Download - FAMOUS AMERICAN POETS
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—Sing-song Quatrains (four line stanzas)
Often 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, 2nd and 4th lines rhyme in iambic pentameter (ABAB)
The use of dashes as emotion and interruption Most poems about Life and Death
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 Legacy Dickinson died May 15, 1886, of nephritis
(kidney disease). Along with Walt Whitman, Dickinson is one
of the two giants of American poetry of the 19th century.
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
FAMOUS POETSWalt Whitman (1819-1892)
Lived between time of the
War of 1812 and The American Civil War.
Transcendentalist Realist
Gained prominence as a “Free Verse” poet
One of two most famous 19th century poets (Dickinson is the other one)
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 on South Huntington, Long Island, New York.
His poetry broke every rule of traditional poetry
Famous volume of poetry: Leaves of Grass (1855)
1892 - Died of Emphysema/Pneumonia
“I celebrate myself…” He was almost entirely self-education, especially
admiring the work of Dante, Shakespeare, and Homer.
His mother described him as “very good, but very strange.”
His brother described him as being “stubborner [sic] than a load of bricks.”
Walt Whitman
Mixed reactions to his poetry, possibly because of its sexual references.
Ralph Waldo Emerson/Abe Lincoln loved it.
Themes Whitman covered were Nature, Democracy, and Common Man.
He introduced Free Verse to America. (no rhyme scheme, no meter)
Uses long lines, vernacular, and catalogue (listings)
Slide Source: http://www.usd306.k12.ks.us/classroom/tanderson/Walt%20Whitman.ppt#258,3,Walt Whitman
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.
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 Hughes is known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He was a major player in the Harlem Renaissance Movement.
Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York.
Writing Style Diction/Vernacular Jazz Influences Metaphors and Symbols Imagery
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 rhyme: 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.
Sylvia Plath
1932-1963
“The blood jet is poetry / there is no stopping it.”
A brief biography: childhood
Born in Boston on October 27, 1932, to Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath
Her mother introduced her to poetry which she loved
Idolized her father and longed to please him In 1930s he developed diabetes, but refused
treatment. Gangrene of leg led to amputation. In 1940, when Sylvia was 8, her father died
and she published her first poem. Excelled in English and writing courses Suffers mental & emotional exhaustion Is rejected for a Harvard writing course First suicide attempt –overdose. Receives
electric shock treatment. She writes about these experiences in her
semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar
After discovering poetry, Sylvia said I
“had fallen into a new way of being happy.”
Sylvia and Ted 1954 Plath went to Harvard
summer school, graduates summa cum laude in 1955
1956 – Met Ted Hughes, also a poet
It was an intense courtship and they were married within months.
In 1962, following a traumatic appendix operation and the birth of their son Nicholas, Plath's writing became more frantic.
Sylvia & Ted’s relationship was passionate and tumultuous
He was “very simply the only man I’ve ever met whom I could never boss.” (Sylvia to friends)
Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes1962 – the beginning of the
end June: 2nd suicide attempt –
driving car off the road July: Discovers Ted’s
affair with Assia Weevill. Sept: They separate Oct: She writes 26 poems
in one month Dec: She takes her 2
children and moves into a maisonette in London
She prepares Ariel, a collection of 41 poems
The end: 1963 The Bell Jar is published under a
pseudonym and receives good reviews
She is depressed, isolated and mentally unstable
February 1963, in one of the coldest winters in English history, she succeeded in taking her life
Her body was discovered the following morning.
She was survived by her 2 children.
1965: Ariel was published. 1982 she is posthumously
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
Plath’s style Confessional Poetry Themes: Death, Life, her father Metaphors (sometimes extended), Repetition,
Assonance Free Verse Elegy
25
Billy Collins•Born March 22, 1941 in New York, New York• Contemporary poet• Poems have surprise endings• Sarcastic / Humorous• Conversational and witty poems• Laid-back, talks about everyday life• Became an English Professor• Writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College• Founder of Poetry 180 project
26
Influences• Emily Dickinson• Mother• John Keats• Samuel Coleridge• Jazz music• New York
THE END