title: The Oxford Book of American Verse Chosen and with an Introduction by F. O. Matthiessen (Oxford Books of Verse)
author: F. O. Matthiessen
description: <br /><em>About the Author:</em><br /><strong>F. O. Matthiessen</strong> was a Californian by birth but grew up in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. Educated both here and abroad, he started teaching in 1927, first at Yale and then at Harvard, where he was Professor of History and Literature. He made the field of American poetry one of his major interests and wrote critical estimates of Emerson, Poe, Eliot, and other contemporary poets. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and a Senior Fellow of the Kenyon School of English.<br />
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  > Selected and Introduced by Geoffrey Moore
  
  > > THE PENGUIN BOOK OF AMERICAN VERSE
  
   _Revised Edition_
  
  ![](Images/image00415.jpeg)
  
  Contents
  
  > > Introduction
  
  > > Preface to the Revised Edition
  
  > > Note on the Text
  
  > > ANNE BRADSTREET 1612–72
  
  > >  _The Author to her Book_
  
  > >  _The Flesh and the Spirit_
  
  > > From _Contemplations_
  
  > >  _To My Dear and Loving Husband_
  
  > >  _Some verses upon the burning of our House_
  
  > > MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH 1631–1705
  
  > > From _The Day of Doom_
  
  > > EDWARD TAYLOR 1645–1729
  
  > > From _Preparatory Meditations_ , First Series _Meditation 38_
  
  > >  _[When] Let by Rain_
  
  > >  _Upon a Spider Catching a Fly_
  
  > >  _Huswifery_
  
  > > PHILIP FRENEAU 1752–1832
  
  > >  _The Indian Student_
  
  > > JOEL BARLOW 1754–1812
  
  > > From _The Hasty-Pudding_
  
  > > FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 1779–1843
  
  > >  _The Star-Spangled Banner_
  
  > > WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 1794–1878
  
  > >  _The Prairies_
  
  > > RALPH WALDO EMERSON 1803–82
  
  > >  _The Rhodora_
  
  > >  _Each