Some of the most popular of all American poets find expression in the aftermath of World War I, the horrors of which called into question the fundamental values of the "First World" that could engineer such atrocities.  Bitterness gave rise to a whole generation of American "ex-patriots," but others found new challenges for the country.  Their works are subtle and complex, reflecting the ironies of living in a civilization of growing contradictions. 

Textual Readings:  Edwin Arlington Robinson  "Luke Havergal"  "Richard Cory"  "Minver Cheever"  .  Robert Frost  "Mending Wall"  "Home Burial"  "After Apple Picking"  "The Road Not Taken"  "Birches"  "Fire and Ice"  "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"  .  Carl Sandburg  "Chicago"  "The Harbor"  "Fog"  "The Cool Tombs"  "Grass"  .  T. S. Eliot  "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"  "The Waste Land"  .  E. E. Cummings  (all works)  .  Hart Crane  "Chaplinesque"  "At Melville's Tomb"  from "The Bridge"

American Poet Carl Sandburg