With contributions from over 100 scholars, the Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Centry provides essays on the careers, works, and backgrounds of more than 100 nineteenth-century poets. It also provides entries on specialized categories of twentieth-century verse such as hymns, folk ballads, spirituals, Civil War songs, and Native American poetry. Besides presenting essential factual information, each entry amounts to an in-depth critical essay, and includes a bibliography that directs readers to other works by and about a particular poet.

With contributions from over 100 scholars, the Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Centry provides essays on the careers, works, and backgrounds of more than 100 nineteenth-century poets. It also provides entries on specialized categories of twentieth-century verse such as hymns, folk ballads, spirituals, Civil War songs, and Native American poetry. Besides presenting essential factual information, each entry amounts to an in-depth critical essay, and includes a bibliography that directs readers to other works by and about a particular poet.

This list of prominent poets in this volume reminds us that for most of the nineteenth century, American literature was the literature of New England. Poe and Lanier represent the South; Whitman, Crane, and Melville New York. Bryant, Emerson, Thoreau, Holmes, Whittier, Lowell, Longfellow, and Dickinson were citizens of New England (as were the lesser known Tuckerman and Very). Dunbar is the lone midwesterner. As a group, they were highly conscious of a shared responsiblility: the building of a national literature. The purpose of this book is to help the student of nineteenth-century American poetry locate those secondary materials needed for course work, background reading, research, and independent study. The first section is devoted to general treatments of nineteenth century American poetry; this is followed by sections on individual authors (in sequence according to birth). Ideal for high school and undergraduate students, and a good starting point for the more specialized needs of advanced English majors, graduate students and professional scholars.

Afro-Americans of the nineteenth century are the invisible poets of our national literature. This anthology brings together 171 poems by 35 poets, from the best known to the unknown, in one volume.