November 1934 – 19 March 2004) was a prize-winning English poet, short story writer, travel writer, TV and radio dramatist and broadcaster. Early life Ted Walker was born in Lancing, West Sussex, the son of ...

* David Wevill

References

''Poetry Daily''
website {{DEFAULTSORT:New Poetry 1962 poetry books 1966 poetry books British poetry anthologies

Poets in ''The New Poetry'', 1966 edition

See also

References