Chronicles the evolution of the position of consultant in poetry (in 1989, officially titled Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry) at the Library of Congress from the 1930s to the present. Poets highlighted include Howard Nemerov, Alan Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Robert Hayden, Joseph Brodsky, Rita Dove, and Stanley Kunitz. A sidebar discusses…

Black people and woman are culturally disenfranchised in that they are not aware of many Black and female writers. Clarissa Scott Delaney has gone unnoticed. She was a Black poet who studied at Wellseley College and refused to be intimidated by the racism there. Four of her poems are included. (VM)

Describes the life, artistic development, literary associations and poetry of Langston Hughes during his college years at Lincoln University from 1926-1930. Adapted and condensed from the author's forthcoming biography on Langston Hughes. (APM)

Concludes through an examination of recent criticism of William Blake's works that the literary canon is subject to change over time. Suggests that this is true because of both new critical developments and accumulations of new information through research. Argues that even critical theory is affected by such research. (SG)

John Burroughs was a poet-naturalist who spent most of his life during the late 1800s and early 1900s living in a rustic cabin that he built almost entirely from native materials. Burroughs suggested that becoming a good observer of nature was a function of the whole person and the power of concentrated attention, and not of the eyes alone. (LP)

The protest poetry of Claude McKay, a leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance, is couched in the Western sonnet form. How the poetic form supports or conflicts with the messages of African-American pride and contempt for racism is examined. (SLD)

Intended to impart the basic ways a poem is constructed, this concise handbook is a prose guide to writing poetry. The handbook talks about meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense, iambs and trochees, couplets and sonnets, and how and why this should matter to any person writing or reading poetry. Interspersing history and analysis with…

Presents suggestions for ensuring the survival and spread of African American art forms through wide dissemination and use in schools. Emphasizes poetry as one of many aspects of Black creative endeavors. Discusses the effects of the creative fervor of young Black poets of the 1960s on older, more renowned poets. (MK)

Biographers have called Walt Whitman "America's most influential and innovative poet" and some have even called him "the greatest of all American poets." But in the winter of 1862-63, even as he was gaining a reputation as a talented poet, Whitman was forty-three years old, volunteering as a nurse in Union hospitals, and…

In letters and poetry Frances Ellen Harper wrote about the reconstruction era as it affected and influenced Black women. They confirm that there were values and priorities separate from those of middle class leaders and that Black women were oppressed by Whites and by Black men. (VM)

Louis Shores (1904-1981) was one of the undisputed intellectual leaders of librarianship in the 1960s. By that time, Shores had already established a national reputation in the field of reference work and had become prominent in education for librarianship. His lifelong commitment to his profession centered around his intense belief in the power…

The works of four Native American poets, E. Pauline Johnson, Alexander Posey, John Rollin Ridge, and Gertrude Bonnin, are discussed with reference to the late 19th-century federal assimilation policies which were designed to absorb Native Americans into the mainstream of American life. (AN)

Discusses the reclusive life of Emily Dickinson, recounting the discovery of Dickinson's poems after her death. Concentrates on the problems Dickinson's sister encountered in securing an editor. Contends that Dickinson's poems were distorted by editors and critics, and includes the original version of "Because I Could Not Stop for…

Presented is a collection of poems from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries that have asked questions about the social consequences of science and technology. Discussed are the beliefs of poets toward scientific knowledge and advances in technology. (KR)

The history of black women's social reform work remains unrecognized in the academy and the general culture. The contributions of courageous black feminist authors such as bell hooks, Nikki Giovanni, and Audre Lorde are important for all students. Hooks works with educators to denounce sexist and racist stereotypes, Giovanni stresses the concept…