HOLD FAST TO DREAMS: Poems Old and New

A very traditional, relatively placid collection containing a generous number from black poets. Several from Gwendolyn Brooks, especially ""A Song in the Front Yard,"" are quite striking: ""I've stayed in the front yard all my life./ I want a peek at the back/ Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows./ A girl gets sick of a rose."" Another diverting entry is Alexander Karanikas' ""Tangerines"": ""In somewhat of a daze I lost the tangerines,/ and also the car;/ but the car's loss seemed less important/ than the bag of tangerines. . . . "" Most of the poets, however, have been heavily anthologized--Frost, Dickinson, Keats, Millay, Hughes--in standard collections and this has limited supplementary value.