american poets

AMERICAN POETS

ROBERT FROST1874 - 1963

Lived much of his life in New England

Used more traditional poetic forms

Writes language as it is actually spoken

Writes searching and often dark meditations on universal themes

His poems are often psychologically complex with layers of ambiguity and irony

Won four Pulitzer prizes for his work

ROBERT FROST

GARY SOTO

1952 –

Born to Mexican-American working-class parents in California

Worked in the fields of San Joaquin valley when he was young

Not academically motivated, but he became interested in poetry in high school

Attended Fresno City College and then California State University

Won a bunch of awards

GARY SOTO

Poems focus on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano

About his work, the writer Joyce Carol Oates has said, "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."

GARY SOTO

LANGSTON HUGHES

1902 – 1967

Divorced parents – raised by grandmother until he was thirteen when he moved to Illinois to live with his mother

After graduation, spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University – in this time he worked as an assistant cook, launderer, and busboy

His first novel won the Harmon gold medal for literature

LANGSTON HUGHES

Influenced a lot by the world of jazz

Extremely important influence on the Harlem Renaissance

Known for insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties

LANGSTON HUGHES

WALT WHITMAN

1819 – 1892

Self-taught reader

Worked at a printer, as a teacher, and finally as a journalist

Struggled to support himself much of his life

Often called the Father of Free Verse

Leaves of Grass was an attempt to reach out to the common people with an American epic

WALT WHITMAN

E.E. CUMMINGS

1894 – 1962

Began writing poetry as early as 1904

B.A. and M.A. from Harvard

Volunteer ambulance driver in WWI

He and a friend were interned in a prison camp by the French authorities on suspicion of espionage for his outspoken anti-war convictions.

Traveled throughout Europe, visiting poets and artists (like Picasso).

E.E. CUMMINGS

Experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax, abandoning traditional techniques and structures to create a new means of poetic expression.

Had a great popularity, especially among young readers, for the simplicity of his language, his playful mode and his attention to subjects such as war and sex.

Second most widely read poet in America at his death after Robert Frost

E.E. CUMMINGS

EDGAR ALLEN POE1809 – 1849

Parents died before he was three

Could not finish college because of money

Life-long struggle with depression and alcoholism

One of the originators of horror and detective fiction

“Architect” of the modern short story

Forerunner to the “art for art’s sake” movement

One of the first American writers to became a major figure in world literature.

EDGAR ALLEN POE

MAYA ANGELOU

1928—

Marguerite Johnson

author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist

Best known for her autobiographic books

In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

MAYA ANGELOU

Appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year

She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1981 as Reynolds

Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

MAYA ANGELOU

In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request

The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television

MAYA ANGELOU