Born in the USA - Exploring American Poems. The New York State Poets

By Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton and Philip Freneau

Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another. Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.

Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy.

In the volumes of this series we take a look through the prism of individual regions of the United States through the centuries and decades.

The United States may be many things: the world’s policeman, a bully, a shameless purveyor of mass market culture but it also, in its better moments, a standard bearer for truth, transparency, equality and the more positive qualities of democracy.

Little wonder that’s its poets are rightly acknowledged as wonders of their art. Leading lights in the fight against slavery and for equality, even if the rest of the Nation is finding it problematic to catch up.

New York state is more often overshadowed by its energetic and overwhelming five boroughs of its namesake city. But among its other cities, towns and countryside is a veritable who’s who of classic poets including Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Alan Seeger, Herman Melville and Philip Freneau. Their words and verse record and reveal a wide range of topics and subjects as they focus their poetic talents on the State of their birth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Sep 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835471531

Book preview

Born in the USA - Exploring American Poems

The New York State Poets

An Introduction

Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another.  Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.

Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy.

In the volumes of this series we take a look through the prism of individual regions of the United States through the centuries and decades.

The United States may be many things: the world’s policeman, a bully, a shameless purveyor of mass market culture but it also, in its better moments, a standard bearer for truth, transparency, equality and the more positive qualities of democracy.

Little wonder that’s its poets are rightly acknowledged as wonders of their art.  Leading lights in the fight against slavery and for equality, even if the rest of the Nation is finding it problematic to catch up. 

New York state is more often overshadowed by its energetic and overwhelming five boroughs of its namesake city.  But among its other cities, towns and countryside is a veritable who’s who of classic poets including Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Alan Seeger, Herman Melville and Philip Freneau.  Their words and verse record and reveal a wide range of topics and subjects as they focus their poetic talents on the State of their birth.    

Index of Contents

September by George Arnold

October by George Arnold

Treasured Moments by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks

Echoes by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks

A Chant of Love for England by Helen Gray Cone

Rheims Cathedral, 1914 by Grace Hazard Conkling

To the Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window by Adelaide Crapsey

Keats by Adelaide Crapsey

To a Young Lady Whose Mother Was Insane by Lucretia Maria Davidson

On My Mother's Fiftieth Birthday by Lucretia Maria Davidson

The Revolt of Mother by Alice Duer

Why We Oppose Women Travelling in Railway Trains by Alice Duer Miller

To the Night Breeze by Alice & Caroline Duer

Nathan Hale by Francis Miles Finch

A Political Litany by Philip Freneau

The Wild Honey Suckle by Phillip Freneau

To the Memory of the Americans Who Fell at Eutaw by Philip Freneau

A Poem for Children with Thoughts On Death by Jupiter Hammon

An Evening Thought by Jupiter Hammond

Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe

Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe

This Curse by Henry James

Old Manuscript by Alfred Kreymborg

Cradle by Alfred Kreymborg

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

A June Night by Emma Lazarus

Assurance by Emma Lazarus

Evil In Design by Emma Lazarus

The Apparition by Herman Melville

The Mound by the Lake by Herman Melville

Monody by Herman Melville

The Land of Love by Herman Melville

The Maldive Shark by Herman Melville

A Visit From St Nicholas (T'Was The Night Before Christmas) by Clement Moore

Aspiration by Henrietta Cordelia Ray

Life by Henrietta Cordelia Ray

The Spirit Voice or Liberty Call to The Disfranchised by Charles Lewis Reason

Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France by Alan Seeger

The Need To Love by Alan Seeger

Sonnet 10 - I Have Sought Happiness by Alan Seeger

Sonnet 11 by Alan Seeger

Broadway, New York, July 1916 by George Sterling

A Hunting Song by