Rhode Island Council for the Humanities

American Wordsmiths of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

During the last one hundred years, American poets took the English language in new directions, offering powerful insights into the social and emotional experiences of modern life. Join with others to study the poems of these linguistic innovators and discuss the themes and preoccupations that emerge in their work. Customize this presentation by selecting one or two poets or develop a poetry series featuring several poets. Choose among Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Hart Crane, Marianne Moore, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, and Wallace Stevens.

Groups scheduling author discussions should arrange to have participants read relevant works in advance.

Sam Coale is a Professor of American literature at Wheaton College, where he offers courses in fiction, poetry, and drama. The author of Mesmerism and Hawthorne: Mediums of American Romance, he is currently writing a book on American mystery writers. He has served as a humanities discussion moderator for Trinity Repertory Theater and has led over fifty library book discussions. He is a former RICH board member.