Selected poems from this book, such as "Heart to Heart," would be great for middle school students because of the length and accessibility. Specifically, "Heart to Heart" would be relevant to middle school students because it discusses the troubles and thrills of a heartbeat, connectable to their wildly-developing emotions at this stage of life. Written from the perspective of an undefined speaker, this poem could serve as a writing exercise for students to imagine who is writing it and why (cou...

I don't know how Ms. Dove's works hadn't come across my awareness before. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry ... and well deserved. She's amazing. American Smooth is earthy, accessible and wise, bitter and smooth in the way of good dark chocolate, and an amazing lens through which to see the world.I do love my modern women poets, and Ms. Dove has joined the ranks of my favorites. This is a wonderful volume, well worth picking up and devoting your time to.

These poems will transport you to other times, other places and let you see from the eyes of other people. "Heart to Heart" is one of many excellent poems here. Historical, biblical, musical poems.

Every poem in this book is perfect. Rita Dove is an amazingly gifted, Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Each poem is perfectly crafted, incredibly evocative and generally gorgeous. I have not read a book of poetry in a long, long time. I am so thrilled that this was chosen as the February book for my workplace book club. You should read it now ;)

A book of Rita Dove's I had never read. It's elegant and musical, historically wide-ranging, and also surprising--in its range of tones and forms. There are sequences like "Twelve Chairs" and "Not Welcome Here" I won't soon forget. But the everlasting power may be in Dove's powerful investment in American dance (fox trot, two-step, etc.) and how it infuses every liquid line of this fine collection. Dove remains one of the best choreographers of language around.

There are poems about WWI and poems about dancing, and I'm easy to please.

Sealey Challenge 2/31. Rita Dove is a really interesting writer - she draws really significantly on Black history and culture and renders it in a lush, colorful, tactile way which was a pleasure to read. There are some really incredible poems in this collection and some that weren't for me, which is fine. I'm glad I read it.

Rating: Soft 4. 3 1/2 for the poetry, with a boost for some interesting ideas. There's a long poem titled: "Twelve Chairs", with a segment from the perspective of each member of a jury (and one alternate as well). The second, seventh, and twelfth stood out to me. "Not Welcome Here" is a series of poems about black soldiers in World War One. The most notable of these is "The Passage" - 11 pages of a soldier's journal entries about the voyage across the Atlantic to get to the war. Though it didn't...

A book of poetry is like a record album--how the separate pieces work together as a whole is still beyond me, but like a record, having the entire thing for a couple of outstanding songs is still worth it; that goes for American Smooth as well. Not that I can really judge the poems that don't stand out for me. I just don't understand them. The ones that do get to me however....

She is amazing. The end.

I confess I was hoping for the thematic throughline of "Mother Love" (her rich collection inspired by the Persephone myth) and while ballroom dancing does connect many of these poems, there are more that aren't related or are connected to each other in different ways: war, the courtroom, etc. It's still good -- especially pieces like "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" and the title work -- but once you've been spoiled with a unified series, a sampler makes you yearn for more.

There is some beautiful imagery and there are definitely quite a few very well-thought-out pieces in this book. However, some of the poems seemed like they were trying too hard to talk about a subject/event/series of events. I guess I like Rita Dove's poetry most when it comes from her own life/self, rather than her historical poetry. The cover is fantastic.

I love, love, love the poems in this book. Not sure why other people gave it less stars since it is a fantastic collection. :) I have probably read it cover to cover at least 10 times, not to mention constantly copying out poems to share with others. One of my favorites is the poem about a heart and the metaphors usually used to describe the heart (beating on a sleeve, locked in a box, cracking, rending), but it's just a "thick clutch of muscle". And I also really like the cover.

Love her poetry

Rita DoveΦBK, Miami University, 1973AuthorFrom the publisher: This exciting new collection pays homage to America's kaleidoscopic cultural heritage: from the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith's mournful wail; from paradise lost to angel-food cake; from hot-shots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in the First World War, whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance. Like the ball-room dancing couple of the title poem, smiling and making the difficul...

This was a great book of classic poems. My favorite has to be the one regarding Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove and Eliza, Age 10, Harlem. Great read for a lazy evening or Sunday afternoon.

My favorite in this collection was her poems based on inteviews with a black Corporal in the army going over to fight in WWI.

Poetry is a curious thing because although this collection has its lovely moments, quite often I found myself unable to connect with the verses. It wasn't all the time or every poem, but specifically the ones about war I had a hard time connecting with. The ones about the twelve jurors though were extremely poignant but this collection was literally hit and miss for me. For every poem I liked I came across another that failed to move the needle in my heart. It's not to say this collection is not...

The dance metaphor makes this collection fun. The poems about dances--"Fox Trot Fridays," "Ta Ta Cha Cha," "Rhumba"--made me feel as if I were not just reading, but really dancing.American history in this collection comes alive, both as a broad sweep for the structure of the book, and as powerful images and voices throughout the work. The experiences of music, war, and even jury duty became my own experiences.Although these poems were collected from diverse sources, Dove arranged them effectivel...

I had thought that "American smooth" was a catchy title about language. You know, smooth talkin' lingo in America. While Rita Dove has an amazing handle on smooth language, that's not what "American smooth" is. It's a dance, like a waltz, but with snazzy individual flair added. That definition makes the dance sound not smooth at all, but that's America for ya. I have no idea what I mean by that. I do know that Dove's collection, American Smooth, incorporates the rhythm of dancing with the rhythm...