A History of American Poetry

A History of American Poetry presents a comprehensiveexploration of the development of American poetic traditions fromtheir pre–Columbian origins to the present day. Richard Gray, oneof the leading authorities on American literature, situates thestory of American poetry within the historical, political,cultural, and societal contexts that contributed to shaping thegenre. Through close readings of individual poems, Gray reveals howAmerican poetry evolved to reflect the rich diversity andmulticultural character of the United States. While the primaryfocus is on poetry of the 20th– and 21st–centuries, numerousformative and influential figures from the colonial andrevolutionary eras through the 19th century are not overlooked,with coverage of voices ranging from Edward Taylor, AnneBradstreet, and Phillis Wheatley to Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson.Presenting the full breadth of American poetry in an accessible andengagingly written manner, A History of American Poetry isan invaluable guide to all facets of this essential componentof the nation s rich literary heritage.

Preface

CHAPTER ONE: THE AMERICAN POEM

(i) The United States...the greatest poem

(ii) The poem is you

(iii) The breaking of the new wood

(iv) Forging the uncreated conscience of the nation

CHAPTER TWO: BEGINNINGS

(i) In my beginning is my end

(ii) The word and the Word: colonial poetry

(iii) Towards the secular: colonial poetry

(iv) Across the great divide: poetry of the South and theNorth

(v) To sing the nation: American poetic voices

(vi) To sing of freedom: African American voices

(vii) Looking before and after: poetic voices of region andnation

CHAPTER THREE: THE TURN TO THE MODERN: IMAGISM, OBJECTIVISMAND SOME MAJOR INNOVATORS

(i) The revolution is accomplished

(ii) The significance of Imagism

(iii) From Imagism to Objectivism or Dream

(iv) From Imagism to the redemption of history

(v) From Imagism to contact and community

(vi) From Imagism to discovery of the imagination

CHAPTER FOUR: IN SEARCH OF A PAST: THE FUGITIVE MOVEMENT AND THEMAJOR TRADITIONALIST

(i) The precious, the incommunicable past

(ii) The significance of the Fugitives

(iii) Traditionalism and the South

(iv) Traditionalism outside the South

(v) Traditionalism, scepticism, and tragedy

(vi) Traditionalism, quiet desperation, and belief

(vii) Traditionalism, inhumanism, and prophecy

CHAPTER FIVE: THE TRADITIONS OF WHITMAN: OTHER POETS FROMBETWEEN THE WARS

(i) Make this America for us!

(ii) Whitman and American populism

(iii) Whitman and American radicalism

(iv) Whitman, American identity and African American poetry

(v) Whitman and American individualism

(vi) Whitman and American experimentalism

(vii) Whitman and American mysticism

CHAPTER SIX: FORMALISTS AND CONFESSIONALS: AMERICAN POETRY SINCETHE SECOND WORLD WAR

(i) A sad heart at the supermarket

(ii) From the mythological eye to the lonely ′I′: a progress ofAmerican poetry since the war

(iii) Varieties of the personal: the self as dream, landscape orconfession

(iv) From formalism to freedom: a progress of American poetictechniques since the war

(v) The imagination of commitment: a progress of American poeticthemes since the war

(vi) The uses of formalism

(vii) The confessional ′I′ as primitive

(viii) The confessional ′I′ as historian

(ix) The confessional ′I′ as martyr

(x) The confessional ′I′ as prophet

(xi) New formalists, new confessionals

CHAPTER SEVEN: BEATS, PROPHETS, AND AESTHETES: AMERICAN POETRYSINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR

(i) Who am I?

(ii) Rediscovering the American voice: the Black Mountainpoets

(iii) Restoring the American vision: the San Francisco poets

(iv) Recreating American rhythms: the Beat poets

(v) Resurrecting the American rebel: African American poetry

(vi) Reinventing the American self: the New York poets

(vii) And the beat goes on: American poetry and virtualreality

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE LANGUAGES OF AMERICAN POETRY AND THE LANGUAGEOF CRISIS: AMERICAN POETRY INTO THE TWENTY–FIRST CENTURY

(i) What is the language of American literature?

(ii) The actuality of words: Postmodern poetry

(iii) The necessity of audience: the New Formalists

(iv) Remapping the nation: Chicano/a and Latino/a poetry

(v)  Improvising America: Asian–American poetry

(vi) New and ancient songs: the return of the Native American

(vii) Legends of the Fall: American poetry and crisis

EPILOGUE: WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?: THE PROBLEM OF LITERARYNATIONALITY

Index

Richard Gray has been Professor or Distinguished Visiting Professorat several universities in the UK and USA, including Essex, Georgiaand South Carolina. He is the first specialist in Americanliterature to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy and haspublished over a dozen books on the topic, including theaward–winning Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region(1986) and The Life of William Faulkner: A CriticalBiography (1994).