The American Puritans Their Prose And Poetry

Selections from the writings of Puritans in New England in the first century of colonial life.

A classic documentary collection on New England's Puritan roots is once again available, with new material.

The ethnically diverse scope, broad chronological coverage, and mix of biographical, critical, historical, political, and cultural entries make this the most useful and exciting poetry reference of its kind for students today. American poetry springs up out of all walks of life; its poems are "maternal as well as paternal...stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine," as Walt Whitman wrote, adding "Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion." Written for high school and undergraduate students, this two-volume encyclopedia covers U.S. poetry from the Colonial era to the present, offering full treatments of hundreds of key poets of the American canon. What sets this reference apart is that it also discusses events, movements, schools, and poetic approaches, placing poets in their social, historical, political, cultural, and critical contexts and showing how their works mirror the eras in which they were written. Readers will learn about surrealism, ekphrastic poetry, pastoral elegy, the Black Mountain poets, and "language" poetry. There are long and rich entries on modernism and postmodernism as well as entries related to the formal and technical dimensions of American poetry. Particular attention is paid to women poets and poets from various ethnic groups. Poets such as Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Natasha Trethewey, and Tracy Smith are featured. The encyclopedia also contains entries on a wide selection of Latino and Native American poets and substantial coverage of the avant-garde and experimental movements and provides sidebars that illuminate key points.

Gale Researcher Guide for: Puritan Poetics and the American Tradition is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.

The first comprehensive and integrated critical survey of colonial American poetry, this book focuses on the New England Puritans, who produced the most notable poets, relating them contextually to writers of the Middle Atlantic and Southern colonies and to their European forebears. Following a general introduction by the editor, the book's three parts present: first, the social and aesthetic context in which the poets worked; second, the individual achievements of nine of the most successful poets; thin the varied forms the poets used sacred and profane, serious and humorous, formal and informal.

From witch trials to pickaxe murderers, from brothels to convents, and from slavery to Toni Morrison's Paradise, these essays provide fascinating and provocative insights into our sexual and religious conventions and beliefs.

Neil Baldwin, one of the most exciting intellectual historians, has written extensively about the great thinkers and innovators who have shaped our unique American identity. In THE AMERICAN REVELATION, he turns his energies to the unfolding story of how the American spirit developed over 400 years. This inspiring examination of the ideals that have grown to inform our national identity and of the figures who set the course for our evolving self image covers: City on a Hill--John Winthrop--1630 Common Sense--Thomas Paine--1776 E pluribus unum--Pierre-Eugene Du Simitiere--1776 Self Reliance--Ralph Waldo Emerson--1841 Manifest Destiny--John L. O'Sullivan--1845 Progress and Poverty--Henry George--1879 The Sphere of Action--Jane Addams--1902 The Melting Pot--Israel Zangwill--1908 The Negro in Our History--Carter Woodson--1922 The Marshall Plan--George C. Marshall--1947 Neil Baldwin writes of figures both familiar and forgotten in this work of popular history that seeks to illuminate and enliven the current debate about American's role in the world. Meticulously researched and entertainingly written, THE AMERICAN REVELATION will make all U.S. readers, regardless of their politics, be proud of our country's intellectual heritage and high-minded values and will reassert those ideals to the rest of the world.