Poetry Wars by Colin Wells

Poetry Wars by Colin Wells

The pen was as mighty as the musket during the American Revolution, as poets waged literary war against politicians, journalists, and each other. Drawing on hundreds of poems, Poetry Wars reconstructs the important public role of poetry in the early republic and examines the reciprocal relationship between political conflict and verse.

"With his comprehensive study of political poetry from the American Revolution through the War of 1812, Colin Wells foregrounds a body of writing not often given extended treatment by literary scholars, but one which, as he superbly demonstrates, played an influential role in shaping the cultural and political landscape of the nation's turbulent, but formative, early years. . Poetry Wars unearths a trove of poems published in partisan newspapers and other print outlets to reveal the intricate ideological and rhetorical dy-namics at work in the political debates that shaped the new nation and the active role that poetry played in them. [Wells] therefore makes a persuasive case that poetry, despite W. H. Auden's later assertion to the contrary, does, in fact, make things happen." (Early American Literature) "Poetry Wars explains the explosion of printed verse at the end of the eighteenth century in America and the evolution of several strands of political consciousness articulated through poetry. Arguing that poetry, not prose, was in fact the dominant belletristic mode of expression in the early United States, Colin Wells provides an important corrective to our understanding of American literary history." (David Shields, University of South Carolina) "Poetry Wars offers an erudite and engaging account of the surprisingly instrumental role of verse in U.S. nation formation. Colin Wells gives us a sense of how bold, playful, and rhetorically incisive political poems could be. He has done literary history a great service by recovering a time when poetry was both a vital force in public life and a dynamic means of effecting political change." (Edward Cahill, Fordham University)

Colin Wells is Professor of English at St. Olaf College.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780812249651
ISBN 10	0812249658
Title	Poetry Wars
Author	Colin Wells
Series	Early American Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University of Pennsylvania Press
Year published	2017-11-17
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.