10 Poetry at War: Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane
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Thomas Dikant
Abstract
In this article I discuss American war poetry of the nineteenth century, focusing on three major poets of the period: Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Stephen Crane. I first look at poetry, published in newspapers and periodicals, as a component of wartime print culture. Second, I discuss how nineteenth-century war poetry, both of the Civil War and of the Spanish-American War, was not primarily written by soldiers, but rather by noncombatants who used public and private reports from the battlefield for their literary works. As opposed to previous commentators who often voiced their desire for an “authentic” combatant war poetry, I argue that Whitman, Melville, and Crane were highly aware of their own position vis-à-vis that of soldiers, and paid close attention in their poetry to the ways in which civilians experienced war. War poets of the American nineteenth century critically engaged with mediatized representations of war, and questioned notions of heroism and patriotism as they were articulated by more conventional poets and propagated in the public sphere
Abstract
In this article I discuss American war poetry of the nineteenth century, focusing on three major poets of the period: Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Stephen Crane. I first look at poetry, published in newspapers and periodicals, as a component of wartime print culture. Second, I discuss how nineteenth-century war poetry, both of the Civil War and of the Spanish-American War, was not primarily written by soldiers, but rather by noncombatants who used public and private reports from the battlefield for their literary works. As opposed to previous commentators who often voiced their desire for an “authentic” combatant war poetry, I argue that Whitman, Melville, and Crane were highly aware of their own position vis-à-vis that of soldiers, and paid close attention in their poetry to the ways in which civilians experienced war. War poets of the American nineteenth century critically engaged with mediatized representations of war, and questioned notions of heroism and patriotism as they were articulated by more conventional poets and propagated in the public sphere
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- Introduction XI
-
Part I: How Poetry Makes Things Happen
- 1 Framing Modern Subjectivity: Poetry and Experience 1
- 2 Poetry, Politics, and the Politics of Poetry: How Poems Interfere 29
- 3 Tuning in on Sister Arts: Poetry and Music 53
- 4 Poetry and Modes of Humor 73
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Part II: American Poetry and Poetics Up Close: From the Puritans to Postmodernity and Beyond
- 5 Poetry and the Puritan Ethic: Anne Bradstreet, Samuel Danforth, Edward Taylor 97
- 6 Neoclassicism and Nation-Building: The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley and Philip Freneau 113
- 7 The Price of Poetry: Horton, Larcom, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes 131
- 8 Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Environmentalism: The Ecological Poetics of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller 151
- 9 Mind, Body, and Consciousness: The Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson 173
- 10 Poetry at War: Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane 195
- 11 Modern(ist) American Poetry 215
- 12 Modernist Materialities: Objects in Poetry 237
- 13 Poet-Anthropologists and Boasian “Culture”: Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead 259
- 14 The Poet-Critics, Regionalism, and the Rise of Formalism 279
- 15 Unconventionally Conventional: Elizabeth Bishop and the Modernization of Traditional Forms 301
- 16 Poetic Modes of Early Postmodernism: Black Mountain School, Beat Movement, New York School 317
- 17 Poetry as Confession? The Cases of Anne Sexton, W. D. Snodgrass, and Sylvia Plath 343
- 18 African American Poetry: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement and Beyond 359
- 19 Poetry as Feminist Critique 375
- 20 Words in Performance: The Art and Poetics of Language Poetry 395
- 21 How Poetry Matters Now 417
- Name Index 437
- Subject Index 451
- List of Contributors 463
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- Introduction XI
-
Part I: How Poetry Makes Things Happen
- 1 Framing Modern Subjectivity: Poetry and Experience 1
- 2 Poetry, Politics, and the Politics of Poetry: How Poems Interfere 29
- 3 Tuning in on Sister Arts: Poetry and Music 53
- 4 Poetry and Modes of Humor 73
-
Part II: American Poetry and Poetics Up Close: From the Puritans to Postmodernity and Beyond
- 5 Poetry and the Puritan Ethic: Anne Bradstreet, Samuel Danforth, Edward Taylor 97
- 6 Neoclassicism and Nation-Building: The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley and Philip Freneau 113
- 7 The Price of Poetry: Horton, Larcom, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes 131
- 8 Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Environmentalism: The Ecological Poetics of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller 151
- 9 Mind, Body, and Consciousness: The Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson 173
- 10 Poetry at War: Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane 195
- 11 Modern(ist) American Poetry 215
- 12 Modernist Materialities: Objects in Poetry 237
- 13 Poet-Anthropologists and Boasian “Culture”: Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead 259
- 14 The Poet-Critics, Regionalism, and the Rise of Formalism 279
- 15 Unconventionally Conventional: Elizabeth Bishop and the Modernization of Traditional Forms 301
- 16 Poetic Modes of Early Postmodernism: Black Mountain School, Beat Movement, New York School 317
- 17 Poetry as Confession? The Cases of Anne Sexton, W. D. Snodgrass, and Sylvia Plath 343
- 18 African American Poetry: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement and Beyond 359
- 19 Poetry as Feminist Critique 375
- 20 Words in Performance: The Art and Poetics of Language Poetry 395
- 21 How Poetry Matters Now 417
- Name Index 437
- Subject Index 451
- List of Contributors 463
