This selection includes some of the great contemporary American poets and also the early American poets. Pioneers such as, Whitman, Emerson and Dickinson who in many ways were the ground breakers for modern American literature.
Early American Poets
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Walt Whitman |  |
Emily Dickinson |
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Ralph Emerson |  |
Henry Longfellow |
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William Bryant |  |
Henry Thoreau |
Modern American Poets
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Maya Angelou |  |
Amira Baraka |
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Louise Bogan |  |
Robert Bly |
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E.E. Cummings |  |
T.S.Eliot |
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Jane Hirshfield |  |
Langston Hughes |
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W.S. Merwin |  |
Millay, Edna St. Vincent |
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Mary Oliver |  |
Wallace Stevens |
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William Carlos Williams | ||
Related Links on America
External Websites
The Academy was founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. To fulfill this mission, the Academy administers a wide variety of programs, including National Poetry Month (April), the largest literary celebration in the world; the Online Poetry Classroom, an online resource providing free poetry lesson plans for high school teachers; the Poetry Audio Archive, a collection of nearly 500 recordings dating back to the 1960s; and Poets.org, our award-winning website which provides a wealth of content on contemporary American poetry and receives an average of 400,000 unique users each month.
Modern American Poetry
An Online Journal and Multimedia Companion to Anthology of Modern American Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Edited by Cary Nelson
Further Reading
Fifty Years of American Poetry : Over 200 Important Works by America’s Modern Masters
by Academy of American Poets, Joyce L. Vedral, Robert Frost
Eight American Poets :An Anthology
by JOEL CONARROE including the American poetsRoethke, Bishop, Lowell, Berryman, Sexton, Plath, Ginsberg and Merrill
Six American Poets :An Anthology
by JOEL CONARROE. Including 6 of the greatest American Poets Whitman, Dickinson, Williams, Stevens, Frost and Hughes