National Poetry Month - 19th Century Style

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

April is National Poetry Month, a favorite of mine. I thought it would be a good time to look back at the poets who were active during the times we tend to write about. Make no mistake, poetry was immensely popular in the 1800s.

According to the website Poem Analysis, these are considered the top ten poets of the 19th century:

Walt Whitman

Henry David Thoreau

Emily Dickinson

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Helen Hunt Jackson

Edgar Allan Poe

William Cullen Bryant

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Louisa May Alcott

Walt Whitman from
Wikipedia

Some of the most popular poems were:

"Song of Myself", "O Captain! My Captain!"  -  Walt Whitman

"The Song of Hiawatha", "Paul Revere's Ride"  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Raven", "Annabel Lee" - Edgar Allan Poe

Have you ever tried Cento Poetry? I'll post a link to the form at the end of this post.

An early try for me was to take Helen Hunt Jackson's poem "Two Truths" and Dorothy Parker's "One Perfect Rose" and create the following:

THE SINGLE FLOWER by Doris McCraw

A single flow'r he sent me

Temnderlu his messenger he chose.

"Darling", he said,

"I never meant to hurt you."

Deep-hearted, pure

One perfect rose.

But all the same

 I knew the language of the flowered

"When love is at its best, One loves

One perfect rose,

So much that he cannot forget".

My preferred poetry form is Haiku. I've even published a book of them.

So whether you like poetry or not, remember, maybe your characters do. (Smile)

Cento Poetry

Amazon e-book

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris