OF THEE I SING

A collection of 30-some poems by a variety of 19th- and early 20th-century American authors, focusing on patriotic ideals.

Loosely organizing the poems into four thematic sections, editor Van Cleave has chosen many selections embodying an idealized view of American expansion. Starting with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s adulatory account of Paul Revere’s legendary ride, the collection includes such well-known offerings as Francis Scott Key’s “Defence of Fort M’Henry” (aka our national anthem), Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and Katharine Lee Bates’ “America the Beautiful.” Stylistically, poems range from the purple verse of Arthur Chapman and Henry van Dyke to Walt Whitman’s full-throated celebrations of individual expression to the strikingly modern voices of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Carl Sandburg. Van Cleave includes Black and female poets whose work as abolitionists and in women’s suffrage infuses their poetry with ideals of equality, peace, and justice. Disappointingly, no poems consider the perspectives of Indigenous peoples, however; William Cullen Bryant’s “The Prairies” characterizes Native people as former residents of the land now traipsed by the opining narrator. Each poem includes a sidebar with an overview, a suggested activity, and a glossary of unfamiliar words, boldfaced in the poem. A glaring miscalculation here is in the illustrations. Culled from public domain and licensed sources, the poorly chosen reproductions, sometimes oddly collaged with oversized flowers, clash with each other, stylistically and thematically.

Heavy on romanticized notions of America, with some significant flaws.