American Authors Flashcards
Whitman’s life?
Walt Whitman was born on Long Island, New York, in a poor family. He had a little education and had to start working from a young age. He travelled throughout the United States and met a wide range of people. Civil War was a very painful time for Whitman because he hated see americans fight within each other. He spent the last years of his life revising the book of his collected poems, Leaves of Grass.
Why is Whitman the father of American poetry?
Leaves of Grass is considered the first great American epic in verse. He’s considered the father of American tradition in poetry. His work celebrates American democracy with a late Romantic glorification of the self
Whitman’s technique?
Whitman used a simple language , he uses few metaphors and similes, preferring direct statement and strong assertions . Instead of stanzas and regular lines he adopts long lines. For this reason he’s considered the creator of free verse.
What’s I hear America sing about?
No stanzas, No lines, simple/everyday language, repetition of words. Metaphorically represents the building of America, each one sings his/her song contributing the making of American democracy. The singing continues throughtout the day. Repetition of words and structure which is called paralellism.
Where was Edgar Lee Masters born?
ELM was born in Kansas and brought up in Illinois where he lived the small village life that he described in his famous Spoon River Anthology.
Edgar Lee Masters’ style?
He adopted the free verse. He’s considered the voice of provincial America because he celebrated midwestern landscapes, people and values.
What’s Spoon River Anthology?
Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems, all in form of epitaphs of the people of Spoon River, a small town in the American Midwest. All the speakers are dead and buried in the cemetery on the hill near the town.
Who are the characters in the anthology?
Masters described a small-town life in the American Midwest through the voice of its people. Since they’re dead they can tell the truth about themselves with more freedom and knowledge. In the anthology we can find the prostitute, the drunkie, the politician, the husband, the soldier.. Spoon River is a community not a collection of separate individuals.
Why is Spoon River considered a human comedy?
Masters gives a realistic portrait of life through a simple language, he also attacks the hypocrisy of social conventions by comparing what people expected from their lives and what happened in reality. This is why it’s called a human comedy.
What’s the hill about?
The hill introduces the characters of the work by introducing all the dead inhabitants of the town by name, who are all sleeping on the hill. Their lives were very different though they shared a common destiny, which is sleeping on the hill.
Wilfred Owen’s life?
Wilfred Owen fought in WW1, he caught trench-fever and was hospitalized though he went back to war and was killed one week before the armistice was signed. His poems are remarkable for their use of half-rhymes, assonance, alliteration and onomatopeia( which resemble the sounds of war)
What’s dulce et decorum est about?
It’s a statement about the horror of war and he hypocrisy of patriotism during WW1:
1 stanza= soldiers going back to their dorms from the front, their tired and wounded
2 stanza= the soldiers are under gas attack and they try to put their masks on though some of them are not quick enough so they start breathing the poisonous and choke to death
3 stanza= he describes the soldiers dying and their bodies are thrown on a wagon. He quotes Horace’s ‘‘Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori’’ criticizing the British propaganda according to which dying for their country is sweet and glorious.
