Description: "This book considers poems published in the United States since 1979 that directly engage with national and global politics. It shows that some of America's leading poets take it upon themselves to perform the role of public intellectuals. In doing so, these poets raise important questions about poetry and its social value. Examples include Robert Pinsky's An Explanation of America (1979), Adrienne Rich's "An Atlas of the Difficult World" (1991), Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew Up America" (2002), as well as books by Juliana Spahr, Ben Lerner, Lisa Jarnot, Mark Nowak, Anne Boyer, and Rodrigo Toscano. US Poetry in the Age of Empire traces the extent to which poetry, viewed as a language-based art form and an affect-producing tool, imparts knowledge about today's rapidly changing world"--
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