Poets Biographies Flashcards
To Know The Basics of Each Poet
Walt Whitman
(1819 - 1892) At the time, his work was called obscene. Considered the father of free verse. A transcendentalist, had a preoccupation with grass. Regarded as America’s National Poet. Leaves of Grass - 1855.
Emily Dickinson
(1830 - 1886) Born in Amherst Mass. Known for unconventional capitalization, short lines, saw her brother having sex with his mistress on the family couch the night of his wedding. She wore white all the time after her seclusion.
Robert Frost
(1847 - 1963) Born in San Fran. Associated with Romanticism. Many of his poems focus on social outcasts and wanderers. Invited to recite a poem a JFK’s inauguration.
William Carlos Williams
(1883 - 1963) Real life doctor. Associated with Imagist movement/poetry. “The Red Wheelbarrow” was written while he was taking care of a girl he knew was going to die. Saw the wheelbarrow out the window.
T.S. Eliot
(1888 - 1965) Resembles free verse in the form of dramatic monologue. Compares love to war (Prufrock).
Langston Hughes
Free verse, some open form with some end rhyme.Black poet, one of the main contributes to the Harlem Renaissance.
Gwendolyn Brooks
(1917 - 2000) Unrhymed, no end rhyme. Her poem seeks to create a sense of racial pride.
Allen Ginsberg
(1926 - 1997) One of the most famous contributors to the beat movement. Gay, had a crush on Whitman.
Adrienne Rich
(1929 -) She had an unhappy marriage, divorced, became a lesbian, a poet, connected to the feminist movement. Female unity and pride poems.
Anne Sexton
(1928 - 1974) Free verse or open form. A confessional poet, revised fairy tales to critique gender roles and norms. Committed suicide by carbon monoxide.
Sylvia Plath
(1932 - 1963) Free verse with some end rhyme. Confessional poet, most famous of them all. Bizarre suicide, gas over, left milk and cookies for her kids.
Denise Duhamel
(1961 - ) Spoons and breasts - Famous book “Ka-Ching”
