The Range of American Letters Including e e cummings
The English language in the farther west
Can be as harsh as sneering Ambrose Bierce
Or roaring Robinson Jeffers. The zest
Appears in Marquis’s tomcat Bill, fierce
Beside Mehitabel and Archie. Calm
Was English in imperial decrees
By Emerson. Then comes the yawping bomb
Of that barbarian Walt Whitman. Keys
Of majesty are played by poet Holmes
Of Harvard. William Cullen Bryant makes
Of nature grandeur over wave-born foams
Below the waterfowl which heads for lakes
Of southern reeds. And then of course comes slime
Of Poe in horror and his rhyme, rhyme, rhyme.
~ Phillip Whidden