The first few pages of the introduction already told my that this anthology is going to make me think critically. In the two pages the author uses a metaphor to compare trees and the authors; each being their own distinct species in their respective forest. Originally in my personal close reading pondered if the authors were grouped in a specific way; it wasn’t until we discussed it in our groups that I found out each forest represents a timeframe for which the aforementioned authors existed. Rita Dove knows that by writing this anthology that she was attempting aa task that was near impossible to complete, and it wasn’t because of just the work load. R. Dove also understands that some literary work has to be left out because of her lack of monetary capital.  Rita reinforces that the civil war is still affecting society because racism is being passed down from the survivors and individuals who were alive during that time. While reading I found it intriguing to see how the environment influenced each author differently and how it showed in their work.  The majority of the poets that laid the framework for modern poetry were born in different decades for the most part. Looking into that further it was mostly white men using white patriarchy to their advantage. I think we may have had a different foundation for American poetry if women, specifically black, were able to have just a little time in the spotlight in the earlier days of poetry.  Is it the individual that makes the style of the work, do authors follow a format and make it their own, or is everyone’s style unique because each individual is unique? Is Wallace Stevens saying that the poet speaks what’s on people mind, and that’s why people may relate but get different meanings? What is reality if it isn’t truth? Are we living a lie? It seems like Stevens lived in the moment instead of planning everything like society makes us do. The “image” is more complex than we make it seem; it doesn’t consist of one idea or concept. Ezra Pound also made me realize that our new era has changed the way we believe things. Mass communication really brought a new era of information in; its easier to fact check everyone. The only way we know what we want is if we say it aloud and write it down. What creates speech patterns and what does it say about that person’s character and background? Cummings seems to like the chaos that nature authentically gives off, including interactions in the moment. Are humans naturally self – centered? Is poetry and arts the key to dismantling white patriarchy? I hate that women always have to “ride in the back seat’ when it comes to anything involving power. Europeans have really infected the African American community with a toxic mindset that needs to be dismantled. Until there is equality in sex, we will never see equality in race. The “negro” isn’t operating at their best because we are using a European worldview to operate our lives. I wish the black community as a whole could look to our ancestors and be inspired. It’s sad that war and conflict creates the conditions to unify the African – American community. It seems that the second world war really messed with the collective consciousness of the poets in that era. The Black arts movement was began a progressive era for African Americans. Baraka seems to have been shining the bat symbol for blacks across the nation. This era seemed like the most progressive for African Americans. “African American poets now we’re not only describing and reflecting upon the peculiarities of their place at America’s table – they were upturning the benches and walking off to eat by themselves.” I like the metaphor used here; it shows African Americans’ rage and proactiveness in the era.The African American poets during this time seemed have been making poems for only other African Americans to read; they used slang only found in our neighborhoods. as blacks progressed white seemed to have tried to infiltrate the African American community. I believe sometimes we are too cautious and that we cannot let our white counterparts raise suspicion where it is not needed; it causes unnecessary division.

Saying Robert Frost “won” because he was the most acclaimed, to neglect the critiques and “bashing” he faced dismisses his influence while promoting the “Frost bashing”. M Wallace Stevens, another poetry monolith alongside Robert Frost, passed away before Frost with a ruined reputation.  The last 27 years of his life were garnished with incarceration, critique of his pro-Fascist behaviour and exile. 

                Many view Frost as a foolish or eccentric old man that provided tedious moralizing lectures.  His witty remarks can cause readers to miss his “complex emotional topographies”.  Frost’s “The Death of the Hired Man” uses the closeness and essence if Shakespearean poetry, such as lengthy dialogue, nineteenth century lyricism and descriptive passages.  The New England dialect used is unorthodox to his typical readers but the dialogue eventually transforms into a “magical layering of rhythm…[that]..sings”

                Robert Frost worked diligently to become a skilled and respected leader in the realm of poetry but eventually began to wear under the expectations of such a title.  Before wearing or “chafing” though, Robert Frost produced a body of works that dispensed wisdom. 

 

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E.E. Cummings uniquely created language that blended words with sensory impressions to define the moments he created. Cummings made his readers navigate, on his terms, through his intricate writing styles. His poem R-P-O-P-H-E-S-S-A-G-R emphasizes his style of short hand writing by dismantling words, stripping them to barely speak able pieces. Through Cumming’s lens, the cast supplied over poetry through Langston Hughes alongside the adjustments by John Berryman become visible along the spectrum of dismantled language of poetry

Within my groups pages I dug a little deeper into them and found myself intrigued in the different poets mentioned in the introduction. First I was introduced to Robert Frost who was mainly influenced by British poets, his life story differed by the narrator. While reading I understood that him and his work was loved and hated because of the fatherly words his work gave. He was most known for his infamous quote “ He who dies with the most toys win” had some backlash towards it. For me, I believe that quote holds a metaphoric torch because it isn’t about the material accolades that are the toys but rather the impacting of the world that are the toys. I know everyone will receive this quote in so many different ways but for me its deeper than what meets the eye. “ The poet is the priest of the invisible” what Wallace Stevens was attempting to say is that poetry is the way to the soul and what lies within the soul which is truth. Your soul holds the truth and what’s realistic about it is truth is invisible to the outside world until you let it be heard. Through the language it’s as if a sermon is being given. Wallace Stevens began the era of creativity. Being a late starter, it concludes why he was so vigorous when it came to his art. His ability to create modernism in his own language was due to his years of learning his craft. His life story parades this sense of willpower and it helps us better fathom why he was so challenging. From arguing with Robert Frost and challenging his ways. It’s to be said that Stevens was described as a poet of the mind. he believed that there was no objective reality, we make our reality through our consciousness. Our minds perceive, interprets, and impresses upon our awareness at that given moment and after reading that particular line it made me sit and think about it as a whole. I never thought about it in that way but it’s true considering the fact that I was consistently taught to “manifest positive thoughts” you influence your reality but your mind. Modernism is defined as modern character, tendencies, or values that has some adherence to or sympathy with what is modern. It’s no secret of the tremendous significance Modernism holds on the artist in the literary world, but it indeed goes farther than that culturally. Modernism introduced the unsettling reality of truth and all its findings with being only imaginary.  Stevens began studying the Victorian era of poetry language which focused on morals and religion. This began to show though the works, and with this the sophisticated people became less intrigued on the realness being brought by the words. Ezra Pound was a breath of fresh air. His principals to the language carried a sense of beauty about it. His three tenets all made for sure the art was present, direct, and never repetitive because that took away from the musical phrase sequence it portrayed. Pound created the formula “ A poem should not mean/ but be” which goes back to his second tenet which states “ To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.”. Pound later went on to try and create his own fringe entitled “ Vorticism” that failed. It enforced that an image is not reproduced as reality but as a construct, charged with visions of history, cultural allusions, the collective unconscious, and inscribe with the existing study of his language. His quote “ The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is encowled with energy” 

Pounds quote stuck out most to be because I can understand his saying the most. Its entailing the image of life and all that comes with it. There are so many layers to life which makes it less of an idea and more of a complex figuration infused with those ideas and the energy or willpower to achieve those such things. William Carlos Williams used his life experiences to prepare him. “ Where else can what we are seeking arise from but speech” my translation is how could one seek a dream if they don’t believe it? The first is always self. Williams was a full-time physician with a private practice and a full-time writer. Creating a number of things like novels, short stories, plays, autobiography, and poetry he never stopped creating using every free moment to create. In Williams earlier days he let his friend Ezra Pound have some influence over his literary models. Becoming captivated with the romantic poets but he eventually steered away from it. Williams key factor to his poetry was the realism of America. Using ordinary people’s thoughts and patterns to create art he strived to paint the picture of the authentic American experience. Williams let his own personal beliefs hinder his deserved recognition, his success was delayed because of the non-supporters in power. He then received his flowers when he died. Eliot Prufrock set his own tone for poetry by disowning his American roots and embracing Anglicanism which is the church of England. E.E. Cummings was a new and fresh innovative being that showcased the realms of self-consciousness. He delighted and lived in the messiness of consciousness every day. Whereas before it was very strict and rigid, he treated language as a flexible body that he could use. 

Rita Dove supplied a plethora of interesting information in her introduction to The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry. Rita Dove not only supplied a history lesson that set the scene for the authors and poems the book would illuminate, but also supplied a very detailed explanation concerning the process she undertook to choose the poems that she did.

The most important point that a reader needs to note and remember, is the time period in which she is covering and the events that occurred during that time. During the early 1900s until the early 20000s, an abundance of social and economic reforms took place. Women were fighting for equality alongside African Americans, World War One and Two, and the Cold War, were just a few events that the American public faced during this time. Alongside all of the bloodshed, pain, and tears came the Harlem Renaissance which sparked many creative movements. One of creative movements was the evolution of the poetic voice. At first, many poets did not possess a “proper education”, meaning many of them did not reach higher education and were not taught how to properly write. This caused many different forms of poetry to be created along with poetry workshops. Rita Dove, quote, “Poets were being raised like broods of chicks”. This sentence alone seemed anti poetry workshop but in further reading, Rita Dove, quote, “…and a believer in-workshops.” This two sentences alone are vital and loosely hint at an explanation for Rita Dove’s choices.

Poetry became a business. No more was it just for fun or something to do. No more was just anyone able to be or become a poet, a poet that made money and was known throughout the country. No more was poetry simply and escape from reality. Poetry in all of its forms became a business. A very successful business. Authors began to copyright their work so not just anyone would be able to use it for just anything. And this is the problem that Rita Dove ran into. Many people are money hungry, they always seem to want something for little to nothing, hence the reason a lot of authors did not make it into the book. They were just too expensive and Rita Dove had a budget that she had to stick to. The importance of her including this explanation was profound. People love to argue and downplay someone’s work if it does not go with the mainstream of what they see fit. People like to “cancel” or turn against someone who does, as stated, go along with what’s popular which in reality, she did not do. She left out a few major poets that would have fit her criteria simply because she was unable to afford them and they were asking too much for so little. Rita Dove stopped the argument, the berating, before it could even be started. Which is tremendous because even I sat back and wondered why some authors did not make it into the book.

Rita Dove also hit on a major important point that does not further why she picked the authors and poems that she did but slightly explains the implications of the book. Rita Dove, quote, “…viewed not with a scholar’s dissecting eye but from the perspective of a contemporary poet who, although not exactly born into her country’s mainstream, nevertheless took possession of mainstream society’s intellectual shapes and artistic aesthetics to make them her own.” This the sentence that ended the introduction. This simple yet straightforward sentence that informed the reader on how the book is to be read and thought about. It seems as if she is impressing, as she did through her entire introduction, the importance of not only understanding the importance of the book being modern, but the events that took place during this modern time.

Students will complete ONE weekly 600-1000 word blog posts on readings that definitively ADD to any explicit discussions in class OR what was NOT explicitly discussed in class. In order to receive full credit, each student’s blog post and student comments must be on time.  Comments will require that responses are based on individual insights, reactions to, and close readings of 2 poems by 2 different poets and comment/respond to at least 2 student posts for each blog (4 responses per week). The blogs are due every Friday by 11:59 PM (EST). For full credit, each response will include lines of poetry/quotations from the text and offer a nuanced and critical reading of the poems based on your developing knowledge of Modern and Contemporary Poetry and poetics. In order to prevent grammatical issues, compose responses in a Word document and complete a full grammar and style check. Off-topic blogs will result in a penalty.

Students will complete ONE weekly 600-1000 word blog posts on readings that definitively ADD to any explicit discussions in class OR what was NOT explicitly discussed in class. In order to receive full credit, each student’s blog post and student comments must be on time.  Comments will require that responses are based on individual insights, reactions to, and close readings of 2 poems by 2 different poets and comment/respond to at least 2 student posts for each blog (4 responses per week). The blogs are due every Friday by 11:59 PM (EST). For full credit, each response will include lines of poetry/quotations from the text and offer a nuanced and critical reading of the poems based on your developing knowledge of Modern and Contemporary Poetry and poetics. In order to prevent grammatical issues, compose responses in a Word document and complete a full grammar and style check. Off-topic blogs will result in a penalty.

Students will complete ONE weekly 600-1000 word blog posts on readings that definitively ADD to any explicit discussions in class OR what was NOT explicitly discussed in class. In order to receive full credit, each student’s blog post and student comments must be on time.  Comments will require that responses are based on individual insights, reactions to, and close readings of 2 poems by 2 different poets and comment/respond to at least 2 student posts for each blog (4 responses per week). The blogs are due every Friday by 11:59 PM (EST). For full credit, each response will include lines of poetry/quotations from the text and offer a nuanced and critical reading of the poems based on your developing knowledge of Modern and Contemporary Poetry and poetics. In order to prevent grammatical issues, compose responses in a Word document and complete a full grammar and style check. Off-topic blogs will result in a penalty.

Students will complete ONE weekly 600-1000 word blog posts on readings that definitively ADD to any explicit discussions in class OR what was NOT explicitly discussed in class. In order to receive full credit, each student’s blog post and student comments must be on time.  Comments will require that responses are based on individual insights, reactions to, and close readings of 2 poems by 2 different poets and comment/respond to at least 2 student posts for each blog (4 responses per week). The blogs are due every Friday by 11:59 PM (EST). For full credit, each response will include lines of poetry/quotations from the text and offer a nuanced and critical reading of the poems based on your developing knowledge of Modern and Contemporary Poetry and poetics. In order to prevent grammatical issues, compose responses in a Word document and complete a full grammar and style check. Off-topic blogs will result in a penalty.