Poets of the Gilded Age

POETS OF THE GILDED AGE

1870-1900

Compiled by R.E. Slater

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

- EL

AI Overview

Among the most prominent American poets writing during the Gilded Age (roughly 1870–1900) were Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. While some poets embraced traditional forms, others experimented with new styles and techniques to reflect the rapid social, economic, and industrial changes of the era.

Major Gilded Age poets

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886): Dickinson, one of America's most innovative and profound poets, created a unique body of work from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although her unconventional poetry explored themes of death, nature, and immortality, it was not widely published or recognized until after her death. poems by Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman (1819–1892): Whitman's free-verse epic, Leaves of Grass, bridged the Transcendentalist and Realist periods. His poetry celebrated the democratic spirit of the American people, while also providing a "counter-balance to the materialism" that began to define the Gilded Age. poems by Walt Whitman

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906): As one of the first African American poets to achieve national recognition, Dunbar's poetry offered a vital perspective on the Black experience in 19th-century America. His work incorporated dialect and lyricism to explore themes of identity, social injustice, and the human spirit. poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Sympathy
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
    When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

    When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
    Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
    And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
    When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
    But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings

- PLD

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881): Lanier, a Southern-born poet and musician, was often noted for his musicality and complex rhythms. Disturbed by the social changes of the era, he explored his fears and doubts in poems like "The Symphony" and "The Marshes of Glynn".

Emma Lazarus (1849–1887): Lazarus, a poet and activist, is best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus," written in 1883. It was later inscribed on a plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and its words—"Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"—continue to define the American immigrant experience.

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935): Robinson is known for his short, ironic character studies of ordinary individuals in the fictional Tilbury Town. Poems like "Richard Cory" and "Miniver Cheevy" often depict lives of quiet desperation and the darker side of the American dream.

Richard Cory
by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

- EAR

American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel Leutze’s painting “Westward the Course
of Empire Takes Its Way” (1861). The title, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase
often quoted in the era of manifest destiny.

Characteristics of Gilded Age poetry

Poetry from this period reflected the profound social and economic upheavals of the time, leading to a wide range of styles and themes.

Realism and satire: Just as Mark Twain's novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today satirized the era's materialism, many poets used realism to portray both the glittering wealth and the underlying corruption and injustice of the period.

Diverse perspectives: Poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Emma Lazarus addressed social issues and inequality from the viewpoint of marginalized communities, adding crucial new voices to the literary landscape.

Experiments in form: Some poets, like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, challenged traditional poetic structures, paving the way for 20th-century modernism. Their unconventional uses of punctuation, meter, and free verse broke away from the more formal styles of the past.

Figure 20.16 This image of Coxey’s Army marching on Washington to ask for jobs may have helped
inspire L. Frank Baum’s story of Dorothy and her friends seeking help from the Wizard of Oz.

Traditionalism (the "Genteel Tradition"): A group of influential, often Harvard-educated poets known as the Boston Brahmins (including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell) continued to produce poetry in more conventional, European-oriented forms. Their work was broadly popular but sometimes viewed as conservative and out of touch with America's rapidly changing society.

Regionalism: Some poets focused on capturing the unique character of specific American regions and dialects, similar to other Gilded Age writers. This was partly a response to the rapid changes brought by industrialization and urbanization.

While Regionalism as a distinct movement flourished later, in the early 20th century, poets associated with the Gilded Age who explored regional themes include Edgar Lee Masters, known for the Midwestern focus of his Spoon River Anthology, and the Midwestern poets of the Chicago School, such as Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay, who championed realism and depicted ordinary life in the American interior before World War I. 

By Carl Wilhelm Hahn - Own work, Wm pearl, Public Domain

Here are some examples and key figures:

Edgar Lee Masters: A Midwestern poet who, along with Sandburg and Lindsay, was part of the Chicago School and focused on the lives of ordinary people in his region. His work, like Spoon River Anthology, explored the lives of rural residents.

Carl Sandburg: Another central figure in the Chicago School, his poetry captured the sounds and spirit of the Midwest, particularly Chicago, and challenged the East Coast literary establishment.

Vachel Lindsay: Also a prominent Midwestern poet, Lindsay shared Sandburg's interest in ordinary Midwesterners and used realist techniques to reach a broader audience.

Paul Laurence Dunbar: While known for his work that depicted African American culture and dialect, much of Dunbar's work also captured the essence of rural American life, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These poets, though sometimes associated with the broader movement of Regionalism that gained steam in the early 1900s, are considered precursors to it, with their Gilded Age works showcasing a growing interest in depicting specific American regions and their diverse populations.

Richard Bone

by Edgar Lee Masters

When I first came to Spoon River
I did not know whether what they told me
Was true or false.
They would bring me an epitaph
And stand around the shop while I worked
And say "He was so kind," "He was wonderful,"
"She was the sweetest woman," "He was a consistent Christian."
And I chiseled for them whatever they wished,
All in ignorance of its truth.
But later, as I lived among the people here,
I knew how near to the life
Were the epitaphs that were ordered for them when they died.
But still I chiseled whatever they paid me to chisel
And made myself party to the false chronicles
Of the stones,
Even as the historian does who writes
Without knowing the truth,
Or because he is influenced to hide it.

- ELM

Chicago

by Carl Sandburg

        Hog Butcher for the World,
        Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat,
        Player with Railroads and the Nation's
             Freight Handler;
        Stormy, husky, brawling,
        City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
            Bareheaded,
            Shoveling,
            Wrecking,
            Planning,
            Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
            Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight

by Vachel Lindsay

It is portentous, and a thing of state
That here at midnight, in our little town
A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,
Near the old court-house pacing up and down.

Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children used to play,
Or through the market, on the well-worn stones
He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.

A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,
A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make him the quaint great figure that men love,
The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.

He cannot sleep upon his hillside now.
He is among us: — as in times before!
And we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.

His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings.
Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?
Too many peasants fight, they know not why,
Too many homesteads in black terror weep.

The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.
He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now
The bitterness, the folly and the pain.

He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn
Shall come; — the shining hope of Europe free;
The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth,
Bringing long peace to Cornwall, Alp and Sea.

It breaks his heart that kings must murder still,
That all his hours of travail here for men
Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That he may sleep upon his hill again?