21st Century West Texas Poetry

They appeared over a period from approximately to Piers Plowman written c. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus" Latin for "step". Piers is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight during the Middle Ages. It is one of the better-known Arthurian stories, of an established type known as the "beheading game". Developing from Welsh, Irish and English tradition Sir Gawain highlights the importance of honour and chivalry. Chaucer is best known today for The Canterbury Tales , a collection of stories written in Middle English mostly written in verse although some are in prose , that are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular , Middle English , at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin. The multilingual nature of the audience for literature in the 14th century can be illustrated by the example of John Gower c. A contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer , Gower is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme , Vox Clamantis , and Confessio Amantis , three long poems written in Anglo-Norman , Latin and, Middle English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes.

Women writers were also active, such as Marie de France in the 12th century and Julian of Norwich in the early 14th century. Julian's Revelations of Divine Love circa is believed to be the first published book written by a woman in the English language. The works of Chaucer had an influence on Scottish writers. In the Middle Ages , drama in the vernacular languages of Europe may have emerged from religious enactments of the liturgy. Mystery plays were presented on the porch of the cathedrals or by strolling players on feast days.

Miracle and mystery plays, along with moralities and interludes, later evolved into more elaborate forms of drama, such as was seen on the Elizabethan stages. Another form of medieval theatre was the mummers' plays , a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance , concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood.

These were folk tales re-telling old stories, and the actors travelled from town to town performing these for their audiences in return for money and hospitality. Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theatre.

There are four complete or nearly complete extant English biblical collections of plays from the late medieval period. The most complete is the York cycle of forty-eight pageants. They were performed in the city of York , from the middle of the fourteenth century until Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, the morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment, which represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre.

The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Like John Bunyan 's allegory Pilgrim's Progress , Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation through the use of allegorical characters. The English Renaissance and the Renaissance in Scotland date from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. Italian literary influences arrived in Britain: The spread of printing affected the transmission of literature across Britain and Ireland. The first book printed in English, William Caxton 's own translation of Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye , was printed abroad in , to be followed by the establishment of the first printing press in England in Latin continued in use as a language of learning long after the Reformation had established the vernaculars as liturgical languages for the elites.

Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More — published in The book, written in Latin , is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. In the later 16th century, English poetry was characterised by elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical myths. Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion , became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households see English Madrigal School.

During the reign of Elizabeth I — and then James I —25 , a London-centred culture that was both courtly and popular, produced great poetry and drama. The English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: The linguist and lexicographer John Florio — , whose father was Italian, was a royal language tutor at the Court of James I , and a possible friend and influence on William Shakespeare , had brought much of the Italian language and culture to England. He was also the translator of Montaigne into English. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English literature theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy.

Jane Lumley — was the first person to translate Euripides into English. Her translation of Iphigeneia at Aulis is the first known dramatic work by a woman in English. William Shakespeare — stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare wrote plays in a variety of genres, including histories , tragedies , comedies and the late romances , or tragicomedies.

Shakespeare's career continued during the reign of King James I, and In the early 17th century he wrote the so-called " problem plays ", like Measure for Measure , as well as a number of his best known tragedies , including King Lear and Anthony and Cleopatra. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe — , Thomas Dekker c.

Marlowe's subject matter is different from Shakespeare's as it focuses more on the moral drama of the renaissance man than any other thing. His play Doctor Faustus c. Beaumont and Fletcher are less-known, but they may have helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were popular at the time. Beaumont's comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle , satirises the rising middle class and especially the nouveaux riches. After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson — was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era.

Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages and his characters embody the theory of humours , based on contemporary medical theory, though the stock types of Latin literature were an equal influence. A popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play , which had been popularised earlier in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd —94 , and then subsequently developed by John Webster — in the 17th century.

Cowboy Poetry Set to Music

Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet , which made significant changes to Petrarch 's model. A collection of by sonnets , dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a quarto. Besides Shakespeare the major poets of the early 17th century included the metaphysical poets John Donne — and George Herbert — Influenced by continental Baroque , and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, Donne's metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach surprise effects.

This was the first ever complete translation of either poem into the English language and it had a profound influence on English literature. Francis Godwin 's The Man in the Moone recounts an imaginary voyage to the moon and is now regarded as the first work of science fiction in English literature. At the Reformation , the translation of liturgy and Bible into vernacular languages provided new literary models. The King James Bible, one of the biggest translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in and completed in It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English from the original languages that began with the work of William Tyndale previous translations into English had relied on the Vulgate.

It became the standard Bible of the Church of England , and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time. The metaphysical poets continued writing in this period. Both John Donne and George Herbert died after , but there was a second generation of metaphysical poets, consisting of Andrew Marvell — , Thomas Traherne or — and Henry Vaughan — Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceits — far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors , such as in Andrew Marvell 's comparison of the soul with a drop of dew; [36] or Donne's description of the effects of absence on lovers to the action of a pair of compasses.

Another important group of poets at this time were the Cavalier poets. They were an important group of writers, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms — King Charles reigned from and was executed They "were not a formal group, but all were influenced" by Ben Jonson.

For example, Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a Cavalier poet. Cavalier works make use of allegory and classical allusions, and are influence by Latin authors Horace , Cicero , and Ovid. John Milton —74 is one of the greatest English poets, who wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval. He is generally seen as the last major poet of the English Renaissance, though his major epic poems were written in the Restoration period, including.

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Among the important poems Milton wrote during this period are L'Allegro , ; Il Penseroso , ; Comus a masque , ; and Lycidas , His later major works are: Paradise Regained , ; Samson Agonistes , Milton's works reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica , written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of free speech and freedom of the press.

William Hayley 's biography called him the "greatest English author", [40] and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language". Thomas Urquhart — translation of Rabelais ' Gargantua and Pantagruel into English has been described as "the greatest Scottish translation since Gavin Douglas's Eneados ". The Restoration of the monarchy in launched a fresh start for literature, both in celebration of the new worldly and playful court of the king, and in reaction to it.

Theatres in England reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell , Puritanism lost its momentum, and the bawdy " Restoration comedy " became a recognisable genre. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from to Although other women had translated or written dramas, her translation of Pompey broke new ground as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy in English and the first English play written by a woman to be performed on the professional stage.

Aphra Behn one of the women writers dubbed " The fair triumvirate of wit " was a prolific dramatist and one of the first English professional female writers.

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Her greatest dramatic success was The Rover Behn's depiction of the character Willmore in The Rover and the witty, poetry-reciting rake Dorimant in George Etherege 's The Man of Mode are seen as a satire on John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester — , an English libertine poet, and a wit of the Restoration court. His contemporary Andrew Marvell described him as "the best English satirist", and he is generally considered to be the most considerable poet and the most learned among the Restoration wits.

He was part of a "mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease", [46] who continued to produce their poetry in manuscripts, rather than in publication. As a consequence, some of Rochester's work deals with topical concerns, such as satires of courtly affairs in libels , to parodies of the styles of his contemporaries, such as Sir Charles Scroope.

He is also notable for his impromptus, [47] Voltaire , who spoke of Rochester as "the man of genius, the great poet", admired his satire for its "energy and fire" and translated some lines into French to "display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast". John Dryden — was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.

He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays with it; he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into the form. In his poems, translations, and criticism, he established a poetic diction appropriate to the heroic couplet.

Dryden's greatest achievements were in satiric verse in works like the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe Auden referred to him as "the master of the middle style" that was a model for his contemporaries and for much of the 18th century. Though Ben Jonson had been poet laureate to James I in England, this was not then a formal position and the formal title of Poet Laureate , as a royal office, was first conferred by letters patent on John Dryden in The post then became a regular British institution. Diarists John Evelyn — and Samuel Pepys — depicted everyday London life and the cultural scene of the times.

Their works are among the most important primary sources for the Restoration period in England , and consists of eyewitness accounts of many great events, such as the Great Plague of London —5 , and the Great Fire of London Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide to the Christian life.

Reward Yourself

Bunyan writes about how the individual can prevail against the temptations of mind and body that threaten damnation. The book is written in a straightforward narrative and shows influence from both drama and biography, and yet it also shows an awareness of the grand allegorical tradition found in Edmund Spenser. The late 17th, early 18th century — in English literature is known as the Augustan Age.

Writers at this time "greatly admired their Roman counterparts, imitated their works and frequently drew parallels between" contemporary world and the age of the Roman emperor Augustus 27 AD — BC 14 [51] see Augustan literature ancient Rome. The Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England in to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain and the creation of a joint state by the Acts of Union had little impact on the literature of England nor on national consciousness among English writers. The situation in Scotland was different: English writers, if they considered Britain at all, tended to assume it was merely England writ large; Scottish writers were more clearly aware of the new state as a "cultural amalgam comprising more than just England".

With the invention of British literature came the development of the first British novels, in contrast to the English novel of the 18th century which continued to deal with England and English concerns rather than exploring the changed political, social and literary environment. His The Adventures of Roderick Random is the first major novel written in English to have a Scotsman as hero, [52] and the multinational voices represented in the narrative confront Anglocentric prejudices only two years after the Battle of Culloden.

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker brings together characters from the extremes of Britain to question how cultural and linguistic differences can be accommodated within the new British identity, and influenced Charles Dickens. In prose, the earlier part of the period was overshadowed by the development of the English essay. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele 's The Spectator established the form of the British periodical essay, inventing the pose of the detached observer of human life who can meditate upon the world without advocating any specific changes in it. However, this was also the time when the English novel, first emerging in the Restoration, developed into a major art form.

Daniel Defoe turned from journalism and writing criminal lives for the press to writing fictional criminal lives with Roxana and Moll Flanders. If Addison and Steele were dominant in one type of prose, then Jonathan Swift author of the satire Gulliver's Travels was in another. This provoked riots and arrests, but Swift, who had no love of Irish Roman Catholics , was outraged by the abuses he saw.

The English pictorial satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth — has been credited with pioneering Western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip -like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Much of his work satirises contemporary politics and customs. Although documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early as , the earliest Irish dramatists of note were William Congreve — , one of the most interesting writers of Restoration comedies and author of The Way of the World and playwright, George Farquhar?

Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy. Anglo-Irish drama in the 18th century also includes Charles Macklin? The age of Augustan drama was brought to an end by the censorship established by the Licensing Act After , authors with strong political or philosophical points to make would no longer turn to the stage as their first hope of making a living, and novels began to have dramatic structures involving only normal human beings, as the stage was closed off for serious authors.

Prior to the Licensing Act , theatre was the first choice for most wits. After it, the novel was [58]. The most outstanding poet of the age is Alexander Pope — , whose major works include: The Rape of the Lock ; enlarged in ; a translation of the Iliad —20 ; a translation of the Odyssey —26 ; The Dunciad ; Since his death, Pope has been in a constant state of re-evaluation. His high artifice, strict prosody, and, at times, the sheer cruelty of his satire were an object of derision for the Romantic poets , and it was not until the s that his reputation was revived.

Pope is now considered the dominant poetic voice of his century, a model of prosodic elegance, biting wit, and an enduring, demanding moral force. It was during this time that poet James Thomson —48 produced his melancholy The Seasons —30 and Edward Young — wrote his poem Night-Thoughts The second half of the 18th century is sometimes called the "Age of Johnson". Samuel Johnson — , often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.

Johnson has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". This period of the 18th century saw the emergence of three major Irish authors Oliver Goldsmith — , Richard Brinsley Sheridan — , and Laurence Sterne — Sheridan was born in Dublin, but his family moved to England in the s.

His first play, The Rivals , was performed at Covent Garden and was an instant success. He went on to become the most significant London playwright of the late 18th century with plays like The School for Scandal and The Critic. Sterne published his famous novel Tristram Shandy in parts between and The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is a genre which developed during the second half of the 18th century. Another novel genre also developed in this period. In , Frances Burney — wrote Evelina , one of the first novels of manners.

The graveyard poets were a number of pre-Romantic English poets, writing in the s and later, whose works are characterised by their gloomy meditations on mortality, "skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms" in the context of the graveyard. Other precursors of Romanticism are the poets James Thomson —48 and James Macpherson —96 , the Gothic novel and the novel of sensibility. The Gothic fiction genre combines elements of horror and romance.

The Monk , by Matthew Lewis , is another notable early work in both the Gothic and horror genres. James Macpherson —96 was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation. Claiming to have found poetry written by the ancient bard Ossian , he published translations that acquired international popularity, being proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical epics. Robert Burns — was a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a cultural icon in Scotland. And in the Ninth, a choking woman wails.

Look like this country done left us for dead. Count your folding money. Count the roaches when the light comes on. Count your kids after the housefire. Supposedly prevented from winning, the precocious child who dreamed of becoming a doctor was changed irrevocably. Her story, told in a poignant nonlinear narrative, illustrates the power of a pivotal moment in a life. The legendary Jack Johnson was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers--and white America--to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion.

The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth. Part fact, part fiction, Tyehimba Jess's much anticipated second book weaves sonnet, song, and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers directly before and after the Civil War up to World War I.

Olio is an effort to understand how they met, resisted, complicated, co-opted, and sometimes defeated attempts to minstrelize them. So, while I lead this choir, I still find that. I toil in their fields of praise. These nine dark mouths sing shelter;. The poems in this captivating collection weave beauty with violence, the personal with the historic as they recount the harrowing experiences of the two hundred thousand female victims of rape and torture at the hands of the Pakistani army during the Liberation War.

As the child of Bangladeshi immigrants, the poet in turn explores her own losses, as well as the complexities of bearing witness to the atrocities these war heroines endured. Throughout the volume, the narrator endeavors to bridge generational and cultural gaps even as the victims recount the horror of grief and personal loss. Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period or question mark, thus bringing the idea to momentary completion.

In other words, I do not regard this as a poem of great imagination or a work of fiction. Also, historical events will not be dramatized for an interesting read. Therefore, I feel most responsible to the orderly sentence; conveyor of thought. It knocked me in my tracks because I felt I was witnessing a new kind of confession—yes, something troubled with emotion recollected in the free space of metaphor, imagery and rhythm. But also a confession that went beyond any specific historical time. Kim teaches her students to think of the blank page as not merely that, but also a piece of canvas—one that must be studied and filled, but also emptied.

For decades, she has made the spacing of the poem into a radical act that emphasizes the appearing and disappearing edges trapped behind, between words and syllables. Though her poems can sometimes contain more white space thank ink, I am tempted not to think of her as a minimalist since there are no poets who force me to strain so clearly to see the pockets of pauses, breaks and ruptures that only poetry seems capable of allowing for inside the house of language.

There are many now active Native poets transforming the codified, obsolescing traditions of American poetry. Natalie Diaz is yet another. Much has been written about her works fearless ability to write poems about life on the reservation, basketball and grief. But for me she is simply put one of our great erotic poets.

Dale Smith (poet) - Wikipedia

I hope she and her publisher will forgive me for quoting so much here, which readers should read in its entirety on The The Poetry Blog:. Call to me— I wanna rock, I-I wanna rock, I-I wanna rock right now —so to them I come—struck-dumb chime-blind, tolling with a throat full of Hosanna. How many hours bowed against this Infinity of Blessed Trinity?

Communion of Pelvis, Sacrum, Femur. My mouth—terrible angel, ever-lasting novena, ecstatic devourer. Lambent slave to ilium and ischium—I never tire to shake this wild hive, split with thumb the sweet- dripped comb—hot hexagonal hole—dark diamond— to its nectar-dervished queen. Meanad tongue— come-drunk hum-tranced honey-puller—for her hips, I am—strummed-song and succubus.

They are the sign: There are many special moments in the life and career of a poet. Perhaps nothing is as special as the first poem in their first book.