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LITR 4328: American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2015 Sample answers
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Karin Cooper
American Renaissance Poetry: A Comparative Examination of Poe,
Dickinson, and Whitman
Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe are all three poets
from the American Renaissance period. Each of these poets had different styles,
and things that made them unique. However when comparing their work side by side
there are many characteristics that can be found in common. All three poets
wrote poems that are considered lyric poetry, and that is a place to start our
comparison. In this essay we will look at three lyric poems from three American
Renaissance poets, and see how well they fit the definition of lyric poem, while
comparing them to each other.
Poetry during the American Renaissance is termed lyric poetry. The
American Renaissance does not hold the monopoly on lyric poetry, but the poems
we will discuss from that period will all be lyric poems. The poems we will be
examining are from Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. According
to the course website this semester a lyric poem is what most of us think of
when we think of poetry. The webpage also states that lyric poems were
originally meant to be sung, but in recent times can refer to any short poems
that are divided into stanzas. The course site mentions that lyric poetry often
has these four features: imagery, impulsiveness, sensory beauty, and intensity.
Lyric poetry romanticizes things. It lets the imagination of the poet have free
reign to pursue its own pathways. Poe as a lyric poet is a great example of
letting the poet's imagination pursue its own course.
The lyric poem by Poe we are focusing on today is "The City in the Sea".
Poe in "The City in the Sea" is very dramatic. One of the characteristics of
Poe's poetry according to the Poe style sheet is excess. An example of a typical
Poe excessive line from "The City in the Sea" is: "Where the good and the bad
and the worst and the best" (Poe 1.4). For Poe there really is no gray area, no
in-betweens found in Poe's work. Poe is nothing if not excessive. The extremes
in Poe's poems put the reader in awe, and wonder of what is being described.
Awe, and wonder are most certainly found in this poem. This poem's
imagery also places it as a lyric poem. Poe describes a beautifully sublime city
that in details is full of sensory beauty. "The City in the Sea", is peppered
with alliteration, rhymes, and sounds melodic when it is read aloud. Which is
another feature of lyric poetry. As stated in the comparative style sheet on the
course site, Poe is the most formal of the three poets we are analyzing. The
formality of Poe is a characteristic which makes his poetry considered lyric
poetry. As far as the brevity sometimes found in lyric poetry Poe does not use
that as a way to heighten the intensity of his poetry. Poe does not need brevity
to heighten the intensity of his work. Poe's descriptions are intense, and
breathtaking, even though they are more lengthy than those found in the examples
today from Whitman, and Dickinson. As the comparative style sheet states, Poe is
classic romanticism. With Poe, you are never in the present realistic moment.
Compare this to Dickinson, and Whitman who tend to have a more realistic element
to their poetry, according to the Comparative style sheet. Poe requires the
reader to use their imagination, and that definitely places "The City in the
Sea" as a lyric poem.
Emily Dickinson in "(I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died)" requires less
imagination than Poe's "The City in the Sea", however it is not completely
realistic, and it still falls into the category of lyric poetry. Dickinson's
poetry tends to be more brief, and less formal than Poe's work. Dickinson's
poems often are broken up into stanzas, but do not always rhyme. The reader is
more likely to find half rhymes in her work that almost tease the reader. An
example of a half rhyme in "(I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died)" is here: " The
stillness in the Room/ Was like the Stillness in the air—/ Between the Heaves of
Storm—" (Dickinson 1.2-4). Room and storm almost rhyme, but it is not quite
there, this is a typical thing to find in Dickinson poetry. In this entire poem
there is actually only one true rhyme in her four line stanzas. Her style really
places her in right in between Whitman, and Poe as far as formality. Poe being
very formal, and Whitman being much less formal.
Dickinson, like Whitman is more brief in her writing. The lyric course
site mentions brevity as one of the ways to make a lyric poem more intense. When
you read Dickinson you have to focus to follow what she is saying in each, and
every line. One thing that really stands out, and separates Dickinson from
Whitman, and Poe is her use of unusual punctuation, and capitalization.
Dickinson puts dashes, and capitalization where they normally would not be. This
adds an extra depth to her poetry, putting focus on those places where there
otherwise might not be. The Dickinson style sheet mentions that this is partly
because of the isolation in which she wrote. If she had editors going over all
of her work there might be more formal punctuation, and capitalization. However,
maybe something would be lost in Dickinson's work if that were the case.
Walt Whitman is considered America's greatest poet, but not because he
uses more traditional punctuation than Dickinson does. Whitman is the father of
free verse; however just because he does not write in standard stanzas, and
rhymes does not mean his poems are not still considered lyric poetry. Whitman
uses sensory beauty in his poetry, such as the alliteration found in "When I
Heard the Learn'd Astronomer": "In the mystical moist night-air" (Whitman 7).
This alliteration as well as the first four lines beginning with "When" is just
one of the things that make his work lyric poetry. Like Dickinson, Whitman uses
brevity to his advantage in his poetry making every line count for the reader.
This use of brevity is one of the things that contributes to making "When
I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" at only eight lines, a lyric poem. Whitman,
according to the comparative style sheet, focuses on more realistic subject
matter than both Poe, and Dickinson. "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is
about a lecture on astronomy. Subject matter does not get more mundane than a
lecture. As opposed to Poe who wrote about a sublime city in the sea, and
Dickinson who wrote about death which is one of life's greatest mysteries.
Whitman uses similar devices to Poe in his use of alliteration, and elevated
language even though he does not write as formally as Poe does. Part of
Whitman's power in his poetry is that he can write an eight line poem about a
classroom lecture, and still end on a note of transcendentalism in his poem
"When I Heard a Learn'd Astronomer" the speaker finishes with,: "Look'd up in
perfect silence at the stars" (Whitman 8). By line eight of this poem the reader
is brought up out of the classroom, to ponder the stars which is a subject that
is still beyond true understanding to this day. Whitman takes his realistic
subject matter, and makes it more romantic than one would have previously
imagined, and that also makes his poems lyric in genre.
Whitman, Poe, and Dickinson all gave us many lyric poems. All of their
work unique to their own styles, yet still having the characteristics which put
them in the shared category of lyric poetry. This topic could fill at least one
book if not more, so my feeble attempt to compare the three poets must be
excused for its brevity. Each of these poets has given America a gift through
their poetry. Their poetry styles vary in subject matter, and style, but they
are three of the greatest poets that came out of the American Renaissance
period. A lot can be learned about poetry during the American Renaissance by
studying Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson.
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