"In celebration of Library of America's 40th anniversary, Edward Hirsch offers deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems, ranging from Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book" and Phillis Wheatley's "To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works" to Garrett Hongo's "Ancestral Graves, Kahuku" and Joy Harjo's "Rabbit Is Up to Tricks" to explore how these poems have shaped his own life and how they might uplift our life as the diverse nation we have become"--,Provided by publisher.