American Poetry

From Walt Whitman to “Harlem” to Arthur Sze, discover great poets and iconic poems of American literature.

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Walt Whitman heard America singing. Emily Dickinson heard a fly buzz when she died. As Allen Ginsberg released a howl heard round the world, Frank O’Hara rhapsodized about having a Coke with a friend. Hart Crane wrote of the Brooklyn Bridge, while Gwendolyn Brooks captured everyday experiences in Chicago’s Bronzeville. Joy Harjo chanted of horses. Bob Dylan sang of changing times. Langston Hughes pondered what happens to a dream deferred. All the while, Edgar Allan Poe’s raven quoth, “Nevermore.” These and other great American poets, including many renowned poets laureate and poet-songwriters, indelibly shaped American literature through their evocative language, profound themes, and ability to give expression to the American consciousness.

Great American Poets

Walt Whitman

Phillis Wheatley

Emily Dickinson

Langston Hughes

T.S. Eliot

Maya Angelou

Edgar Allan Poe

Hart Crane

Allen Ginsberg

Frank O’Hara

Sylvia Plath

Wendell Berry

Anne Bradstreet

Bob Dylan

Adrienne Rich

Amiri Baraka

Shel Silverstein

E.E. Cummings

Nikki Giovanni

Ezra Pound

Famous Favorites

American poetry is as diverse as the people of America, encompassing a variety of themes, styles, and forms. Some of the best-loved American poems are funny and whimsical, while others haunt our darkest dreams. Some are long and revolutionary, others short yet no less powerful. Their phrasings have entered the American lexicon, and their visionary lyrics have changed the way a reader looks at the most mundane objects and experiences, whether a raven or a raisin, three islands in a bay, or a spear of summer grass.

Reading and interpretation: “The Onset” by Robert FrostWhat do a frog and a poet have in common? Ask Robert Frost.

Harlem

The Waste Land

Song of Myself

Daddy

Renascence

Howl

Casey at the Bat

The Raven

Movements and Moments in American Poetry

Native American oral tradition was the first poetry of what is now the United States. Europeans in the American colonies crafted the first written poems, although the literature of that era mostly reflected European tastes and styles. As the population of North America changed with immigration, the transatlantic slave trade, and westward expansion, American poetry developed its own unique qualities. American poets responded to global and national events and explored deeply personal terrain with bold creativity. Along the way, they transformed the possibilities of what a poem can do.

American Renaissance

American Renaissance, period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War (1861–65) in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit. The literary scene of the period was dominated by a group of New England

Modernist literature

Modernist literature, the body of written works produced during Modernism, a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I (1914–18). Modernist literature developed throughout Europe, the United States, and Latin

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance, a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart

Imagism

Imagism, Modernist literary movement that centered on a group of American and English poets whose poetic manifesto was formulated about 1912 by Ezra Pound—in conjunction with fellow poets H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Richard Aldington, and F.S. Flint. The program of this “school of images” was inspired

Algonquin Round Table

Algonquin Round Table, informal group of American literary figures who met daily for lunch on weekdays at a large round table in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s and ’30s. The Algonquin Round Table began meeting in June 1919, and within a few years its participants included

little magazine

Little magazine, any of various small periodicals devoted to serious literary writings, usually avant-garde and noncommercial. They were published from about 1880 into the 21st century and flourished in the United States and England, though French writers (especially the Symbolist poets and

Black Mountain poets

Black Mountain poets, a loosely associated group of poets that formed an important part of the avant-garde of American poetry in the 1950s, publishing innovative yet disciplined verse in The Black Mountain Review (1954–57), which became a leading forum of experimental verse. The group grew up

confessional poetry

Confessional poetry, literary movement that emerged in American poetry in the 1950s and ’60s and remained influential into the 21st century. Confessional poetry is characterized by poems that are self-revelatory and often deeply personal, written from the perspective of “I” (the author) rather than

slam poetry

Slam poetry, a form of performance poetry that combines the elements of performance, writing, competition, and audience participation. It is performed at events called poetry slams, or simply slams. The name slam came from how the audience has the power to praise or, sometimes, destroy a poem and