First appearing in Poetry in 1914, Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago”—the first of nine poems he wrote about the city in his 1916 collection Chicago Poems—describes the “City of the Big Shoulders” that Sandburg loves, despite its imperfections. Sandburg had moved to the city in 1912, just two years before writing the poem, and the poem is an early example of social realism, a form of art that became … Read more »
In Friday’s poem, Billy Collins compared the picture postcard to a sonnet. Today’s poem, Stephen Vincent Benèt’s “American Names,” celebrates American place-names as poems in and of themselves. The poem also examines the differences in association between “the sharp names that never get fat” of American towns compared with the “silver spoons” of European cities.
Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Stephen Vincent Benèt (1898–1943) was a prolific poet who authored nearly a dozen … Read more »
This week, our poetry selections have explored “singing” the American experience. Today’s poem also takes up this subject, though from a different vantage point. In “American Sonnet,” Billy Collins compares the traditional Italian or English sonnet to a postcard, which he describes as “a poem on vacation, / that forces us to sing our songs in little rooms / or pour our sentiments into measuring cups.”
A … Read more »
Forty-five years ago today, on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. Just the previous day, he had delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple Church of God. Today’s poem, Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird,” explores the quest for freedom and … Read more »
In declaring that “I, Too, Sing America,” Langston Hughes raises the question of how we as Americans should relate to one another. (In the poem, Hughes likens America to a kind of family, where he is the “darker brother,” at the moment outcast but eventually included: “Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed.”) In today’s poem, “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost also … Read more »
In yesterday’s poem, Walt Whitman wrote about how he hears America singing—songs by mechanics and carpenters, masons and boatmen, shoemakers and wood-cutters. In today’s poem, Langston Hughes declares that “I, too, sing America.”
Hughes (1902–67) was a celebrated African American poet and short story writer. Born in Joplin, Missouri, he moved often in his youth before settling in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended high school. He began … Read more »
April is National Poetry Month, which the Academy of American Poets first introduced in 1996. It’s a great time to expose students to timeless works of poetry, and so we are using the 30 days of April to feature 30 different poems by 30 different American poets.
Our first poem, “I Hear America Singing,” is by the famed American poet Walt Whitman (1819–92). Born on Long Island, New … Read more »
Distinguished scholar-teachers Amy and Leon Kass demonstrate how short stories, speeches, and songs can be used to enhance civic education and how a pedagogical approach that stresses learning through inquiry can make primary sources come alive for students of all ages.
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