Who Killed American Poetry?: From National Obsession to Elite Possession

by Karen L. Kilcup

Throughout the 19th century, American poetry was a profoundly populist literary form. It circulated in New England magazines and Southern newspapers; it was read aloud in taverns, homes, and schools across the country. Antebellum reviewers envisioned poetry as the touchstone democratic genre, and their Civil War-era counterparts celebrated its motivating power, singing poems on battlefields. Following the war, however, as criticism grew more professionalized...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472131559
• ISBN13: 9780472131556
• Release Date: October 2019
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 426 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 9.1"