A Preface to Colonial American Poetry


Book Description

A Preface to Colonial American Poetry is a practical source for anyone interested in American literature. Encyclopedic and groundbreaking, A Preface to Colonial American Poetry presents a critical, analytical survey of Colonial American poetry within the context of American literature in general. In clear and easy to understand language, the book chronicles significant events from the arrival of the first emigrants at the Jamestown colony to the Declaration of Independence. The poetry of New England, Middle and South colonies is discussed with its fascinating interplay of diverse influences. The early settlers had already burned most of their bridges to the traditional culture behind them when they sailed for America and yet their writers kept looking back for inspiration. Author Wisam Khalid brings his modest experience with foreign students to the formation of this book to help international students better understand American history and literature in terms of discovery, foundation, periods and pioneers. Author Wisam Khalid has tailored this book to fit the needs of not only foreign seekers but also native undergraduates who will find interesting comparative insights into American and English poetry.




Early American Poetry


Book Description

Here is the first major-figure anthology of American poetry of the colonial and early national periods, an indispensable volume for both students and scholars of American literature and civilization. Five major literary figures are spotlighted: Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), Edward Taylor (1642?"-1729), Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), Philip Freneau (1752-1832), and William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878). An introduction to each chapter summarizes the life of the poet, reviews his or her literary career, describes and evaluates artistic achievement, and places the poet in an intellectual context. The writer's relationship to changing religious, philosophical, political, and cultural patters is established. The contemporary perspective is augmented by the inclusion of an appendix which presents three important poems by other writers: Micheal Wigglesworth's "God's Controversy with New England," Ebenezer Cook's The Sot-Weed Factor, and Joel Barlow's "Hasty Pudding." Eberwein goes beyond the most popular and familiar works to include those of unrecognized literary merit, presenting a thoroughly unique approach which illuminates the full range of the writers' themes, forms and poetic voices.







A History of American Poetry


Book Description

A History of American Poetry presents a comprehensive exploration of the development of American poetic traditions from their pre-Columbian origins to the present day. Offers a detailed and accessible account of the entire range of American poetry Situates the story of American poetry within crucial social and historical contexts, and places individual poets and poems in the relevant intertextual contexts Explores and interprets American poetry in terms of the international positioning and multicultural character of the United States Provides readers with a means to understand the individual works and personalities that helped to shape one of the most significant bodies of literature of the past few centuries




Paul Robeson


Book Description

Paul Robeson was one of the most famous people in the world; to his enemies he was also one of the most dangerous. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the African American singer was the voice of the people, both on stage and as a political activist who refused to be silenced as he fought for the rights of the oppressed. His message of peace, equality and justice was understood as much on the streets of Manchester, Moscow, Johannesburg and Bombay as it was in Harlem and Washington, DC. Jordan Goodman tells the story of Robeson during the tumultuous Cold War when the United States government became so worried by his impact abroad that it tried to silence him. Drawing on extensive new archival material from Robeson's FBI, State Department, MI6 and KGB files, he shows the major international scope of this effort.




American War Poetry


Book Description

Arranged by war, the book begins with the Colonial period and proceeds through Whitman admiring Civil War soldiers crossing a river to end with Brian Turner, who published his first book in 2005, beckoning a bullet in contemporary Iraq.




Gale Researcher Guide for: Colonial Women's Poetry


Book Description

Gale Researcher Guide for: Colonial Women's Poetry is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.




A Key Into the Language of America


Book Description

A discourse on the languages of Native Americans encountered by the early settlers. This early linguistic treatise gives rare insight into the early contact between Europeans and Native Americans.




The Postcolonial and Imperial Experience in American Transcendentalism


Book Description

Analyses literary representations of the American experience in selected works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Reveals the ambivalence that underlay the cultural and political development of the United States as a former colony.




Ekphrasis in American Poetry


Book Description

Ekphrasis in American Poetry: The Colonial Period to the 21st Century provides a sample of the chronological range and stylistic variety of ekphrastic poetry, or poetry that engages in various ways with different types of visual art, including pictographs, paintings, moving panoramas, daguerreotypes, photographs, landscape, and more. The volume shows how ekphrasis has been a part of American poetry from its inception, and that as many American men as women have produced work in this genre. The book opens with an overview chapter followed by an examination of American ekphrastic poems during the formative Colonial period where Europe, Africa, and Indigenous America met in encounters that are depicted in art and literature. It closes with two chapters on Native American poetry that consider how American landscapes serve as ekphrastic prompts for personal and collective experiences. In between are contributions on men and women poets and artists who have engaged with ekphrasis in a variety of ways from different periods. As such, American ekphrasis emerges as a genre that has implications far beyond the Eurocentric versions of the canon that have hitherto been discussed in the critical literature on the topic.