Williams, Hughes and MacLeish

1. Williams, Hughes and MacLeish Carlos Williams Langston Hughes Archibald MacLeish

2. Main Content Ⅰ. Carlos Williams1883-1963 Ⅱ. Langston Hughes 1902-67 Ⅲ. Archibald MacLeish 1892 – 1982

3. Ⅰ. Carlos Williams • General Introduction • An American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism; • A pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine

4. 2. His Subject • Everyday experience; small cities and working people. • He is well-known for his outspoken hostility to most of the “-sms” of the day. • He is the poet of the particular, the American, the local, and the fact. “The local is the only thing that is universal” (W.C.Williams)

5. 3. Artistic Features • Episodes, moments “snatched from life” • Palpable images: “No ideas but things”: symbolism turned upside down 意从物生,诗有画意 4. The Red Wheelbarrow • Emphasis on the importance of three elements: ovum and sperm, man’s intelligence, man’s labor.

6. The ovum and the sperm (chicken) Man’s ingenuity (wheel) His labor (barrow) And the elements (rain) • Emphasis on the importance of perception, thingness of things, disregarding abstraction. • The poem does not stand for anything • Our conclusion: readers tend to find an idea behind anything (logocentric)

7. 5. Compare and Contrast with Steven and Eliot • Both wrote poetry in spare time (pediatrics who delivered over 2,000 babies ) • Both wrote poetry of things rather than ideas. • Both were influenced by Keats in their early days. • But Williams contrasts with the elegant fastidiousness of Wallace Stevens. • Both stand for the two poles of the same axis of modern poetry • Williams: democratic • Eliot: aristocratic/classical

8. Ⅱ. Langston Hughes 1.General Introduction • With the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, the voice of the poet Langston Hughes rose out of many strong black voices. "Poet Laureate of Harlem" a very important place amongst the greatest poets America.

9. 2.His Poetic Works Weary Blues(1926),Fine Clothes to the Jew(1927), The Dream Keeper(1932),Shakespeare in Harlem(1942),Montage of a Dream Deferred(1951), Ask Your Mama(1961), The Panther and the Lash(1967) (Besides,journalism, plays, TV scripts)

10. 3.Poetic Subject and Themes 1) his experiences as an African American, and the history ; 2) his dreams and aspirations; 3) the struggle against hate and oppression; 4) social criticism and sympathy for the low; 5) despair and beauty of the world, beauty in relationships with nature; 6) his pride in being a black:

11. “We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter.” The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

12. 4.Artistic Features of His Poetry • A keen ear for folk vernacular, use of music rhythms (influenced by the blues ); • Full of humor, irony and urban imagery; • Deceptively simple , casual, and colloquial. 5. Appreciate: • Dreams • Me and the Mule

13. Ⅲ. Archibald MacLeish 1.General Introduction American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

14. 2. Ars Poetica 1) The Title of the Poem nature, forms, technical devices and principles etc. of poetry 2) Theme: a poem should captivate the reader with the same allure of a masterly painting or sculpture 3)Structure and Content (three eight-line sections) The first section compares a poem to familiar sights; The second section compares a poem to the moon; The third section states that a poem should just “be”,like a painting on a wall or a sculpture on a pedestal.

15. 4) Figures of Speech Simile Alliteration Paradox Metaphor Repetend (Anaphora) 5) Rhyme and Meter: couplets; iambic An iambic foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable 6) Source: Horace’s Ars Poetica

16. 3. The Principles Advocated by the Poem 1) Economy of language ( “dumb” and “wordless” ); 2) Use of palpable images and symbols; 3) No moralizing, no propaganda, no sentimentality; 4) The influence of poetry (literature) is gradual and powerful; 5) Poetry(literature) comes from life, but is not life itself (artistically higher than life); 6) The common themes of poetry (literature): love and grief

17. A poem should present its own truth in its own way: not try to state what is true, but use symbols which communicate true emotions. Form is meaning. It involves the selection and arrangement, the ordering and emphasis. Thus, the poem is not a means of saying anything that could be said equally well another way. Its saying is the whole poem – the quality of the imagery, the feel of the rhythm, the dramatic force, and the ideas.

18. Homework Preview former Chapter and read the excerpts of O‘Neill’s Desire Under the Elms and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.