American Poets

(1)  Robert frost                            Poems Written   180
      (1874 - 1963)

 (2) E E Cummings                        Poems Written   153                   
      (1874 - 1963)

 (2) E E Cummings                       Poems Written  20
      (1894 - 1962)

 (3) Shel silverstein                      poems Written  172
      (1932 - 1999)

 (4) Anne Sexton                           Poems Written  330
      (1928 - 1974)

 (5)Walt Whitman                         poems Written   95
      (1819 - 1892)

 (6) Stephen Crane                       Poems Written     29
      (1871 - 1900)

 (7) Langston Hughes                   Poems Written  73
      (1902 - 1967)

 (8) Ezra Pound                             Poems Written  121
      (1885 - 1972)

 (9) Sylvia Plath                            Poems Written 
      (1932 - 1963)






               
    

Devices in details

Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Example: "Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwyn." Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in "I rose and told him of my woe." Whit man's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" contains assonant "I's" in the following lines: "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself." Climax The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work. The climax of John Updike's "A&P," for example, occurs when Sammy quits his job as a cashier Characterization The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although techniques of characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress, manner, and actions. Readers come to understand the character Miss Emily in Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" through what she says, how she lives, and what she does.

Poetic Dvices

Alliteration - The repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds.

Imagery - Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses.

Metaphor - A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison.

Meter - The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Onomatopoeia - The use of words which imitate sound.

Personification - A figure of speech which endows inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.

Point-of-view - The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.

• 1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses "I")
• 3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about what one character sees and feels.
• 3rd person omnivorousness speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know" and describe what all characters are thinking.

Repetition - the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.

Rhyme - The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words.

Rhyme scheme - The sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first end sound is represented as the letter "a", the second is "b", etc.

Simile - A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than". 

Stanza - a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme. 

Jean Arasanayagam

Jean Arasanayagam was a Srilankan and reputed as one of the contemporary leading poets in Srilanka who writes in English. She is the author of several published volumes of poetry written by her. In 1984, she won the national awards for non-fiction literature.She is a Burgher by birth but married to a Tamil.Because of this marriage she had to suffer enormously during the racial violence.She tried to convey information about Tamil community in Srilanka. Therefore her poetry was extended with a widespread recognition.

                                                                    " Wedding Photographs" is an ideal reflection out of her poetry because it brings a wide description about the cultural patterns, rituals and traditions of the Tamil community in Srilanka.some of her poetry has been written while she was in a refugee camp.It appears that some of her poetry is biased.

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion is an English poet,novelist and a biographer who was honoured with Poet Laurate. his poems are knowen for the insightful way in which they explore loss and desolation.He was born in 1952 in Essex.His mother died when he was 17 years.He studied in university college,oxford and studied the poetry of Edward Thomes for his M Litt degree.In 1975, he won the Newdigate Prize for Oxford undergraduate poetry.Later h worked as an English teacher in University of Hull.In 1989, he worked as a professior of creative writing.

Motion published a number of poetry which brought him much credit and reputation.Some of them are 

• The pleasure Streamers
• Independence
• Natural Causes
• Salt Water
• Spring wedding
• Regime Change 
• Anne Frank Hui's

Wilfed Owen

Wilfred Owen became popular as a poet because of his poetic creation " Anthem for Doomed Youth". He, in this poem, vehemently critisizes the war taking it as a "leading wat' for the youth to the grave. It is quite ironical and really a blunder of his fate that he too was killed in action in the battle field at a very early age. He was born in 1893 in Shropshire.In his childhood, his family moved to Birkenhead.He was the eldest of the family.He was an Angelican.During his school days , he was bright in his studies.He passed matriculation of the University of London.as the first career in his life, he worked as a teacher.In 1915 he was commissioned in the Manchester regiment.It was quite pathetic that Owen bade goodbye to his life at a very young age and was killed one week before the agreement for the ceasefire.

"My subject is war and the pity of war;The poetry is in the pity."

this is pathetic as well as ironic because the cruel war cost his life too.

William Butler Yeats

W.B.Yeats was a poet and a dramatist. He was born in Dublin in 1865, the son of a noted Irish painter. In 1887 They migrated to London.He wrote lyrical symbolic poems on Irish themes, for example, "The Wondering s of Osin" and " Lake Isle of Innis-free"He believed in characteristics of ancient Celts. He also wrote "Celtic Twilight" and the "Secret Rose". on his visit to Ireland, He met the beautiful Irish patriot  Maud Gonne and fell in love with her.For the rest of his life, she inspired him.Yeats returned to Ireland in 1896. There he joined the playwright, Lady gregory and they both started the famouse "Abbey Theater" in 1904. There he devoted to production of plays. Among the plays he produced with Maud Gonne were "Cathleen ni Houlihan" and "Deidre" a tragedy in verse. Later in his life Yeats wrote some more poems such as 

•  The Wing among the reeds
• The shadowy waters
• The Green Hamlet

In his poetry, he displays how much he loved realistic theory. His later poetry was free from self-consciousness.