Poetry Genres & Movements and associated Poets (20th & 21st Century)

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Early-20th century (England and N America) - Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, F. S. Flint, T. E. Hulme, Hilda Doolittle, Amy Lowell. A poetic movement that relied on the resonance of solid images drawn in precise, colloquial language rather than traditional poetic diction and meter. They rejected Romantic and Victorian conventions, favouring precise imagery and clear, non-elevated language.

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Terms in this set (12)

The Imagists

Early-20th century (N America) - Claude McKay, Alain Locke. An intellectual, social, and artistic explosion involving many African-American writers that took place in New York during the 1920s. The group was characterised by an overt racial pride represented by the idea of the 'New Negro', who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial and social integration.

The Harlem Renaissance

Mid-20th century (N America) - Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan. Post-modernist, progressive poets associated with the Black Mountain College in the US, promoting an open-form (or open-field) approach to poetic composition. This form was based on the line, and each line a unit of breath and of utterance. The content was to consist of "one perception immediately and directly (leading) to a further perception". These poets influenced the course of later American poetry, in particular the Language School.

The Black Mountain Poets

Mid-20th century (N America) - Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac. This style of poetry emerged from the disillusionment that followed World War II; and the resulting Cold War - a time of significant geopolitical uncertainty. By the mid-1950s, it helped to spearhead a cultural vanguard reacting against institutionalised American values, materialism, and conformity.

The Beat Generation Poets

Mid-20th century (N America) - Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg and W. D. Snodgrass. This genre has been described as poetry of the personal or "I", focusing on extreme moments of individual experience, the psyche, and personal trauma. This included previously, and occasionally still taboo subjects such as mental illness, sexuality, and suicide, often set in relation to broader social themes.

The Confessionalists