American Poetry

American Poetry

American Civil War had many negative aspects, but for some it was a well of inspiration. The kick off of American Poetry was the establishment of Transcendental Club which task was to discuss philosophical ideas. The Club’s idea was based on seeing Unitarianism and Puritanism as lifeless, even though its members owed much to Coleridge and Wordsworth. It was Walt Whitman, who balanced between realism and transcendentalism, who with his work “Leaves of Grass” described the pride which comes from freedom and the distant view Americans had towards Europeans and Asians. Surprisingly, Whitman felt for America and was one of the first poets who put trust in it.

Next author who played part in forming the American Poetry was Emily Dickinson. Emily was a lively girl until she suddenly refused to leave her house and chose to live without any contact. Sadly, only few out of her nearly two thousand poems were published. In her best known work “I felt a funeral in my brain” she describes funeral while she is imagining a moment of semi- consciousness after her own death, additionally she tries to describe a kind of spiritual death.

Emily’s works never referred to major national events like the Civil War. She believed that we should move towards limits living in mystery. Although Emily was a fan of Walt Whitman, he doesn’t influence her as people would expect, ironically she tends to depict sad stories, while Whitman is more optimistic. More so, Whitman sees America as a bright future, Emily only writes about the death and sadness which take part in America.

After WW1, America was strongly influenced and marked by this social event. The post war period was characterised by new upcoming trends, ideas, ways of seeing things, also it was the period of the twenties, which were antiheroic and full of scandal. This was the ideal time for the rise of new movements- Imagism, Modernism and free verse. Imagism was a British and American poetic movement founded in England.

Led by Ezra Pound, it reacted against the Romanticism of some poets, whose words darkened the emotion rather than lighten it. Ezra Pound was an American poet who lived in Europe. He was trying to lift up what was good in European culture. He offered many fresh views on the poetry of previous centuries, which made him enemies, but also, admirers. He is thought to be the master of analogous literature and the one who dared to bring fresh elements to the literary world.

Modernism is a term which distinguishes 20^th century writing from the narrative type of writing of 19^th century. While Free verse is a way of writing poetry in which the author abandons all rules and traditions. It was an attempt to escape the literary mechanics invented by Romantics. Whitman was the pioneer of free verse in America, but T.S.Eliot attacked the concept arguing that there is a relationship between verse and poetic form. Eliot worked in Egoist, the magazine which defended Imagism. His most popular works gave new poetic views on the modern ways of writing. His work “Waste Land” is thought to be the masterpiece of modernist movement.

Unlike any other national poetry, American poetry succeeded in bringing fame and acknowledgment to this type of literature. We are only left to wish that soon, more poets will arise and get the best out of it.