Papers on "The First Modern American Poet" and similar term paper topics

Paper #068155 :: The First Modern American Poet
Buy and instantly download this paper now

A study of the life and legacy of poet Walt Whitman.

Written in 2006; 2,600 words; 14 sources; MLA; $ 78.95

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892), one of the first to embrace uniquely American themes, styles and literary concerns. This paper examines Whitman's unique poetic voice and personal philosophy of poetry in order to show how Whitman established the first uniquely American voice within poetry, one separate from the mostly pre-Victorian and Victorian-inspired poetic styles, forms and themes of earlier American poets. The paper also explicates two sets of Whitman's free-verse poems: (1) Three of his earliest poems from "Leaves of Grass" (1855) and (2) four of his later Civil War poems, written from 1861-1865. Together these poems demonstrate how far Whitman had moved beyond British influence, to become the great innovator of modern American poetry.

From the Paper:

"Within America before the Civil War, American literature most often closely imitated writing styles, tones and even thematic concerns of both past and present British authors. Before the poetry of Whitman in particular, American poets like Bradstreet, Taylor, Bryant, Wheatley, and others adopted British verse forms and other poetic conventions, shaping them to their own artistic voices and concerns within the New World. In several of Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet's poems that were either to or about her husband or children for example, Bradstreet closely imitated the metaphysical style of John Donne. The expansive, flowing, and exuberant free-verse works of Walt Whitman, which did none of that, may therefore be considered the first truly American poetry, reflecting, as it does, influences, moods, concerns, ways of expression, and social and political movements within American itself, and nowhere else, with a new and unique style and forms."

Tags: civil war voice style prose poem leaves of grass literature victorian

More papers on "The First Modern American Poet"

1. Paper #096464 :: American Poets ( 1,257 words; 13 sources; APA )
2. Paper #036199 :: American Poets ( 1,150 words; 6 sources; )
3. Paper #061001 :: Sylvia Plath: Tortured American Poet ( 946 words; 6 sources; MLA )
4. Paper #102896 :: Poetic and Technical Concerns of American Poets ( 707 words; 7 sources; MLA )
5. Paper #006859 :: Architecture: Modernism, Pre-Modernism and Post-Modernism ( 2,550 words; 10 sources; MLA )

About AcaDemon

We have thousands of high-quality term papers, research papers, essays, book reports and dissertations on every topic. At AcaDemon, you can download those term papers to help you write yours! You can be sure that the term paper, essay, book report or research paper, you download are top-quality, competitively priced and high-level work.

Look for more research papers, essays and book reports on The First Modern American Poet

This Free Term Paper Abstract is a part of our Term Paper Library. Here you can purchase research papers, examples of essays, academic dissertations, articles, notes, analytical papers, book reports, stories and poems. We have thousands of persuasive, point-of-view, narrative, critical, compare and contrast and other types of essays in our Library. You can also find here Term papers on "The First Modern American Poet", Essays on "The First Modern American Poet", Research papers on "The First Modern American Poet", Student papers on "The First Modern American Poet", Book reports on "The First Modern American Poet", Dissertation on "The First Modern American Poet", Thesis on "The First Modern American Poet", Summary of paper on "The First Modern American Poet", Articles written on "The First Modern American Poet".