FIRESIDE POETS

1850 NEW ENGLAND Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Harvard professor, very popular poet John Greenleaf Whittier

Quaker farm family James Russell Lowell

Aristocracy Oliver Wendell Holmes

Poet-physician, highly honored

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 1807-1882 1st American poet to create a

national interest in poetryVERY popular…75th birthday treated like

holiday Adapted traditional European

forms/themes to American subjects Romanticized view of America’s history

and democratic ideals Poetry = optimistic, sentimental

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

1809-1894 Descendant of Anne Bradstreet Studied law for a bit, changed to

medicine Doctor, poet, professor

Essays = exaggeration, quotable

“Old Ironsides” protesting destruction of battleship Constitution (War of 1812) Poem saved ship, made Holmes

nationally recognized poet

ELEMENTS OF POETRY Meter : systematic arrangement of

stressed and unstressed syllables Foot : basic unit of meter Iamb : most common foot in American

poetry; unstressed syllable, stressed syllable

˘ = breve (unstressed) ‘ = ictus (stressed)

ELEMENTS OF POETRY

Example : Iambic Tetrameter four iambs per line

The sun that brief December dayRose cheerless over hills of gray

Mood : atmosphere; the feeling created in a reader by a literary work Influenced by setting, tone, subject, word choice