National Poetry Month: Featured Poets

April is a month for the celebration of poetry and poets all around America and throughout the year at MMS, students have been learning how to read and analyze poems in their English classes. In celebration of National Poetry Month of 2024, PEN has published a list of some of the most influential American poets from the 1800s to modern day (in order from oldest to most current).

Edgar Allan Poe:

Born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, Edgar Allan Poe started writing poetry as a young adult, with his first published work being a collection of poems in 1827. He went on to publish other poems and short stories, some of his most famous being “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “Annabel Lee,” and more. After his death from illness in 1849, his writings became widely read, with him now regarded as one of the most important figures in the genres of gothic fiction and romanticism.

Robert Frost:

Robert Frost was born in 1874 San Francisco and got his first poem, “My Butterfly,” accepted in the New York Independent at the age of 20. His poetry was not very successful in America until the 1910’s, before which he published in England and made a reputation for himself. His poetry was a mix of 19th century techniques and 20th century styles, standing at the crossroads of the two distinct periods. He was best known for “Birches,” “The Road Not Taken,” and “Fire and Ice,” but his lifetime work totaled to over 250 poems, influencing modern poets like Seamus Heaney and James Wright.

E.E. Cummings:

E.E. Cummings was another American poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, and artist. He was born in 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is best known for his unusual use of spacing, syntax, punctuation, and grammar in his poetry. His most popular works, “i carry your heart with me,” “Since feeling is first,” and “pity this busy monster, manunkind” use both audible rhythm and visual spacing as a part of his unique and influential writing style. 

Maya Angelou:

Being a civil rights activist in addition to writing poems, essays, and memoirs, Maya Angelou used her voice in writing to fight for equality and an end to discrimination. Born in Missouri in 1928, Angelou published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and many collections of poetry throughout her life. One of her most famous poems, published in a collection in 1893, was “Caged Bird,” describing her determination to fight back against the abuse that she endured in her childhood. Angelou’s works are still praised and recognized today, with many of her poems being referred to as the anthems of African Americans.

Sylvia Plath:

Born in 1932 in Boston, Sylvia Plath is considered one of the most admired literary figures from the 20th century, deeply exploring topics of death, mental health, and fear through her poems, novels, and short stories. Taking inspiration from her own feelings as well as authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Emily Dickinson, Plath published numerous works including the renowned novel The Bell Jar, a collection of poems called The Colossus, and poem “Daddy.” Throughout her life, Plath experienced severe depression and inner conflict, which would eventually lead to her suicide at the age of 30, but Plath’s works remain pillars in psychological and confessional literature.

James Tate:

A winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, James Vincent Tate published more than a dozen collections of free verse poetry. Tate was born in 1943 in Missouri and is the author of poems such as “The Government Lake,” “Eternity,” and the final poem found in his typewriter after his death, referred to as, “I Sat at my Desk and Contemplated All That I Had Accomplished.” His style is often described as surreal, absurd, and often comical or saddening, with him stating that, “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart. And if I can do both in the same poem, that’s the best.” Tate died in 2015 from an illness, after which social media was flooded with lines of his poetry in admiration for his work. 

Claudia Rankine:

Claudia Rankine is an American poet and essayist born in 1963 in Jamaica, with her works winning the PEN Center USA Poetry Award and the Forward poetry prize. She is the author of the essays published in Citizen: An American Lyric, where her poetic and lyrical style meets narrative in a study of racial microaggressions. She also wrote poems “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely,” “Sound & Fury,” and poetry/essay collection Just Us: An American Conversation. Her works were even used to create a short play called “Help,” portraying microaggressions in an airport (performed off Broadway in New York in 2020). Rankine continues to publish poems and essays, commenting on the behavior of society to this day. 

Work Cited:

https://www.britannica.com/story/the-mysterious-death-of-edgar-allan-poe#:~:text=A%20number%20of%20diseases%20have,may%20have%20died%20from%20rabies.

https://www.gale.com/open-access/edgar-allan-poe#:~:text=Unable%20to%20repair%20his%20fractured,1827

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-e-cummings

https://study.com/academy/lesson/ee-cummings-free-verse-poetry.html#:~:text=Many%20of%20the%20modernists%20did,he%20used%20punctuation%20and%20capitalization.

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/maya-angelou/caged-bird#:~:text=%22Caged%20Bird%22%20was%20published%20in,Why%20Don't%20You%20Sing%3F

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sylvia-plath

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/15/james-tates-last-poem/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/james-tate

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/claudia-rankine