The central distinguishing element of American literature is a strong strain of realism, seen earlier in perhaps America s greatest novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain and also in its greatest, or at least, most extensive work of poetry, Walt Whitman s Leaves of Grass (1855). Also, at its best there is a high moral tone to American literature reflected in the constant anguish over the loss of ideals and failure of the American dream to provide opportunity for all.poetry in the 20th century had flourished best. Breaking away from the thin verse and sentimentality that had come to prevail at the end of the 19th century, Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) led the way in giving both substance and firmness to his poems, especially in his sketches of small-town New Englanders in The Children of the Night (1897), Captain Craig (1902), The Town Down the River (1910), and The Man Against the Sky (1916). Robert Frost (1874-1963) added further strength through the warmth of A Boy s Will (1913) and succeeding volumes, creating a modern American version of the pastoral. With dry humor and a fine dramatic ear, he wrote the most popular and most critically esteemed American poetry in the 20th century.the end of the century s first decade many significant poets had begun to write, and by the end of the 1920 sa true renaissance had come. Poets like Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950), in Spoon River Anthology (1915), Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931), with what he called the higher vaudeville imagination of General William Booth Enters into Heaven (1913) and The Congo (1914), and Carl Sandburg, in Chicago Poems (1916) and Cornhuskers (1918), gave a Midwestern liveliness to the poetic scene . Hart Crane in White Buildings (1926) showed an intense Verbal power.to amplify the new resurgence of verse making were William Carlos Williams, and Marianne Moore, who showed a precision of ear and a sharpness of eye for significant detail that rank her among the finest American poets. Anything , wrote William Carlos Williams, who was a doctor as well as a poet, that a poet can effectively lift from its dull bed by force of the imagination becomes his material. Anything. Such knowledge was liberation. In poetry as in fiction, Southern authors became eminent.important literary movement of the time was Imagism, whose poets focused on strong, concrete images. New Englander Amy Lowell poured out exotic, impressionistic poems; Marianne Moore, from the midwestern city of St. Louis, Missouri, was influenced by Imagism but selected and arranged her images with more discipline. Ezra Pound began as an Imagist but soon went beyond into complex, sometimes obscure poetry, full of references to other art forms and to a vast range of literature. Living in Europe, Pound influenced many other poets, especially TS Eliot.was also born in St. Louis but settled in England. He wrote spare, intellectual poetry, carried by a dense structure of symbols. His poem, written in 1922, The Waste Land spun out, in fragmented, haunting images, a pessimistic vision of post-World War I society. From then on, Eliot dominated the so-called Modern movement in poetry. Another Modernist, E.E. Cummings, called attention to his poetry by throwing away rules of punctuation, spelling, and even the way words were placed on the page. His poems were song-like but satiric and humorous. The Enormous Room (1922) by E.E. Cummings (1894-1962), an account of his imprisonment in World War I, told the story of man s ability to refresh his senses despite symbolic regimentation, EE Cummings brought gaiety and freshness in poems whose unorthodox typography is no less vital to their success than the continuing youthfulness of his responses. Dos Passos was equally experimental. Three words that still have meaning , he said, that I think we can apply to all professional writing are discovery, originality, invention. Stevens, in contrast, wrote thoughtful speculations on how man can know reality. Stevens verse was disciplined, with understated rhythms, precisely chosen words and a cluster of central images. The poetry of William Carlos Williams, with its light, supple rhythms, was rooted in Imagism, but Williams, a New Jersey physician, used detailed impressions of everyday American life.the aftermath of World War I many novelists produced a literature of disillusionment. S...
