FAMOUS AMERICAN POETS

LECTURE OBJECTIVES

Provide students with a general overview of a few poets who have greatly influenced literary culture in the United States and internationally.

Encourage students to think critically about the various literary elements that poets apply.

First, look at these influential American Poets who have gotten limited recognition

Sterling Allen Brown(1901-1989)

Sterling Brown is one of the unsung heroes of African-American poetry. Born in 1901, died in 1989, Brown spent most of his life as an English professor at Howard University, where he taught a wide range of courses from Shakespeare to World Literature.

While generations of students—Amiri Baraka and Gwendolyn Brooks being two of the most famous—have paid tribute to his influential teaching, his poetry was largely neglected during his lifetime.

Sterling Brown Poem excerptRiverbank BluesA man git his feet set in a sticky

mudbank, A man git dis yellow water in his blood, No need for hopin', no need for doin', Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.

Source: www.poets.org; http://www.afropoets.net/sterlingbrown3.html

Brown’s use of dialect and blues as a mantra for expressing the reality of black life in the United States.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (another often forgotten poet)Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American to gain national eminence as a poet.

Born in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio, he was the son of ex-slaves and classmate to Orville Wright of aviation fame as one of The Wright Brothers.

He suffered depression and alcoholism after separation from his wife, yet he still published 12 poetry books.

He worked as an elevator operator and in several other job to pay off debts incurred from publishing his poetry.

He died of complications of tuberculosis. It is believed his work in the Library of Congress with all of the dusty books contributed to his declining health.

Paul Laurence PoemWe Wear the Mask     WE wear the mask that grins and lies,

    It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—     This debt we pay to human guile;     With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,     And mouth with myriad subtleties.

    Why should the world be over-wise,     In counting all our tears and sighs?     Nay, let them only see us, while             We wear the mask.

    We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries     To thee from tortured souls arise.     We sing, but oh the clay is vile     Beneath our feet, and long the mile;     But let the world dream otherwise,             We wear the mask!

“We Wear the Mask”Lyrics of Lowly Life, in 1896 by Dodd, Mead, and Company. Source: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw8.html

Relevance of Our Un-song Poets

Dunbar exemplifies the stifled voice of many peoples and the frustrated voice of many writers/poets.

Voices may be stifled because of differences: political, racial, gender, economic, social, psychological, philosophical, emotional, etc.

He represents the power of poetry to evoke feelings and teach people to apply a literary psychology in order to survive daily.

FAMOUS AMERICAN POETS

Despite their genius and fame, many poets were often misunderstood because of their unique dispositions and ideals.

Sources for the following slides unless otherwise specified: http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/; http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/eliot.htmhttp://www.biographyonline.net/poets/emily_dickinson.html; poets.org; http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/emilybio.htm;

FAMOUS POETS

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)

Images: yahoo.com

Emily Dickinson Biography Born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, MA. Educated at Amherst Academy. At 17, began college at Mount Holyoke Female

Seminary; she became ill the spring of her first year and did not return.

She would leave home only for short trips for the remainder of her life, leading scholars to speculate she may have been agoraphobic (fear of going in public or managing crowds).

Was She Weird? Known for being a recluse, she didn’t leave

her family’s homestead for any reason after the late 1860’s.

She almost always wore white. She often lowered snacks and treats in baskets

to neighborhood children from her window, careful never to let them see her face.

Dickinson’s Poetry Famous for . . . Regular meter—hymn meter (musical) and

ballad meter, also known as Common meter Quatrains (four line stanzas) Often 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, 2nd and 4th lines

rhyme in iambic pentameter The use of dashes Thematic handling of nature and spiritual

themes (life and death in particular)

Dickinson’s Publishing Career Sent poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson,

a literary critic and family friend. He recognized her talent, but tried to

“improve” them, which made Dickinson lose interest.

At the time of her death, only seven of her poems had been published.

Dickinson’s poemI heard a fly buzz when I died;      The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the air      Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry,      And breaths were gathering sureFor that last onset, when the king      Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away      What portion of me ICould make assignable,- and then      There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,      Between the light and me;And then the windows failed, and then      I could not see to see.

“The death in this poem is painless, yet the vision of death it presents is horrifying, even gruesome. The appearance of an ordinary, insignificant fly at the climax of a life at first merely startles and disconcerts us. But by the end of the poem, the fly has acquired dreadful meaning. Clearly, the central image is the fly. It makes a literal appearance in three of the four stanzas and is what the speaker experiences in dying.” – source: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fly.html

Dickinson’s Legacy Dickinson died May 15, 1886, of nephritis

(kidney disease). Dickinson is considered influential to poets

such as Adrienne Rich, Richard Wilbur, Archibald MacLeish, and William Stafford.

Along with Walt Whitman, Dickinson is one of the two giants of American poetry of the 19th century.

Wrote an opus of 1,775 poems during her life

FAMOUS POETSWalt Whitman (1819-1892)

Lived between time of the

War of 1812 and The American Civil War.

Gained prominence as a “Free Verse” poet

Walt Whitman

Born and raised in New York (Manhattan)

His poetry broke every rule of traditional poetry

Famous volume of poetry: Leaves of Grass (1855)

Walt Whitman

Mixed reactions to his poetry, possibly because of its sensual references.

Ralph Waldo Emerson/Abe Lincoln loved it.

Whittier hated it—threw it in the fire

Themes Whitman covered were Nature, Democracy, and Common Man.

He introduced Free Verse to America

Slide Source: http://www.usd306.k12.ks.us/classroom/tanderson/Walt%20Whitman.ppt#258,3,Walt Whitman

Whitman’s Free Verse . . . Presented a series of images Used Other Literary Devices other than rhyme form

Alliteration (repeated sounds at the beginning of words) : Ex: “CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself”

Onomatopoeia (use of words that sound like their meaning) – Ex: buzz

Repetition – rhetorical device (repeating certain words or sounds for effect or emphasis)

Imagery – creating sensory details or pictures using specific and deliberate word choice

Whitman’s “Song of Myself” poemI CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil,     this air,Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and     their parents the same,I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,Hoping to cease not till death.

What is “Song of Myself” About? Whitman reveals his desire to examine the individual, the

communion between individuals, and the individual's place in the universe.

The poem is a meditation on what it is to be human, as well as a song to the America that Whitman felt so passionately about, and a sermon about the equality of man.

It is a long poem in which he makes mention of people in various occupations, people of different ethnicities, and the original energy (ability or potential to do work) that all individuals have in the universe.

FAMOUS POETSPhyllis Wheatley (1753-1784)“America's first published, black poet”

Wheatley’s life Born in Senegal, Africa in 1753, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven to

John and Susannah Wheatley of Boston.

Although originally brought into the Wheatley household as a servant and attendant to Wheatley's wife, Phillis was soon accepted as a member of the family, and was raised with the Wheatley's other two children.

Phillis' popularity as a poet both in the United States and England ultimately brought her freedom from slavery on October 18, 1773.   She even appeared before General Washington in March, 1776 for her poetry and  was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War.

She felt slavery to be the issue which separated whites from true heroism: whites can not "hope to find/Divine acceptance with th' Almighty mind" when "they disgrace/And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race."

Wheatley’s Talent Phillis displayed her remarkable talents by learning to read and write

English. At the age of twelve she was reading the Greek and Latin classics, and passages from the Bible. At thirteen she wrote her first poem.

Phillis became a Boston sensation after she wrote a poem on the death of the

evangelical preacher George Whitefield in 1770. Three years later, thirty-nine of her poems were published in London as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first book to be published by a black American.

Most of Phillis Wheatley's poems reflect her religious and classical New England upbringing. Writing in heroic couplets, many of her poems consist of elegies (mournful poems) while others stress the theme of Christian salvation.

Although racial equality is not a theme to be found in Phillis Wheatley's poetry, one allusion of injustice appears in one of her most famous poems, On Being Brought From Africa To America.

Wheatley’s Poem

On Being Brought From Africa To America

'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,Taught my beknighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Savior too:Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their color is a diabolic dye."Remember Christians; Negroes, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

----Phillis Wheatley

FAMOUS POETST. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

T. S. (Thomas Stearn) Eliot’s LifeT. S. Eliot . . . Being an introspective kind of person, as most poets are, Eliot

underwent a profound religious transformation.  Eliot was confirmed as a member of the Anglican church in 1927.  This brought him a much more positive attitude towards life that can be seen in his writings after this date.

It is rather difficult to find much information on T. S. Eliot, which is quite hard to understand, considering the profound impact he had on American and English literature. Eliot was a very private man and forbade in his will an official biography.

Eliot died on  January 4, 1965. He was closely affiliated with Ezra Pound and James Joyce, who had very controversial writing careers.

T. S. (Thomas Stearn) Eliot’s LifeT. S. Eliot . . . Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888.

Attended Harvard University, in addition to the best preparatory schools.

He finished his bachelor’s degree in only three years.

Eliot held many different kinds of jobs throughout his lifetime, as writing poetry was not and still is not the most lucrative of occupations when one is not well-known.  His occupations varied from schoolmaster, bank clerk, free-lance writer, assistant editor (of the Egoist), editor (of The Criterion), publisher (with Faber and Faber) and even professor of poetry at Harvard.

T. S. (Thomas Stearn) Eliot

Most famous works focused on human feelings of disillusionment and Alienation:

The Wasteland (His disillusionment with the economic and social state of the world in the 1920s) -- He wrote this poem after suffering a serious writer’s block.

The “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Loneliness and Alienation: Prufrock is a pathetic man whose anxieties and obsessions have isolated him.    Indecision: Prufrock resists making decisions for fear that their outcomes will turn out wrong.     Inadequacy: Prufrock continually worries that he will make a fool of himself and that people will ridicule him for his clothes, his bald spot, and his overall physical appearance.    Pessimism: Prufrock sees only the negative side of his own life and the lives of others.  

Soruce: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/life.htm

From “The Love Song of . . . Prufrock”

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.          I do not think that they will sing to me.              I have seen them riding seaward on the waves     Combing the white hair of the waves blown back     When the wind blows the water white and black.          We have lingered in the chambers of the sea    

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown           Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

The speaker realizes that time is passing and that he is growing old. However, like other men going through a middle-age crisis, he considers changing his hairstyle and clothes. Like Odysseus in the Homer’s Odyssey, he has heard the song of the sirens. However, they are not singing to him.   Source: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/Prufrock.html 

FAMOUS POETSEzra Pound (1885 - 1972)

“The Poet’s Poet” because of his belief in the

superiority of poetry as an art form.

Ezra Pound Biography Born in Hailey, Idaho, and raised in Philadelphia.

Spent most of his career in self-imposed exile from America because he could not get published here as a young writer. (very controversial because of his political views and relentless commitment to free speech and support of new writers and theories.)

Started the Imagist school and participated in the Vorticist Movement in Europe. Imagism: a movement of American and English poets whose verse was characterized by concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, freedom in the use of meter, and avoidance of mystical themes.

Vorticism – “It was Pound who coined the name Vorticism, which was meant to connote vital, violent, rather mystical action” (Encyclopedia of Art (New York: Greystone Press, 1971), s.v. "Vorticism.“ / library.flawlesslogic.com.)

Supported the publication of other controversial writers -- T. S. Eliot and James Joyce.

Wrote Cantos, an experimental epic (long narrative poem) which he never finished, yet it is considered “one of the most influential pieces of American literature.” He worked on it 50 years.

Source: http://www.bookrags.com/Ezra_Pound

Ezra Pound’s Biography (cont.) The Cantos records the poet's “spiritual quest for

transcendence, and his intellectual search for worldly wisdom” and has been compared by many to Dante’s Inferno.

Credited with being the inventor of modern Chinese poetry because of his powerful translations of ancient Chinese writings.

According to Katherine Anne Porter, "Pound was one of the most opinionated and unselfish men who ever lived, and he made friends and enemies everywhere by the simple exercise of the classic American constitutional right of free speech." (The Letters of E.P., 1907-1941, New York Times Book Reviwe, 29 Oct. 1950)

Ezra Pound Poem excerptAt fourteen I married My Lord you.I never laughed, being bashful.Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.Called to, a thousand times, I neverlooked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling, I desired my dust to be mingled withyoursForever and forever and forever.Why should I climb the lookout?

At sixteen you departed,You went into far Ku-to-en, by the riverof swirling eddies,And you have been gone five months.The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.

“The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”(1915)

Ezra Pound’s Themes (some) That language can be translated clearly. That human experiences transcend time and

culture. He translated Japanese and Chinese poetry into English.

That free speech is for all. That language should be used purposely in

order to achieve maximum meaning out of words.

FAMOUS POETSLangston Hughes (1902 - 1967)

Langston Hughes Biography James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri.

After his parents divorced and until his mother remarried, he lived with his grandmother. His father moved to Mexico.

Hughes’ writing influences were Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman, though Huges if known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He was a major player in the Harlemn (New Negro Renaissance) Movement.

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York.

Hughes Poem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

“Dream Deferred”

Understanding Hughes’ “What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” poem The questions are all rhetorical questions, because they

intend to answer themselves.

Each question in the first stanza uses simile: “like a raisin in the sun,” “like a sore,”like rotten meat,” “like a syrupy sweet.” The second stanza which is not a question but a suggestion also uses simile “like a heavy load.” The last stanza uses metaphor, “does it explode?”

The poem employs rime: sun-run, meat-sweet, load-explode.

The poem also uses imagery: “raisin in the sun,” “fester like a sore— / And then run,” “stink like rotten meat,” etc.

FAMOUS POETSGwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000)

Gwendolyn Brooks BiographyGwendolyn Brooks quickly rose to national prominence. Born in Topeka Kansas, but raised in Chicago, IL. Became Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968.

She was married and had two children.

In 1945 her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (published by Harper and Row), brought her instant critical acclaim.

She was selected one of Mademoiselle magazine's "Ten Young Women of the Year," she won her first Guggenheim Fellowship, and she became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her second book of poems, Annie Allen (1949), won Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize.

In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. From that time to the present, she has seen the recipient of a number of awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees usually designated as Doctor of Humane Letters.

Her poetry moves from traditional forms including ballads, sonnets, variations of the Chaucerian and Spenserian stanzas as well as the rhythm of the blues to the most unrestricted free verse.

Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/a_f/brooks/life.htm

Gwendolyn Brooks Poem

We real cool.

We Left school.

We Lurk late.

We Strike straight.

We Sing sin.

We Thin gin.

We Jazz June.

We Die soon.

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL:

“WE REAL COOL”

Link to web page and audio: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433

FAMOUS POETSRobert Frost (1874 - 1963)

“America’s Most Celebrated Poet”

Robert Frost Biography Though his work is principally associated with the life and landscape of

New England, and usually very traditional in its forms, Frost gained universal prominence for his universal themes and modern use of language as it is actually spoken

His poems are also deeply ironic and thought-provoking.

He received the honor of four Pulitzer Prizes.

Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January 29, 1963.

Despite his success, he never earned a college degree.

Robert Frost’s Poem excerpt

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

“The Road Not Taken” (1915)Frost describes this as his “Tricky Poem” --

Interpretation: We can not know how our choices will affect our future until after we have made the choices and waited to see their outcomes.