Introduction. A modernism of the city -- Inventing the new verse -- American poetry on the brink, 1905-1912 -- Poetry's opening door : Harriet Monroe and American modernism -- Young, blithe, and whimsical : the avant-gardism of the masses -- There is always others : experimental verse and "ulterior social result" -- Volunteers of America, 1917 : the seven arts and the Great War -- Keys to the city -- Gutter and skyline : the new verse and the metropolitan cityscape -- Footprints of the 20th century : American skyscrapers, modern poems -- Subway fare : toward a poetics of rapid transit.