This anthology takes a unique approach to the process of poetry. Each poem included in the book is followed by at least one earlier draft or version of that poem. The reader is thus able to explore the development of the poet’s vision and to make a variety of historical, aesthetic, and intellectual comparisons. The poets represented have been chosen both on the basis of the aesthetic strength of their work and on the grounds of the availability of previous versions of their work. The inclusion of a number of selections by poets ranging from Dickinson and Yeats to Larkin, Plath, and P.K. Page allows readers to focus in some depth on the work of these poets. Though the anthology makes no claim to present a selection fully representative of different eras, regions, or poetic styles, the inclusion of a miscellany as a final chapter adds a substantial measure of breadth to the anthology. Each chapter includes brief commentary by the editors, and questions follow each set of poems. Comments “Anyone who wants to achieve what the editors call ‘intimacy with the poem’ will find delight in this collection, which enables the reader to enter the poet’s workshop and see how poems are created. I don’t know any other book like this one, with its multitude of drafts of poems by English, American and Canadian poets. Writers, teachers of writing, and student writers will learn from it, not to mention those content to read and enjoy poetry.” — Bert Almon, University of Alberta “In its celebration of the poetic incarnations that prefigure, recall and/or trouble ‘definitive’ versions, Visions and Revisions brings us into intimate relation with the poem as process … Wallenstein and Burr offer students, teachers, all lovers of poetry the thrill of the archives. They also invite us to linger between the versions, where we witness the dynamic of composition and, indeed, the very engine of poetic language at work: the curve and torque of image, tone, rhythm, cadence, syllable.” — Susan Holbrook, University of Windsor
