American Literature Poetry Project (Cook): Home

Purpose: To write an overview of an American poet int he vein of the introductions we find in Six American Poets

You should include:

• Pertinent and interesting biographical information
• Pertinent and interesting publication information
• Autobiographical influences on their poetry
• Stylistic and thematic characteristics
• Critical analysis of one or two poems
• Discussion of the defining element of their poetry with reference to at least three poems
• Your own original poem that mimics the poet, and a discussion of how you have imitated him/her
• Conclusion: something that clinches your understanding and appreciation of the poet under examination
• Properly formatted in-text citations and a properly formatted works cited page

Wendell Berry

John Berryman

Robert Bly

Gwendolyn Brooks

Charles Bukowski

Billy Collins

e.e. cummings

James Dickey

T.S. Eliot

Allen Ginsberg

Nikki Giovanni

Claude McKay

Sharon Olds

Sylvia Plath

Edgar Allen Poe

John Crowe Ransom

Theodore Roethke

Carl Sandburg

Gary Snyder

William Stafford

Richard Wilbur