American modernism

Unlike Anglo-American modernists who were influenced by European tradition, American modernists stayed in American to establish their own American tradition. They were referring back to Walt Whitman, trying to present changes in America with positive attitude to American democratic principles. American modernists were often connected to some region and used language close to everyday speech, unlike T.S. Eliot. They wrote poetry about things not considered poetical.

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935) was the poet of New England, among the first modernist poets. He used old-fashioned traditional forms but his themes were already modernist. He was influenced by his Puritanical background, Romanticism and won several Pulitzer Prizes. In The Man Who Died Twice he is pessimistic about the loss of old values and no new ones to replace them, complaining about emptiness of modern life.

ROBERT FROST (1874-1963) was a poet of New England, sometimes called the American Shakespeare since he was the most popular American poet of his times, accessible and easily understandable. He depicted rural life in simple style. Frost started as a farmer but not a good one so he went to Britain where he met Georgian war poets and Ezra Pound who helped him to publish his first collection A Boy's Will, most of poems dealt with nature but not in a optimistic way as he is closer to Thomas Hardy. He did not believe in the healing power in nature, nor that it can provide answers to any question. He rather pessimistically believed that the universe is governed by the maleficent God, if any at all. His poem Fire and Ice is a pessimistic view on the end of the world that will perish either by fire or ice, influenced by the loss of old values.

WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955) in his essay Imagination as Value he says we should not take into account the reality since reality is a product of imagination because people influence our perception of the world and it influences us in the daily life. Reality is the product of the imagination as it shapes the world. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems.

In the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Blackbird we do not know the number of speakers, there might be 13 different people in different situations or just one person who sees the blackbird in 13 different ways. It is strongly subjective and visual, presenting 13 images such as loneliness, unity, guilt, fear and death.

Mid-west poets or the Chicago School

Three Midwestern poets who shared the Midwestern concern with ordinary people.

EDGAR LEE MASTERS (1868-1950) was a farmer but he enjoyed poetry and became a poet of Mid-West. Together with Sherwood Anderson, a fiction writer of social realism, he started Revolt from the Village, the movement that criticised hypocrisy of small towns which were idyllically considered innocent with old Puritan values.

Spoon River Anthology (1915) is based on grave's epitaphs, telling little stories about people who lived in Spoon River town, depicting various characters. The poem Amanda Barker tells a story of a young wife who was impregnated by her husband even though everybody knew it would kill her. It was not out of love, her husband wanted to get rid of her. Ace Shaw is an epitaph of a man, probably a gambler, who saw no difference between playing cards for money or doing other profession.

CARL SANDBURG (1878-1967) is the poet of Chicago Renaissance. He was the very first poet of the city who celebrated urban life, not only nature. He optimistically believed in progress and civilisation. His poems are often minimalistic (2 lines), inspired by Whitman but more concrete and not so egocentric. He had public readings with musical accompany to bring poetry closer to common people.

Collection Chicago Poems, the poem Fog is a small poem about industrial fog. Cold Tombs is a rather cynical poem in which the narrator states that it little matters whether you are great Lincoln, a mighty general Grant, a beautiful Pocahontas or an ordinary person because when you die and are placed into the cool bomb, it will not matter to you. And They Obey presents a sad image of workers who must work on the building of the city as the higher-ups command. Smashing, building, smashing, building again factories, cathedrals and warehouses.

VACHEL LINDSAY (1879-1931) /vejkl lindzi/ was a collector of folk poetry, inspired by African rhythm and among the first promoters of jazz. He was a travelling poet as he also wanted to bring poetry closer to common readers. He was mixing music into extremely rhythmical poetry and sometimes the sound quality is more important than the actual content. He wrote about Africa as in his collection Congo and Other Poems. He wrote also playful poems for children as The Little Turtle which depicts a simple life a turtle.