Re-making it New explores the impact of modernism's polarised tradition on contemporary American poets.

Introduction: 'Unless there is/ a new mind there cannot be a new/ line': the modernist inheritance; 1. 'Thinkers without final thoughts': the continuity between Stevens and Ashbery; 2. 'We must, we must be moving on': Ashbery's divergence from Steven's modernism; 3. 'Piercing glances into the life of things': the continuity between Moore and Bishop; 4. 'Resolved, dissolved ¿ in that watery, dazzling dialectic': Bishop's divergence from Moore and modernism; 5. 'A small (or large) machine made of words': the continuity between Williams and Creeley; 6. 'Let/ go, let go of it': Creeley's divergence from Williams and modenrism; 7. 'Those who love illusion/ And know it': the continuity between Auden and Merrill; 8. 'I knew/ That life was fiction in disguise': Merrill's divergence from Auden and modernism; Conclusion: 'The possibility of free declamation anchored/ To a dull refrain': the postmodernist estate; Notes; Index.