Edward Estlin Cummings is a well-known poet for
how he wrote his poems. He wrote his poems in a very unusual way.
He wrote poems with capital letters in the middle of words like the
title of a poem called, "The little horse newlY". The "Y"
is a capital letter. He also signed his poems with lower case letters
in his name.
This is probably one of Emily Dickinson's most
famous poems. Knowing how tiny her life was you would think she wouldn't
have any "famous poems." Emily's style was what made her
famous. She was a good observer. She wrote about tiny things you wouldn't
ordinarily notice. She had an interesting point of view. Her devices
were similes and metaphors. She tended to favor them a little bit
more. In this poem, she used similes. Like " How public like
a frog." What I like about this poem is pretty much the idea.
The idea of this poem sounds like a poem to cheer you up when you
feel all alone so that you could know someone else is there in the
same situation as you to defeat that loneliness. I observed she almost
always in her poems uses "I." instead of "he,she, or
it ." My opinion of Emily's poems is that they are very soothing.
What we can all remember about her poetry is her "tiny"
style. Here is her story . . . . loneliness. I observed she almost
always in her poems uses "I." instead of "he,she, or
it ." My opinion of Emily's poems is that they are very soothing.
What we can all remember about her poetry is her "tiny"
style. Here is her story . . . .
Thomas Sterns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri,
on September 26, 1888. He was raised in a family that had distinguished
Americans since colonial days. At 18 years of age, T.S. Eliot entered
Harvard, after graduating he went abroad. Then he taught in a boys
school briefly before spending eight years in Lloyds Bank in London.
Eugene Field was an unusual poet. He was one of
the few poets who wrote only children's poetry. That is how he got
his nickname, The Children's Poet. It all started September 2, 1850,
at 634 South Broadway in Saint Louis. That's where and when Eugene
Field was born. He had one brother named Roswell, who was one year
younger than he, and a sister who died soon after her birth. He and
his brother were very close, but very different. Eugene took after
their mother, Francis, while Roswell took after their father. Eugene
was afraid of the dark while his brother wasn't afraid of anything.
Eugene hated studying while Roswell loved it. When the boys were six
and five, their mother died. Mr. Field sent them to live with their
cousin, Mary French, in Massachusetts until he could take care of
them. While living on their cousin's farm, Eugene wrote his first
poem . He was nine then, and the poem was about their cousin's dog,
Fido. At the age of fifteen, Eugene was shipped off to a small private
school in Massachusetts. There were only five boys in the school,
and Eugene loved leading the boys in tricks against the master of
the school.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of the most famous
American poets. People love his poems because they rhyme and sound
like songs. Henry was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, Maine.
He was the son of Stephen and Zilpah Longfellow, who was a descendant
of John Alden of the Mayflower. Henry's father, Stephen, was a lawyer
so Henry was born to a rich family. Henry was very bright and he began
school at age three. By the time he was six he was the smartest boy
in the school. He was very good at spelling and arithmetic. But Henry
loved to write and eventually became very good at it. His Mother enjoyed
reading to her young son; Don Quixote was one of Henry’s favorite
books, along with Washington Irving's Sketch Book. Henry's father
wanted him to become a lawyer but after Henry graduated from Bowdoin
College in Maine at the age of 19 he wanted to become a professor.
But Henry wanted to travel to Europe to study. He followed that dream,
but later returned to Bowdoin to become a professor and librarian
at age 22. Because of the influence of his travels, he inspired his
students to appreciate the literature of Spain, France, Italy, Germany,
Nordic, and Icelandic cultures.
Robert Frost was a great poet. Here is a brief summary
of his life. Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco,
California. When Frost was two years old, his mother fled to Lawrence,
Massachusetts, to get away from her husband, who was a drunkard. She
stayed there until her second baby was born, Jeannie, Robert's sister.
Then they went back to San Francisco on a train. A few years later,
Robert's father died, so they took the body to Lawrence to be buried
in the family cemetery. By the time he was 11, Robert Frost had crossed
the U.S. three times.
Who was Langston Hughes? What did he do? Langston
Hughes was a black poet who made black people who were sad, cheerful.
He had a broken family and was partly raised by his grandmother. Still,
he became one of the most famous African-American poets.
Ogden Nash is one of the few American humorous
poets. He became very famous during his life for his funny work. His
many poems are loved by both children and adults. I hope that after
you read this you will like his poetry as much as I did.
Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois on
January 6, 1878. He was the son of Swedish immigrants. He grew up
in the fields of Illinois. After the age of thirteen, he dropped out
of school and became a day laborer. His numerous odd jobs helped him
gain experience as a writer and poet. He then served in Puerto Rico
in the Spanish-American war. After the war, he practically forced
himself through Lombard College, now known as Knox College. In 1908,
he married Lilian Steichen and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They
had three children together. In 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he
wrote his first famous poem. Some of the odd jobs he had then were
novelist, journalist, children's author, and film critic. He toured
the country, not just reading his poems, but also playing the guitar
and singing folk songs.
"Do I look sick?" asked Robert Louis Stevenson
to his worried wife, Mrs. Fanny Osbourne. He had had a stroke and
soon died. It was Dec. 3, 1894 and he was at the young age of 44.
His life was very unusual. His childhood was not at all like a typical
child's life. He suffered a bad sickness of lung disease. He spent
most of his childhood sick and in bed. He was not able to attend a
regular school because of his sickness. Yet he was very bright and
a gifted storyteller. He wrote many books and one book of poems called
A Child's Garden of Verses. He wrote poems about simple child like
things, such as their play, manners, sleeping, meals, and so on. Yet
I think that since he never got to enjoy the regular life of a child
he made them up and wrote them down as poems.
Walt Whitman is one of the world's most famous
poets. What is memorable about his writing is that he usually doesn't
rhyme, yet, he can still make a poem sound just as well. He became
well skilled at writing when he was younger, and he wrote for newspapers.
Walter lived with a family of eleven. He was involved with many democratic
activities.
