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…

Designed to be used with the 8-part public television series "The Language of Life with Bill Moyers," this guide serves as a learning resource for the study of contemporary American poetry. The guide presents 18 full-size cards that feature the work of each of the poets in the series; selected poems that appear in the series; questions…

This book offers guidance for poets at every stage of development. It is a book about a person's shaping his or her memory and passions, pleasures, obsessions, dreams, secrets, and sorrows into poems. The book contains chapters on the language and music of poetry, the art of revision, traditional and experimental techniques, and how to get poetry…

The "Voices and Visions" series, a set of instructional videos on the lives and art of 13 important American poets, has the desirable potential to reach an audience that is virtually unlimited. The videos are a skillful blend of photographs, film footage, interviews with scholars, critics, and poets, readings by actors, and sometimes by…

Presenting informal interviews, this book opens a window into the writing processes, influences, work habits, and personal backgrounds of 16 poets who write for children and young adults. The interviews in the book provide not only critical discussions of poetry but also ideas about how teachers can help children understand poetry and enjoy…

The persona Robert Frost communicated to most of his wide, diverse, and often non-academic audience was that of a rather isolated New England farmer, who--because of his limited experience with city folk and urban living--was untouched and thereby uncorrupted by the ways of the world. In teaching Frost, as in teaching any poet, some sort of…

This book emerged from a Poetry in the Schools program which had two facets: teacher workshops and instruction by poets in elementary and secondary classrooms. Part one, "Poets and Teachers in Dialogue," describes major issues discussed in teacher workshops: keeping the imagination alive, writing as a way of discovery, exploration of…

This book is a sample of what actually happens when the professional teaching poet sits down with the student poem. It allows the reader to observe the poets in their roles as teachers. The collection of student workshop poems and the teachers' essays about the poems--their analysis, specific criticisms, teaching techniques and procedures--are…

The first half of this document examines the relationships between painting, poetry, and science, describing in particular their increasing focus on letters and typography. The poets and painters of mid-nineteenth century France, the Futurist school, and the Lettrist movement are discussed. Their common assumption, fundamental to modern…

This biography explores poet Robert Frost's techniques as a teacher from the early days of teaching at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, to his acceptance of a chair at Harvard University and his subsequent associations with numerous other schools. Also examined are his educational practices and philosophy--particularly his life-long…

This book is designed as an introduction to Christopher Smart's poetry for the general reader, the college student, and the college teacher. The political, social, and literary background of eighteenth-century England is examined in the first part of this volume. The second part concerns itself with Smart's life and the factors affecting his…

The reader should be considered a guide to Native American literature. It is designed as an introduction to the study of the Native literature of the Americas. Content begins with the poetic art of the ancients. Special space is given to the Walum Olum, an example of the epic quality of Native literary art. In contrast, but also as a natural…

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Richard B. Sewall, Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, Yvor Winters, George F. Whicher, Henry W. Wells, Donald E. Thackrey, Thomas H. Johnson, R. P. Blackmur, John Crowe Ransom, Austin Warren, James Reeves, Richard Wilbur, Louise…

Derek Walcott is the major voice of the Caribbean naissance. His strength lies in the creative tension between the particularity of his Caribbean setting and the universalities of his theme and style. His stylistic influences and allusions resemble those of Donne, Marvell, Yeats, Hopkins, Pound, Ransom, Spender, Lowell, and Graves. Passages of his…

In this handbook, four authors write on the same topics but with varying emphases. Gwendolyn Brooks sketches the background of Afro-American poetry and offers practical hints and exercises for writing. Keorapatse Kgositsile discusses the role and situation of the black writer. Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) explains an author's commitment and…