ROBERT PENN WARREN
Robert Penn Warren was born in Gutherie, Kentucky in
1905. After graduating from high school, he moved to
Nashville, Tennessee to attend Vanderbilt University.
Warren began his study working toward a major in Chemistry.
Soon, the English Professors and Poets, Donald Davidson and
John Crowe Ransom won him over into the analysis of
Literature and Poetry.
Robert’s maternal grandfather, Gabriel Thomas Penn, was
his essential origin of information and also, his idol. The
old man was a Civil War Veteran who had fought with General
Forester. He resided on an old, rundown tobacco farm
encircled by his books, largely a selection of military
history. To his grandson he was the “living symbol of the
wild action and romance of the past.” Grandfather Penn was
very important to Warren’s success as well as the rural
setting the farm provided. His grandfather devoted much
more time to the boy than did his own father. Warren says
his grandfather could “quote poetry by the yard.” THis
explains why Warren has been so engrossed in the Civil War
and why he judged it to be the “Greatest American Epic.”
Robert Penn Warren is one of the most academic and
learned of our American Writers, in history, literature,
poetry, and even short stories that pertain to American and
The Essay on Syllabus American Poetry From 1900 1950
Cary Nelson Except as noted, all poems are in Anthology of Modern American Poetry (Oxford). All authors have web sites on MAPS. Before each class send a 1-2 page email to everyone commentating on the poetry and the MAPS analyses. This course combines canonical and non canonical poetry; it includes both weeks focused on individual poets and weeks devoted to broad topics that compare and contrast ...
particularly Southern History. He perceives better than
most, how America has changed and just what these changes
have cost. “Life in the South is the topic of practically
all of the fiction and frequently the poetry he has written.
Robert is a chief figure in the Southern Literary
Renaissance.” Since both of his grandpa’s had been
Confederate Soldiers in the Civil War, he had listened to
various stories about the numerous conflicts with the Union
Army. Warren manifest a unique talent of “spontaneous
storytelling.” Several of his stories do pertain to his own
past, but they also propse the feeling of a moment and a
locality very acquainted to many of his faithful readers.
