Family Portrait: American Prose Poetry 1900 - 1950

Robert Alexander is the co-editor of the Marie Alexander Poetry Series. He is the author of two books of poetry, White Pine Sucker River and What the Raven Said; and a book of creative nonfiction, Five Forks: Waterloo of the Confederacy. He previously served as an associate editor at New Rivers Press.

• Table of ContentsEditor’s NoteMargueritte MurphyIntroduction: The Prose Poem as a Modernist GenreVirginia Admiral (1915-2000)The Escaped BearMargaret Anderson (1886-1973)Ocean AquariumLandscapeImagismToward RevolutionSherwood Anderson (1876-1941)The CornfieldsSong of the Soul of Chicago The Lame OneSisterHolly Beye (1922-2011)For the Singer That is Gone In the Eucalyptus Forest Faces in a Furious Night The Unremitting Stain The Release of Hostages Some New Notches with an Old Knife Paul Bowles (1910-1999)from No Village Kay Boyle (1902-1992)SummerJanuary 1, U.S.A.January 24, New Yorkfrom For An AmericanEmily Holmes Coleman (1899-1974)The Wren’s NestHarry Crosby (1898-1929)Embrace Me You SaidMosquitoOvid’s FleaI Had No Idea What They Would Do Next In Search of the Young Wizard Human Flesh and Golden ApplesWhite CloverGolden SpoonWhite SlipperE. E. Cummings (1894-1962)“i was sitting in mcsorley’s”“at the ferocious phenomenon of 5 o’clock”Harriet Dean (1892-1964)Debutante Barn-YardingDepartureH. D. (1886-1961)from Four Prose Choruses Robert Duncan (1919-1988)At Home Correspondences Source Unkingd by Affection Concerning the Maze T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)HysteriaThe EngineMary Fabill (1914-2011) The Morning LedThey in Whose DreamsThis Is the Day of FreedomPoemWilliam Faulkner (1897-1962)The Priest Frankie and Johnny The Cobbler Magdalen John Gould Fletcher (1886-1950)The Death of England The Secret of Mars The Way of Dust The End of JobCharles Henri Ford (1913-2002)Suite Flag of Ecstasy Message to Rimbaud Jane Heap (1883-1964)Sketches Paris at One TimeErnest Hemingway (1899-1961)from In Our TimeFenton Johnson (1888-1958)African NightsAmy Lowell (1874-1925)BathBreakfast Table WalkMidday and Afternoon Robert McAlmon (1896-1956)VillageFire BugThe Artificial LakePloughed Land History of the Early Twentieth Century History ProfessorKenneth Patchen (1911-1972)Polly—An Almost-True StoryFamily Portrait O What a RevolutionThere Are TwoWhen We Were Here TogetherA Pasturized SceneLaura Riding (1901-1991)William and Daisy: Fragment of a Finished NovelHungry to HearIn a CaféEdouard Roditi (1910-1992)MetamorphosisSéance Old Wives TaleHandfrom The Pathos of HistoryRobert Alden Sanborn (1877-1962)The Billiard Players At the EliteAlleys Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)A PianoIn BetweenA SoundSuppose An EyesA Long DressColored HatsA Substance in a CushionJean Toomer (1894-1967)Calling JesusRhobertKarintha Thornton Wilder (1897-1975)SentencesWilliam Carlos Williams (1883-1963)The Delicaciesfrom Kora in HellA MatisseTheessentialroarfrom For Bill BirdVerbal Transcription—6 A. M.The Pace that KillsExultation AfterwordContributors’ NotesSourcesAcknowledgments?