US Poetry in the Age of Empire, 1979-2012, 2014
Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Series

Examining poetry by Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, and Amiri Baraka, among others, this book shows that leading US poets since 1979 have performed the role of public intellectual through their poetic rhetoric. Gwiazda's argument aims to revitalize the role of poetry and its social value within an era of global politics.

Introduction: Civic Poetry, 1979-2012 1. "Beyond My Outrage or My Admiration": Robert Pinsky's An Explanation of America 2. "Nothing Else Left to Read": Adrienne Rich's "An Atlas of the Difficult World" 3. "Who the Biggest Terrorist": Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew Up America" 4. Ether: Juliana Spahr, Ben Lerner, Lisa Jarnot 5. Dreams of a Common Language: Mark Nowak, Anne Boyer, Rodrigo Toscano Coda: For Whom Does One Write?

Piotr K. Gwiazda is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA. He is the author of James Merrill and W.H. Auden (2007) and has also published two books of poetry, Gagarin Street (2005) and Messages (2012).