AMERICAN CYCLE

A massive collection of long-form poems inspired by legendary American figures and folklore.

This magnum opus of poetry is divided into 10 sections, with the first, “U. S. Rivers: Highway 1,” describing the path on the titular road from Key West, Florida, to Maine. Each state contains its own rich history that plays a part in the country’s larger narrative. “Old California” is a subtly comedic take on that state’s residents, with a special focus on Monterey. “Paul Bunyan” retells the story of the mythical lumberjack while “John Henry” catalogs the life and death of that steel-driving man in a rhyming, songlike structure. War and its legacy are at the center of “Chief Joseph,” and the Wild West features heavily in “Wyatt Earp.” The circus comes to town, with all its hyperbole and mischief, in “P. T. Barnum,” and a ghost laments that Amelia Earhart’s death is a key aspect of her fame in a section named after the doomed aviator. “Blue Ridge” is a pastoral poem that involves time travel. “U. S. Rivers: Route 66” again takes readers onto the open road. The collection concludes with sheet music for two songs, “On the balcony, the moon” and “Ballad of Mattie.” Beckett has clearly done his research in order to provide details that capture the spirit of the United States and of major figures who made their mark on the country. He endeavors to use historically accurate diction, from full Spanish sentences in “Old California” to African American Vernacular English in “John Henry,” and his descriptions are often powerful, as in a line that paints Paul Bunyan as “A man mountain, all hustle, all muscle and bull bones” or a passage from the perspective of a deceased Amelia Earhart: “as the fish knock / my ribs, and coral grows on my white bones, / unsleeping, in the lurid current, clouds / foam, in seaweed.” But at more than 750 pages, this tome sorely needed pruning, as its excessive length will dissuade even the most ambitious readers from attempting to conquer it.

An often vivid but overlong set of works about America’s idols.