foxycat wrote: Pepper--You were talking in Idylls about how poetry had changed with the times. Do you think there are any 19th Century American poets as good as Tennyson? In fact, without doing research, I can't even think of any 19th Century American poets except Longfellow, who wrote awful doggerel.
Rochelle -- Don't know who might qualify for "as good as," but the first name that came to mind for me was Walt Whitman. The excerpts below are from his Wikepedia entry:
"Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism, incorporating both views in his works. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.[1] Whitman is among the most influential and controversial poets in the American canon. His work has been described as a 'rude shock' and 'the most audacious and debatable contribution yet made to American literature.'[2]"
"Walt Whitman's influence on contemporary American poetry is so fundamental that it has been said that American poetry divides into two camps: that which naturally flows from Whitman and that which consciously strives to accept it.[citation needed] Whitman's great talents presented a complex paradox for the modernist poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, who recognized his value but feared the implications of his influence.
"During the height of modernism, Whitman continued to present 'a problem' until he was rescued by such influential poets as William Carlos Williams and Hart Crane. Later, Allen Ginsberg and the beat poets would become the most vociferous champions of Whitman's expansive, abundant, humanistic America. Ginsberg begins his famous poem "Supermarket in California" from Howl and Other Poems with a reference to Whitman. The hand of Whitman can be seen working in such diverse twentieth-century poets as John Berryman, E.E. Cummings, Galway Kinnell, Langston Hughes, Philip Levine, Kenneth Koch, James Wright, Joy Harjo, William Carlos Williams, Mary Oliver, Bob Dylan, Jerry Wemple and June Jordan, to name only a few. Whitman was also revered by international poets ranging from Pablo Neruda to Rimbaud to Federico García Lorca to Fernando Pessoa.
"Yale professor and literary critic Harold Bloom considers Walt Whitman to be one of the five most important American poets. The others in Bloom's pantheon are Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, and Robert Frost. Whitman also had a huge influence on the British novelist and poet D. H. Lawrence. Contemporary Spokane Indian poet, Sherman Alexie, has also been influenced by Whitman, mentioning him explicitly in his poem 'Defending Walt Whitman'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_WhitmanOf the five most important American poets named by Bloom, Emily Dickinson is the only other one entirely of the 19th century.
Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886)
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955)
Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932)
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)
I see "humanist" strongly associated with comments about Whitman. But don't look to me for poetry expertise!
"Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here." -- Leo Tolstoy
There's a campus Christian group called Chi Alpha (roughly meaning Christ First) that's growing quickly.
