(36) American Poetry before E. A. Poe and W. Whitman: Its Diversity and its Reception in America and Abroad.
A n n e B r a d s t r e e t
[see B. under ‘28 American Puritanism’]
E d w a r d T a y l o r
[see T. under ‘28 American Puritanism’]
T h e C o n n e c t i c u t W i t s ( 1 8 8 0 s – 9 0 s )
= Hartford Wits, the 1st poetic circle in Am.
- an informal association of Yale students, tutors, and presidents in the late 18th c.
- orig.: devoted to the modernisation of the Yale curriculum x then: declared the independence of Am. letters
- supported the Am. Rev., shared the Conservative and Federalist beliefs, and attacked their more liberal opponents (T. Jefferson and T. Paine)
- incl. John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, David Humphreys, Lemuel Hopkins, Richard Alsop, and Theodore Dwight
- jointly wrote satirical verses
> The Anarchiad: A New England Poem (1786 – 87), The Political Greenhouse, and The Echo (1791 – 1805)
J o h n T r u m b u l l ( 1 7 5 0 – 1 8 3 1 )
L i f e :
- b. in CT
- received uni education (Yale)
- became a tutor at Yale >> lawyer in Hartford
W o r k :
- articulate and erudite
- associated with T. Dwight and D. Humphreys: their Yale curricular reform made way for the study of modern lit.
- wrote essays, poetry, and satire
“The Progress of Dullness” (1772 – 73):
- a satirical poem criticising the Am. education
- wrote as a tutor at Yale
M’Fingal: A Modern Epos (1775 – 82):
- a long Hudibrastic poem satirising the Tory-Loyalist arguments
- comic-heroic in form, celebrating the Rev. in content
The Anarchiad: A New England Poem (1786 - 7):
- in collab. with T. Dwight & oth.
- satirises the disorganisation of the post-war Am.
- expresses a scepticism about the democratic theory and practice
The Echo (1791 – 1805):
- a verse satire attacking the Jeffersonian democracy in favour of the Federalism
T i m o t h y D w i g h t ( 1 7 5 2 – 1 8 1 7 )
L i f e :
- b. in Northampton (MA), grandson of J. Edwards
- received uni education (Yale)
- became a tutor at Yale >> army chaplain and Congregational minister at Greenfield Hill (CT) >> president of Yale
W o r k :
- a staunch churchman, moralist, and puritan
- Am. = the land of happiness x Eur. = the land of war and poverty
The Conquest of Canaan (1785):
- a relig. epic
- celebrates the Rev. having made Am. the land of happiness
Greenfield Hill (1794):
- a pastoral derived from Goldsmith x but: unlike G. concl. in a visionary optimism
- proves the Br. verse form applicable to Am. subjects
The Triumph of Infidelity (1798):
- a relig. poem
- condemns Cath. and deism as Satan’s temptation
J o e l B a r l o w ( 1 7 5 4 – 1 8 1 2 )
L i f e :
- b. in CT
- received uni education (Yale)
- became an army chaplain to have leisure for writing poetry >> businessman in Fr. >> consul for US
W o r k :
- his early opinions conventional enough to qualify him as one of the Hartford Wits
x but: radicalised by his experience of the Fr. Rev.
- his later works depart from the spirit of his formerly fellow Wits
The Anarchiad: A New England Poem (1786 – 87):
- a major contrib. to the Hartford Wits satirical poem
The Vision of Columbus (1786):
- an Am. epic, famous both in Am. and Eur.
The Columbiad (1807):
- a later revised version of The Vision
Advice to the Privileged Orders (1792):
- his own experience of living through the events of the Fr. Rev. as a friend of T. Paine and a honorary Fr. citizen
- similar in tone to T. Paine’s Rights of Man
“Hasty Pudding” (1796):
- commemorates his contented exile y. as a consul
P h i l i p F r e n e a u
[see F. under ‘29 Genres in the Lit. of Am. Rev.’]
W i l l i a m C u l l e n B r y a n t ( 1 7 9 4 – 1 8 7 8 )
L i f e :
- practised law
- ed. the NY City Evening Post for almost 40 y.: one of the most respected voices in the 19th c. journalism commenting virtually on every important issue of the time
- associated with the Knickerbocker School
W o r k :
< the classics, the 18th c. Neo-classical poets, and esp. the ‘Graveyard School’
< W. Wordsworth > his early vision of nature characteristic by self-control, emotional distance, and purity of line
- content: lit. nationalism
(a) ⅔ of his poems conc. with the natural world: landscape, flora, and meteorological phenomena
(b) also conc. with historical personages and events, friends, Ind. legends, and few oth. themes
- form: accurately rhymed or sonorously unrhymed blank verse
- used nature and poetry as a tool to create a relig. to sustain himself
- expressed the most consistent vision of the world: meditative, restrained, full of dignified serenity and pleasure in nature
=> founded the Romantic tradition
- extremely pop.: appreciated by E .A. Poe, R. W. Emerson, and W. Whitman
The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times:
< A. Pope
- an early Federalist satire on President T. Jefferson’s policies
Poems:
- earned him a very meagre sum of money
- proved poetry to be no alternative as a livelihood
Lectures on Poetry:
- focused on the original, imaginative, moral, and didactic properties of poetry
- sought ‘a luminous style’
“Thanatopsis”:
< the ‘Graveyard School’
“To a Waterfowl”
“The Prairies”
Also wrote: a transl. of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
H e n r y W a d s w o r t h L o n g f e l l o w
[see H. W. Longfellow under “32 The Am. 19th c. Romanticism”]
Literature
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. London: Penguin, 1991.
Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1994.
McQuade, Donald, gen.ed. The Harper American Literature. New York: Harper & Collins, 1996.
Ruland, Richard, Malcolm Bradbury. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997.
Vančura, Zdeněk, ed. Slovník spisovatelů: Spojené státy americké. Praha: Odeon, 1979.
Other Sources
Peprník, Michal. Semináře: Americká literatura 1. ZS 2004/05.