Unconsciousness of the Community

Modern American poetry begins with Walt Whitman, and evolves through Emily Dickinson and then Ezra Pound, who is the slayer of vestigial forms left over from the 19th century. 

It 's the personal life of the poet and his or her relationship to the present that becomes paramount.  Dante defines poetry as "the melody which most doth draw the sound unto itself," or the unconsciousness of the community. 


Since the Sumerians, through Villon, Cervantes, W.C. Williams, Joyce and Eliot, the soul is journeying to find a home in the Commonplace. That movement coincided with the blooming of the American short story writers - Eudory Welty, Cheever, Salinger, etc.. By 1960 you have an entire canon in place. A major portrait of American society was now complete. It took 50 years.