Chapter 2 Prominent Poets Flashcards
Emily Dickinson
She wrote on a variety of subjects but is commonly known for focusing on death, immortality and nature
Her poems were unlike many others written at the time because they rarely had titles; they often contained short lines; they frequently employed slant rhyme
Robert Frost
Frost used traditional meter in his poems and explored darker themes that conveyed a sardonic tone.
the themes of Frost, such as individualism and the need to challenge social norms, resonate particularly well with the ideals that are at the heart of American ideology
John Keats
Wrote O Solitude and Ode on a Grecian Urn/Ode on Melancholy
Acclaimed as one of the Romantic era’s greatest poets
Maya Angelou
Wrote about the Black struggle in America
Wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Sexual Identity
Phenomenal Woman
Sandra Cisneros
reflecting the cultural differences between men and women, Cisneros explores the ways in which gender roles are particularly defined and explicit in Chicano culture.
My Wicked Wicked Ways and Loose Woman, which both address the themes of race and gender and employ English and Spanish.
Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s use of diction, or word choice, is the start of what makes him stand apart from other writers.
In his short story ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ he uses words like ‘bleak,’ ‘rank,’ ‘depression of the soul’ and ‘hideous dropping off of the veil’ to describe the House of Usher.
This pretty heavy word choice is both sophisticated and chock-full of terrifying connotations, or emotional meanings.
Used horrific imagery
Percy Shelley
empiricist, which basically means that he believed knowledge should come from sensory experience and that evidence determines truth
one of the Romantic poetry movement’s really most acclaimed figures. He was a revolutionary, an opponent of religion
His major works include ‘Ozymandias’, ‘Ode to the West Wind’ and Prometheus Unbound.
Gary Soto
Soto was inspired by his real life experiences, feelings, and things he would hear in relation to Mexican heritage.
This writing style was widely praised due to its cultural references, but its ability to appeal to all types of readers.
In the early and mid 90s, Soto began to write stories aimed at teenagers and adolescents
JRR Tolkien
Tolkien argues that myths and the process of their creation reveal deep fundamental truths concerning humanity, so their proliferation is important to our personal and interpersonal understanding
Mythology was extremely important to the author, and his work is largely devoted to its preservation and defense (i.e. Mythopoeia) as a creative medium.
Tolkien’s scholarship and imaginative fiction have been some of the principle contributors to the revival of the fantasy genre in the past century.
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was a highly influential American poet and a key member of the transcendentalist movement, along with contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
he wrote in free verse, or poetry without meter or rhyme
In Leaves of Grass, his explicit descriptions of physical pleasure in the book were highly offensive to many
explores the relationship between man and nature and the value of the mind and spirit
