a great selection of modern poets
Hamburger is the man! He takes you through poetry in a number of European languages from the symbolism of Baudelaire up to the modernism of Pound and the European surrealists. He does tend to concentrate on German poets, I guess because German is his language, and I would have appreciated more on the Greeks like Elytis. He scores when he deals with poetry in the context of nationalism in contrast with internationalism, really pointing to a key issue of poetry and identity. In my opinion he could have done more to demolish the bland parochialism of much contemporary English poetry but for an overall review, it should lead readers to explore further afield and maybe get to grips with a new language.
