American poetry facts for kids
American poetry is poetry of the United States. It is most often written in English.
Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are the most famous American poets. There lived in the 19th century. She wrote short lyric poems about nature and human feelings.He wrote epic poetry. There are many poetry movements or styles.
After World War I, Modernist poetry became popular. The poets were inspired by European poetry, Asian poetry (such as Haikus), and Latin American poetry. The most famous Modernist poets were Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Pound wrote an epic poem called Cantos. Eliot wrote the most famous modern American poem, The Waste Land; it is a dramatic poem. He also wrote popular lyrical about cats.
During the Vietnam War, the Beat poets became very popular. Beat poets wrote about the American landscape, United States politics, and the Vietnam war. Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Gary Snyder (born 1930), Diane Di Prima (born 1934), Amiri Baraka (born 1934) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born 1919) are Beat poets.
Songwriter and poet Bob Dylan won the Nobel prize in 2016.
The Nuyorican poets emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. They migrated from Puerto Rico to New York City. They wrote poems in Spanish, English, and Spanglish (language). They also perform their poems in clubs such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Many poems describe racism, prison, and poverty. Others write with humor and optimism about love and triumph. Nuyorican poets include Pedro Pietri, Miguel Pinero, and Giannina Braschi. Other Latina poets who also wrote in Spanish and Spanglish are Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, Lorna Dee Cervantes, and Ana Castillo. These Latina poets were a part of the Chicano Movement and the Feminist movement.
There are many great African American poets. Black American poets have included Gwendolyn Brooks (born in 1917), Maya Angelou (born in 1928), Ishmael Reed (born in 1938), Nikki Giovanni (born in 1943), Amiri Baraka, Kwame Dawes, Claudia Rankine, Terence Hayes, Tracy K. Smith and Kevin Young.
Feminist poets write about women’s rights, female creativity, motherhood, and identity, among other topics. They include Adrienne Rich (1929–2012), Alicia Ostriker, Marilyn Hacker, and Amy Gerstler (born in 1956).
American Poetry Organizations
Academy of American Poets, Library of Congress, Poetry Society of America, Poetry Foundation are organizations that support US poets.
Images for kids
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Title pagesecond (posthumous) edition of Anne Bradstreet's poems, 1678
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Phillis Wheatley, a slave, wrote poetry during the colonial period.
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1873.
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See also
In Spanish: Poesía de Estados Unidos para niños
