Poetry Rocks! Modern American Poetry: "Echoes and Shadows"

Poetry Rocks! Modern American Poetry: "Echoes and Shadows" by Sheila Griffin Llanas (Enslow Publishers, Inc.) ISBN: 978-0-7660-3275-0

Summary

Griffin Llanas provides context and interpretations for poems by 12 American poets associated with modernism.  The introduction sets the stage for Modern American poetry by discussing its connection to French Symbolism, the birth of free verse, and the parallel movements in modern art (in particular the 1913 Armory Show).  The book includes a picture of Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase as an example of the cubist artwork that inspired poets like Williams, Stevens, Pound, and H.D.  The book includes chapters on Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, H.D., Marianne Moore, T.S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, e.e. cummings, Louise Bogan, and Langston Hughes. Each chapter opens with a brief biographical account of the poet and a photograph of the poet.  Griffin Llanas provides an interpretation and explication of the first poem included in each chapter, directing the reader to look at particular metrical elements or imagery. For each poet, Griffin Llanas includes 3 to 4 poems (typically one or two are among the poet's most noted poems and one or two are somewhat more unexpected choices). The back matter includes a glossary, suggestions for further reading, a list of internet resources, and an index.

Critical Evaluation

Griffin Llanas does a remarkable job summarizing the careers of each poet in a relatively short space.  Her summaries are careful: they don't impose interpretation.  Instead, they attempt to draw out important images or metrical features and draw attention to them.  She relies heavily on asking questions instead of imparting insights to teens.  For example, of Frost's "The Runaway," she writes

The story the poem tells is full of tension and mystery.  The reader sees the horse the way the speaker does. However, as in other narrative poems of Frost's, what we do not know outweighs what we do know.  Who is the speaker?  Who is the person watching the horse?  The reader never learns anything about the people in the poem -- not how old they are, where they are going, or why they are in a mountain pasture. (Llanas, 2010 p. 16)

Griffin Llanas never condescends and, using plainspoken English, provides context for appreciating and enjoying poets much more experimental, dense, complicated, and inaccessible than Frost.  Her discussion of Stevens, for example, is commendable.  She emphasizes that we needn't read Stevens for understanding, but also suggests that lingering over particular lines will reward the reader with multiple potential insights. 

Too often poetry is taught to teens as a way of delivering didactic messages.  Poems are flattened to simplified, cliched, moralizing messages.  Griffin Llanas' strength is that she recognizes the polysemy or multivalent nature of Modern poetry -- this necessarily emphasizes a reader's experience as important to the work.  It's clear when reading her critical analysis that she is urging her readers to examine and trust their own experience of the poem.  Poetry in high school is rarely taught this way.  Teachers tell students what poems mean.  Such a strategy would be belie the nature of Modernism.

Reader’s Annotation

Griffin Llanas provides context and questions that make modern poetry not merely readable, but also highly enjoyable.  She offers only a sample size of each poet, which will encourage a motivated reader to seek out the body of work of each other.  Griffin Llanas also conveniently lists the major works of each author, making this a perfect anthology for discovery.

Information about the author

From the author's webpage:

I write library-bound informational books for children and teens. It is the most exciting work I’ve ever done. My job makes me feel like a student with a lot of homework – my favorite thing to be! How did I get that dream job?  

An Epiphany  

In college, I rode my bike on campus in the rain to register for classes. There were no computers. You rushed to departments to sign up in person. In the English building, a chalkboard list showed that a Creative Writing section was open. I wrote the number down and got my form stamped. It was a turning-point. Goodbye botany and business. Hello poetry.  

Major Poetry! A Poetry Major  

I finally knew what I wanted to be – a poet. I gazed out windows, sipped coffee, and scribbled lines in notebooks. I strolled in cemeteries reading Keats, Plath, and Hughes. I edited the college literary review. I won awards. I published a poem! I got a BA in literature, then an MFA in poetry at the University of Iowa.  

A Teacher  

I taught with Johns Hopkins CTY, a summer program that offers college-type classes to middle grade and high school students. Next, I taught composition at a two-year college. Fourteen years of teaching taught me a lot. I worked with ten thousand students and read 50,000 student essays. 

A Freelance Writer  

I loved my students but ultimately I wanted to write for a living. I wrote for magazines, clothing catalogs, and educational publishers. I have been a freelance writer ever since. I spend my days in my office at home. As a bonus, on breaks I work in the garden and play with my dog, Casey.  Here she is! Our Casey.  

A Children’s Author  

My first informational children’s book was Helen of Troy. To date, I’ve written 30 non-fiction library books for children and teen readers. I am always excited to get a new book assignment!  Other projects I have written:      
romantic stories for Woman’s World     
novel reviews for “Beyond Her Book” a Publisher’s Weekly blog     
Lands’ End catalog copy     
essays for magazines — Christian Science Monitor, Bead & Button, Wisconsin Trails     
poems for little magazines — APR, Jubilat, Sonora Review, Denver Quarterly …  

That’s it! When I’m not writing, I’m reading. When I’m not reading, I’m hanging out with my hero – my husband – and Casey, of course. (Griffin Llanas 2013)

Genre

Poetry

Curriculum Ties

Many of the poets included are likely to be among whatever American poets might be studied in school, so it fits in nicely with what is likely already occurring in class.

Booktalking Ideas

1) I found the biographies and photos of the poets to be compelling.  Using them in a book talk could help provide context and breath life into the poems.
2) Langston Hughes and Edna St. Vincent Millay both write poems that are powerful, yet simple.  Reading from either of them might be a way to cast a wide net.
3) If an audience is interested in experimentalism Williams, H.D., Pound, or Stevens might be appropriate.

Reading Level/Interest Age

The book would be appropriate for 7 grade and up, but is likely to interest older readers: 15 -- 70 years of age.

Challenge Issues

There are no challenge issues to speak of.  Llanas doesn't shy away from mentioning that the authors wrote frankly about sex.  She even mentions certain titles, but these poems are not included in this volume.  

But on the off hand that a patron did object, I would openly greet him or her, giving ample time for detailing the complaint.  I would listen attentively.  To respond to these challenges I would have some reviews of the work on hand.   I would be prepared to explain that as a public institution libraries "cannot limit access on the basis of age or other characteristics" (ALA, 1999).  I would have copies of the library's collection policy on hand.  I would be prepared to politely discuss that parents can control what their children are exposed to by coming to the library with them and examining books they check out.  If the Teen Advisory Group had written reviews of the book I'd have them handy.  While it may be of little comfort to certain parents, I would also be prepared to discuss my staunch support of intellectual freedom and abhorrence of censorship.  As a last resort, I would be sure to keep copies or a reconsideration form on hand.

Why did you include this book in the titles you selected?

The title caught my eye because I studied Modern American poetry while in graduate school at UC Davis.  I was curious to see how Modern American poetry could be presented to teens.

References

Griffin Llanas, S. (2010). Poetry rocks! Modern American poetry: 'Echoes and shadows.' Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc. 

Griffin Llanas, S. (2013). About me. Retrieved from http://www.sheilallanas.com/about/