I Hear America Singing
The Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation
A collection of classic and contemporary poems from the Poetry
Foundation archive to celebrate the Fourth of July.
by Becca Klaver
For Independence Day, we
bring you this wide-ranging selection of poems, articles, blog posts, and
podcasts from the Poetry Foundation archive. Emma Lazarus's Statue of
Liberty sonnet famously welcomes "homeless, tempest-tost" newcomers,
while Jimmy Santiago Baca tallies
harsh realities that sometimes follow that greeting. Acknowledging the United
States' fraught past, Claude McKay confesses,
"I love this cultured hell that tests my youth"; Alicia Ostriker worries that America "does not actually
care"; and Tony Hoagland wonders whether his country is a "pleasure
boat" or "maximum-security prison."
Rita Dove and Myra Sklarew pay homage to African Americans who helped build
Washington, DC. Optimism wrestles with frustration in Susan Hahn's fin-de-siècle
anthem, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's
endless waiting, and Allen Ginsberg 's
"holy litany." InWhitman's vision, American
workers sing "what belongs to him or her and to none else." Together,
his workers and these poets form a chorus of many Americas.
AUDIO & PODCASTS
"Obamapoetics" by Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander on how the Derek Walcott-toting, June Jordan-quoting president will affect poets and poetry.
Conversations with America: Brian Turner
An essay from Iraq war veteran and poet Brian Turner.
Elizabeth Alexander on how the Derek Walcott-toting, June Jordan-quoting president will affect poets and poetry.
Conversations with America: Brian Turner
An essay from Iraq war veteran and poet Brian Turner.
Democracy in America
Walt Whitman and the politics of the Civil War.
Walt Whitman and the politics of the Civil War.
BLOG POSTS
"I dedicate this work to the
U.S.A., that it become just another part of the world, no more, no less" by
Kenneth Goldsmith
The text of "Lecture on the Weather" by John Cage, commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the bicentennial of the U.S.A.
The text of "Lecture on the Weather" by John Cage, commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the bicentennial of the U.S.A.
ARTICLES
"The Difficult Miracle of Black
Poetry in America: Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley" by
June Jordan
POETICS ESSAY
"200 Years of Afro-American
Poetry" (1965) by Langston
Hughes
An historical examination of the trajectory of African American poetry, beginning with Lucy Terry, a slave, in 1746, and continuing through Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar to the rising generation of African American poets in the 1950s and 60s.
An historical examination of the trajectory of African American poetry, beginning with Lucy Terry, a slave, in 1746, and continuing through Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar to the rising generation of African American poets in the 1950s and 60s.
TEACHING RESOURCE
"Dream in Color: A Resource
Guide for Elementary School Teachers" [pdf]
Includes Independence Day poems such as "Danitra's Family Reunion" by Nikki Grimes.
Includes Independence Day poems such as "Danitra's Family Reunion" by Nikki Grimes.
POETRY TOOL
Independence Day PoemsComplete story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/04/4th-of-july-poems-the-bes_n_634359.html
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