Abstract
This paper takes a broader view of the use of water imagery in the American poetic tradition. Since the nineteenth century, celebrated poets such as Hart Crane, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Hilda Doolittle, Marianne Moore, Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Bishop have all imagined water in ways which overlap and extend their poetic thoughts. Contrary to W H Auden’s thought-provoking remarks about the ‘savage’ treatment of nature, which highlights masculinity in America, this paper focusses on showing water as one of the elemental forces, emphasizing the fluid nature of the American poetic discourse. American poets establish an intimate relationship with water, as something at the back of their minds, which is externalized through their poetic response. This paper argues that in establishing their connection with the varied manifestations of water, both, male and female poets have asserted their manhood and womanhood through it.
Amna Umer Cheema, Hadia Baloch. (2021) Framing Water in The American Poetic Tradition, Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society, Volume 34, Issue 1.
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