Creative Writing Commons^™

Challenging White Fragility Through Black Feminist Political Poetry, Langley Leverett

Honors Theses

Due to overwhelming patriarchal hegemonies that women – white women, rich women, young women, and cis women – continue to uphold, feminism struggles to serve all women justly. To combat this negligence in feminism’s fourth-wave movement, I will use this thesis to highlight ways that Black feminist poets have not only shaped feminist theory through their own contributions, but also have prolonged and saved the livelihood of both gender and racial equality. With a strong emphasis on Intersectional Feminism, I will explore the ways in which women can be united against tokenistic power, beginning with the inspiration from three voices: …

"This Frightful World" By Alexander Blok Translated By Jason Curlin, Jason Curlin

Honors Theses

Alexander Blok was one of the poets of a movement that would come to be known as the "Silver Age of Russian Poetry" and thus an avid Symbolist, in fact the leading Symbolist poet at this time. The poets in this movement, while maintaining in many places the strict rhyme of the earlier so called "Golden Age," began to deviate from the strict meter of that time. These poets are products of their time, the earlier 20th Century, and were heavily influenced by those they found around them.

"This Frightful World" was begun in 1909, a mere four years after …

Not Growin' Up: Poetry For Children, Lindsay Chastain

Honors Theses

If adults are the prime reviewers of children's poetry, then children may not give the poetry a good review. After writing my own children 's poetry and having it read by Dr. Johnny Wink, I put it to the test of Gifted and Talented fourth-graders. These bright students gave me feedback on my poetry and told me where to improve. At the completion of this project, I submitted a collection of my works to two children's book publishers for review.

Ӕmilia Lanyer's Place In The Literary Canon, Mary Beth Barton

Honors Theses

Aemilia Lanyer's poetry has been hidden in obscurity since its first appearance in 1611. Despite the efforts of Renaissance--and, more aggressively, feminist--scholars to bring her Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum to the attention of the literate public, the mention of Lanyer's name still elicits frowns and scratched heads from non-specialist readers. Attempting to canonize such a little-known author almost screams literary affirmative action to conservative readers, especially when the validity of Lanyer scholarship has not been determined. Before such action, affirmative or otherwise, can be taken, we must first define modern criteria for the literary canon, and then examine Lanyer's poetry …

A Close Look At Two Poems By Richard Wilbur, Jay Curlin

Honors Theses

For the past three semesters, I have had the pleasure of studying the techniques of prosody under the tutelage of Dr. John Wink. In this study, I have read a large amount of poetry and have studied several books on prosody, the most influential of which was Poetic Meter and Poetic Form by Paul Fussell. This splendid book increased vastly my knowledge of poetry, and through it and other books, I became a much more sensitive, intelligent reader of poems.

The problem with my study came when I tried to decide how to in­corporate what I had learned into a …

"Graffitti": Obu's Literary Magazine, Susan Moss

Honors Theses

Susan Moon edited OBU's literary magazine, "Graffitti."

Life And Personality Of Robert Frost, Una Mae Atkinson

Honors Theses

The most important American poet since Walt Whitman is the New Englander, Robert Frost. People who have never thought of reading poetry take to Frost. His words are simple words; the images are simple, most often country, things. The music of his poetry is the sound of everyday talk, and the ideas, on the surface, anyway, are plain and straight. Subjects of Frost's poetry are such things as nature, love and friendship, self-trust, fear, and courage.

Thus, Robert Frost occupies a unique position in modern poetry. Unlike most contemporary poets, he has managed to win a wide popular audience while …

Themes And Development In The Poetry Of Kenneth Patchen, Joe Kirby

Honors Theses

Kenneth Patchen has been, and continues to be, one of the most influential and controversial figures in contemporary American literature; very few people who read Patchen come away unchanged or uninfluenced by his poetry, and few, if any, of his readers are of mixed emotions about the value of his work: It is either sheer magic and of tremendous artistic merit or it is rough, emotional garbage, a judgement often dependent upon the courage of the reader. Patchen is not held in high esteem publicly by many poets and critics. The American poet Kenneth Rexroth was once advised by an …

A Study Of Modern Poetry, Kriste Mcelhanon

Honors Theses

This Honors Special Studies paper briefly explores five poets, their lives, and a few of their poems.