An Introduction to

American Poetry
Let’s Define America!
 Poetry and America?
 Why Poetry?
 “Writing a poem is discovering.”- Robert Frost
 “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” – Plato
 “Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for
poetry expresses the universal, and history only the
particular.” - Aristotle
 “Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great
and feeling souls.” - Voltaire
 Poetry and America?
 Why America?
 Internationally, British poems receive more fame than
American poems because of their classic imagery and
rhetoric.
 American poetry stands out from other countries
because of its description of struggle, sacrifice, and
idealism.
 Studying American poetry is extremely relevant to Israel
because both countries are built on the shoulders of
immigrants and have faced similar hardships from war,
social injustice, and patriarchal rule.
 Goals for Unit
1. To familiarize with famous poets and their poems in
America such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and
Langston Hughes.
2. To understand different poetic periods in American
history: Puritanism, Colonialism, Transcendentalism,
Realism, Surrealism & Existentialism, Feminism, the
Beat Movement, Harlem Renaissance, Modernism, Post
Modernism, War poets, etc.
3. To keep track of the poems we read and discuss with
weekly written journal entries.
4. To collate all our information on famous poets and their
poems to define America in a final task.
 Roots of American Poetry
Pre 1650-1750
History  European Interaction with Americas
 Early colonies

Literary  Calvinism
Movements  Animism
 Native American Literature
 Colonial Literature
 Puritanism (Jeremiad, Meditation)
 Salem Witch Trials

Poets of the Anne Bradstreet

Time Ebenezer Cook
Samuel Sewall
Edward Taylor
Michael Wigglesworth
 Poetry of the American Revolution
History  Lead up to revolution
 Independence

Poets of the Time Philip Freneau

James Grainger
Jupiter Hammon
Elihu Hubbard
Phillis Wheatley
 America enters the 19th Century
History Antebellum Period
Civil War

Literary Movements Concord Chronology

Transcendentalist
Southwestern Humor
Sentimental Fiction
Realism
Gothic Novel
Slave Narratives

Poets of the Time Eloise A. Bibb

William Cullen Bryant
Olivia Ward Bush
Emily Dickinson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Philip Freneau
Washington Irving
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Edgar Allen Poe
Henreitta Cordelia Ray
 Welcome to the 20th Century
History Worldwide spread of democracy
Industrial-technological revolution
Demographic shifts resulting from
improved health care, transportation, and
changed family relationships
World Wars & the Rise of American
Power
Counter-Culture
Globalization
Civil Rights
 Welcome to the 20th Century
Surrealism and Existentialism
Literary
The New York School
Movements Beat Poets
The San Francisco School
The Black Mountain School
Idiosyncratic Poets
Traditionalism
Feminism
The Language School
Stream of Consciousness
Modernism
The Lost Generation
First World War Poets
Imagism
Harlem Renaissance
Postmodernism
Confessional Poetry
Magical Realism
 Welcome to the 20th Century
Poets Robert Frost Maya Angelou Kenneth Koch
of the Adrienne Rich Diane diPrima Yusef Komunyakaa
Time Jean Toomer Bob Perelman Maxine Kumin
e.e. cummings Bruce Andrews Joanne Kyger
T.S. Eliot Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) Li-Young Lee
Langston Hughes Robert Bly Denise Levertov
Zora Neale Hurston Amy Clampitt Audre Lorde
James Weldon Billy Collins S. Merwin
Johnson Robert Creeley Janice Mirikitani
Jamaica Kincaid Mark Doty Frank O'Hara
Sidney Lanier Robert Duncan Mary Oliver
Waldo Pierce Lawrence Ferlinghetti Robert Pinsky
Sylvia Plath Allen Ginsberg Kenneth Rexroth
Anne Sexton Nikki Giovanni Michael S. Harper
Wallace Stevens Louise Gluck Charles Simic
Walt Whitman Louise Glorie Graham Gary Snyder
John Greenleaf Jorie Graham Jack Spicer
Whittier Lyn Hejinian Mark Strand
William Carlos
Carolyn Kizer May Swenson
Williams
Phil Whalen
Charles Wright
 The turn into the 21st Century
History Events of Terrorism &
Conflict
Human Interaction with
the Environment (Energy
Crises, Global Warming)
Budgets and Deficits
Immigration

Literary Movements  Experimentalism

 New Formalism
 Cyber-Poetry
 The turn into the 21st Century

 Who are the most famous poets of the 21st century?

 It’s hard to tell now! It could be any one of you!