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themes of Greek tragedy set in therugged coastal seascape. He is bestknown for his tragic narratives suchas Tamar (1924), Roan Stallion(1925), The Tower Beyond Tragedy(1924) — a recreation of Aeschylus’sAgamemnon — and Medea(1946), a re-creation of the tragedyby Euripides.Edward Estlin Cummings(1894-1962)Edward Estlin Cummings, commonlyknown as e.e. cummings,wrote attractive, innovative versedistinguished for its humor, grace,celebration of love and eroticism,and experimentation with punctuationand visual format on the page.A painter, he was the first Americanpoet to recognize that poetry hadbecome primarily a visual, not anoral, art; his poems used muchunusual spacing and indentation, aswell as dropping all use of capitalletters.Like Williams, Cummings alsoused colloquial language,sharp imagery, and wordsfrom popular culture. Like Williams,he took creative libertieswith layout. His poem “in Just —”(1920) invites the reader to fill inthe missing ideas:in Just —Spring when the world is mud -luscious the littlelame balloonmanLANGSTON HUGHESwhistles far and weeand eddieandbill comerunning from marbles andpiracies and it’sspring...Hart Crane (1899-1932)Hart Crane was a tormentedyoung poet who committed suicideat age 33 by leaping into the sea. Heleft striking poems, including anepic, The Bridge (1930), which wasinspired by the Brooklyn Bridge, inwhich he ambitiously attempted toreview the American cultural experienceand recast it in affirmativeterms. His luscious, overheatedstyle works best in short poemssuch as “Voyages” (1923, 1926) and“At Melville’s Tomb” (1926), whoseending is a suitable epitaph forCrane:monody shall not wake themariner.This fabulous shadow only thesea keeps.Marianne Moore (1887-1972)Marianne Moore once wrote thatpoems were “imaginary gardenswith real toads in them.” Her poemsare conversational, yet elaborateand subtle in their syllabic versification,drawing upon extremelyprecise description and historicaland scientific fact. A “poet’s poet,”she influenced such later poets asher young friend Elizabeth Bishop.Photo courtesy Knopf, Inc.68