Book contents
- The Cambridge History of American Poetry
- The Cambridge History of American Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: Poetry before 1800
- Chapter 1 Remembering Muskrat
- Chapter 2 Rhyming Empires
- Chapter 3 The World, the Flesh, and God in Puritan Poetry
- Chapter 4 Confronting Death
- Chapter 5 The Emergence of a Southern Tradition
- Chapter 6 Poetry in the Time of Revolution
- Part II A New Nation: Poetry from 1800 to 1900
- Part III Forms of Modernism, 1900–1950
- Part IV Beyond Modernism: American Poetry, 1950–2000
- Selected Bibliographies
- Index
Chapter 6 - Poetry in the Time of Revolution
from Part I - Beginnings: Poetry before 1800
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2014
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of American Poetry
- The Cambridge History of American Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: Poetry before 1800
- Chapter 1 Remembering Muskrat
- Chapter 2 Rhyming Empires
- Chapter 3 The World, the Flesh, and God in Puritan Poetry
- Chapter 4 Confronting Death
- Chapter 5 The Emergence of a Southern Tradition
- Chapter 6 Poetry in the Time of Revolution
- Part II A New Nation: Poetry from 1800 to 1900
- Part III Forms of Modernism, 1900–1950
- Part IV Beyond Modernism: American Poetry, 1950–2000
- Selected Bibliographies
- Index
Summary
The story of poetry in the time of the American Revolution is a story of the interaction between manuscript, print, and oral culture. From the Stamp Act crisis through the Revolutionary War, colonists used poetry to vent their anger, express their political beliefs, and articulate the principles that defined the new nation. Many women began writing poetry during the Revolutionary era. Boston historian and playwright Mercy Otis Warren is one of the best known female poets of the time. Throughout the eighteenth century, many readers considered Milton's biblical epic Paradise Lost the single greatest poem in the English language. The long poem has become one of the defining features of American poetry, as Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Herman Melville'sClarel testify. Even the poets Harriet Monroe championed in Poetry turned to long poems to prove their poetic mettle.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of American Poetry , pp. 129 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014