Included in the anthology is newly researched biographical sketches of each poet, a year-by-year chronology of poets and poetry from 1800-1900, and extensive notes.
Content Note
v. 1. Philip Freneau to Walt Whitman -- Philip Freneau -- Joel Barlow -- Manoah Bodman -- John Quincy Adams -- James Kirke Paulding -- Clement Moore -- Francis Scott Key -- Washington Allston -- John Pierpont -- Samuel Woodworth -- Richard Henry Dana -- Richard Henry Wilde -- Fitz-Greene Halleck -- John Howard Payne -- Lydia Huntley Sigourney -- John Neal -- Carlos Wilcox -- William Cullen Byrant -- Maria Gowen Brooks -- Joseph Rodman Drake -- James Gates Percival -- George Moses Horton -- Samuel Henry Dickson -- A. Bronson Alcott -- Thomas Cole -- Edward Coote Pinkney -- George Pope Morris -- Lydia Maria Child -- Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Sarah Helen Whitman -- Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Nathaniel Parker Willis -- William Gilmore Simms -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- John Greenleaf Whittier -- Edgar Allan Poe -- Abraham Lincoln -- Oliver Wendell Holmes -- Thomas Holley Chivers -- Fanny Kemble -- margaret Fuller -- Edmund Hamilton Sears -- Christopher Pearse Cranch -- Charles Timothy Brooks -- Jones Very -- Epes Sargent -- Daniel Decatur Emmett -- Philip Pendleton Cooke -- Josiah D. Canning -- Henry David Thoreau -- Cornelius Mathews -- William Ellery Channing -- William Wetmore Story -- James Russell Lowell -- Julia Ward Howe -- Josiah Gilbert Holland -- Thomas Dunn English -- Walt Whitman -- v. 2. Herman Melville to Stickney, American Indian poetry, Folk songs and spirituals -- Herman Melville -- Henry Howard Brownell -- Alice Cary -- John Henry Hopkins -- Frederick Goodard Tuckerman -- Maria White Lowell -- James Monroe Whitfield -- Thomas Buchanan Read -- George Henry Boker -- James Mathewes Legaré -- George Boyer Vashon -- Charles Godfrey Leland -- Phoebe Cary -- Bayard Taylor -- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper -- Stephen Foster -- Robert Lowry -- Rose Terry Cooke -- Francis Miles Finch -- John Rollin Ridge -- John Townsend Trowbridge -- Henry Timrod -- Paul Hamilton Hayne -- Helen Hunt Jackson -- Emily Dickinson -- Benjamin Paul Blood -- Elizabeth Akers Allen -- Henry Clay Work -- Edmund Clarence Stedman -- John James Piatt -- Augusta Cooper Bristol -- Adah Isaacs Menken -- Mark Twain -- Phillips Brooks -- Bret Harate -- Sarah Morgan Piatt -- William Dean Howells -- Forceythe Willson -- Joaquin Miller -- Abram Joseph Ryan -- William Reed Huntington -- John Hay -- Henry Adams -- James Ryder Randall -- Constance Fenimore Woolson -- Edward Rowland Sill -- Charles Edward Carryl -- Sidney Lanier -- Ambrose Bierce -- Richard Watson Gilder -- George Washsington Cable -- John Banister Tabb -- Emma Lazarus -- Sarah Orne Jewett -- James Whitcomb Riley -- Eugene Field -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox -- Rose Hartwick Thorpe -- Albery Allson Whitman -- Edwin Markham -- Ernest Fenollosa -- James A. Bland -- Lizette Woodworth Reese -- Katharine Lee Bates -- Clinton Scollard -- Hamlin Garland -- Harriet Monroe -- Louise Imogen Guiney -- Edith Wharton -- John Jay Chapman -- George Santayana -- Stuart Merrill -- Ernest Lawrence Thayer -- Richard Hovey -- Madison Cawein -- Gelett Burgess -- William Vaughn Moody -- Edwin Arlington Robinson -- Stephen Crane -- Paul Laurence Dunbar -- Alexander L. Posey -- George Cabot Lodge -- Trumbull Stickney -- 19th-century versions of American Indian poetry -- Folk songs and spirituals.