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American Poets of the 20th Century

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How to Analyze Poetry

Context of the Poem
Style of the Poem
Title of the Poem
Repetition in the Poem
Opening and Closing Lines of the Poem
Passage of Time in the Poem
Speaker of the Poem
Basic Details of the Poem
Culture
Fantasy versus Reality
Mood and Tone of the Poem
Themes of the Poem
Rhythm of the Poem
Use of the Senses in the Poem
Imagery in the Poem
Language of the Poem
Supplemental Materials
Drawing Conclusions

The Poets

Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950)
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
Robert Frost (1874–1963)
Amy Lowell (1874–1925)
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967)
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
H. D. (1886–1961)
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)
John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)
Jean Toomer (1894–1967)
Louise Bogan (1897–1970)
Hart Crane (1899–1933)
Allen Tate (1899–1979)
Sterling Brown (1901–1989)
Langston Hughes (1902–1967)
Countée Cullen (1903–1946)
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)
John Berryman (1914–1972)
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000)
Robert Lowell (1917 — 1977)
Richard Wilbur (1921– )
James Dickey (1923–1997)
Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
A. R. Ammons (1926–2001)
Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997)
W. S. Merwin (1927– )
James Wright (1927–1980)
Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
Adrienne Rich (1929– )
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
Amiri Baraka (1934– )
Wendy Rose (1948– )
Joy Harjo (1951– )
Rita Dove (1952– )
Cathy Song (1955– )

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The Poets

Joy Harjo (1951– )

1. Compare Harjo's racial recall through poetic myth in "Vision," "Deer Dancer," and "New Orleans" with novelist Toni Morrison's "rememory" in Beloved and Louise Erdrich's recovered myth in Tracks.

2. Account for the use of horses as a metaphor for warring internal demons in Harjo's She Had Some Horses.

3. Contrast Harjo's faith in re-created history, as demonstrated in the poems "The Real Revolution Is Love," "Autobiography," "For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Whose Spirit Is Present Here and in the Dappled Star," or "For Alva Benson, and For Those Who Have Learned to Speak," with the historic confession in Robert Lowell's "For the Union Dead" and "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket."

4. Apply to Harjo's ethic the command of Ozark poet C. D. Wright: "Abide, abide and carry on. Give physical, material life to the words of your spirit. Record what you see. Rise, walk and make a day."


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