Born in the USA - Exploring American Poems. The Pennsylvania Poets

By Stephen Vincent Benét, Hilda Doolittle and Wallace Stevens

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.

In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in Pennsylvania, one of the most famous states of the Union. Its proud and illustrious history shines out through verse by such illustrious and venerated names as Stephen Vincent Benet, Louisa May Alcott, Wallace Stevens, Hilda Doolittle, Henry Van Dyke, and others as they explore its status, its nature and its role in shaping the world of verse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Sep 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835471470

Book preview

Born in the USA - Exploring American Poems

The Pennsylvania 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. 

In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in Pennsylvania, one of the most famous states of the Union.  Its proud and illustrious history shines out through verse by such illustrious and venerated names as Stephen Vincent Benet, Louisa May Alcott, Wallace Stevens, Hilda Doolittle, Henry Van Dyke, and others as they explore its status, its nature and its role in shaping the world of verse. 

Index of Contents

Lullaby by Louisa May Alcott

For Myself Alone I Would Not Be by Louisa May Alcott

My Kingdom by Louisa May Alcott

A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benét

Difference by Stephen Vincent Benét

Judgement by Stephen Vincent Benét

Architects by Stephen Vincent Benét

Colors by Stephen Vincent Benét

In War-Time, an American Homeward-Bound by Florence Earle Coates

Prayer by Hilda Doolittle

Cities by Hilda Doolittle

The Pool by Hilda Doolittle

Song by Hilda Doolittle

Hermes of the Ways by Hilda Doolittle

The Battle of the Cowpens January 18th, 1781 by Thomas Dunn

The Slave Trade Girl's Address to Her Mother by Sarah Louisa Forten

The Grave of the Slave by Sarah Louisa Forten

The Angel's Visit by Charlotte L Forten Grimke

Tuskegee by Leslie Pinckney Hill

Hale in the Bush by Francis Hopkinson

The Grave of Keats by Silas Weir Mitchell

Last Looks at the Lilacs by Wallace Stevens

The High-toned Old Christian Woman by Wallace Stevens

The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

The Man with the Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens

A Dish of Peaches in Russia by Wallace Stevens

Ode on a Jar of Pickles by Bayard Taylor

America, from the National Ode July 4th 1876 by Bayard Taylor

My April Lady by Henry Van Dyke

Late Spring by Henry van Dyke

Indian Summer by Henry