Reappraising key Anglo/American poets of the last 50 years in light of debates about the postmodern situation, this book offers insights into how their literary contribution gives cogent expression to both the socio-cultural possibilities and the global problems of our recent past, our apparent present and our probable future. The poets considered are Auden, Ginsberg, Plath, Berryman, Hughes, Hill, Ashbery and R.S. Thomas. The book attempts to give a new twist to the postmodern debate by evoking precedent figures such as Wyndham Lewis and Marshall McLuhan. It also links postmodernism to modernism.