Criticism and Studies
Library of Congress: Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund
In 1950, philanthropist Gertrude Clarke Whittall established the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund at the Library of Congress to promote the appreciation of poetry, drama, and other literature. On April 23, 1951—the anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth—a poetry room was dedicated where the library hosts lectures, poetry readings, and other literary events supported by this fund. These are some of the many chapbooks that were published by the Library of Congress as a permanent record of the lectures given by illustrious poets and scholars with the support of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund.
(“Portrait of Gertrude Clarke Whittall,” Library of Congress, accessed January 16, 2018, http://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetryroom/2a-portraitwhittall.html.)
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Anniversary Lectures, 1959
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Call Number: LC 29.9:H 55Publication Date: 1959These lectures presented under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund include "Robert Burns, 1759," by Robert Hillyer; "Edgar Allan Poe, 1809," by Richard Wilbur; and Alfred Edward Housman, 1859 ," by Cleanth Brooks. -
Carl Sandburg: With a Bibliography of Sandburg Materials in the Collections of the Library of Congress
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Call Number: LC 29.9:V 28Publication Date: 1969Includes a poem about Sandburg—"Where a Poet's From," by Archibald MacLeish; a lecture on the life and works of Sandburg presented in the Library of Congress on January 8, 1968 by Mark Van Doren; and a bibliography of works by Sandburg in the Library of Congress. This lecture and the Sandburg bibliography were published by the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund for the Library of Congress to reach a wider audience and as a contribution to literary history and criticism. -
The Imagination in the Modern World: Three Lectures
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Call Number: LC 29.9:SP 3Publication Date: 1962These three lectures presented by Stephen Spender under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund include "The Imagination as Verb"; "The Organic, the Orchidaceous, the Intellectualized"; and "Imagination Means Individuation."
Available online: Audio recording of The Imagination in the Modern World: Three Lectures -
Wallace Stevens, the Poetry of Earth
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Call Number: LC 1.2:St 4ISBN: 0844403709Publication Date: 1981-01-01Published under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund, this lecture by A. Walton Litz finds the essence of the poetry of Wallace Stevens in a constant struggle between depicting the inner, personal world of pure imagination and remaining faithful to the external world of objective facts. -
Walt Whitman: Man, Poet, Philosopher, Three Lectures Presented under the Auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund
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Call Number: LC 29.2:W 59/2Publication Date: 1955These three lectures were delivered at the Library of Congress on January 10, 17, and 25, 1955, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first edition of Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass.
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
The Consultantship in Poetry in the English Language, also known as the Chair of Poetry, was conceived by Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress from 1899 to 1939, and created by a donation from Arthur Millington Huntington in 1936. In 1937, Putnam appointed Joseph Auslander as the first Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. The position was similar to that of a reference librarian, and the Consultant in Poetry served primarily as a collection specialist and resident scholar in poetry and literature. Over the years, the position gradually placed less emphasis on developing the Library's collections and more on organizing local poetry readings, lectures, conferences, and outreach programs. The publications listed below consist of lectures delivered by Consultants in Poetry during their respective tenures.In 1985 the position was officially changed by an act of Congress to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. The Poet Laureate gives an annual lecture and reading of his or her poetry at the Library of Congress. In addition, since 1991 many poets laureate have elected to design a unique personal project with a national reach.
(Bibi Martí. "Consultants, Laureates and Programs Over the Years." Poetry at the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0411/poetry.html}
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Reasons for Poetry and The Reason for Criticism: Two Lectures Delivered at the Library of Congress on May 7, 1979 and May 5, 1980
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Call Number: LC 1.2:P 75/4Publication Date: 1982In "The Reason for Poetry," the first of two lectures delivered by poet William Meredith during his tenure as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the author describes the three roles the poet can assume: as dissident—trying to create a ritual for effecting social change; apologist—possibly focusing on errors or imperfections in society and human nature, but implying an underlying acceptance of the model; and solitary—establishing intense, though limited, agreement with the reader as individual to individual. In "The Reason for Criticism," Meredith uses his own poetry and various pieces of criticism to distinguish between constructive and destructive criticism. Impressionistic and oblique praise, he suggests, can enlighten a subject critically more effectively than the most attentive destructive act. -
From Feathers to Iron: A Lecture Delivered at the Library of Congress, May 12, 1975
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Call Number: LC 1.14:K 96Publication Date: 1975This lecture was delivered by poet Stanley Kunitz during his tenure as Poetry Consultant of the Library of Congress. A sound recording of Kunitz delivering his From Feathers to Iron lecture is available in the Library of Congress Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature. -
Chaos and Control in Poetry: A Lecture Delivered at the Library of Congress, October 11, 1965
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Call Number: LC 29.9:SP 3/2Publication Date: 1966Poet Stephen Spender was appointed 17th Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress in 1965, This lecture, delivered as his first official act as poetry consultant, describes his desire to find a balance between the wildness of the Romantic poets such as Shelley and Whitman who wrote about nature and their own personal emotions, and the more formalist, restrained approach of Modernists such as T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. A sound recording of Stephen Spender delivering his lecture on Chaos and Control is available in the Library of Congress Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature.
Anthologies and Collections
U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars
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1980 Presidential Scholars digest byCall Number: PR 39.8:SCH 6/D 56/980Publication Date: [198-]The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by Executive Order 11155 of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors. In 1979, the program was extended to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. 1980 was the first (and apparently only) year that the works of a class of these scholars—scientists and writers, poets and artists, dancers and musicians—were compiled into a digest.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs
University of Texas
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100 Love Sonnets / Cien sonetos de amor
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Call Number: TxD Z UA200.8 L941 2014ISBN: 9780292757608Publication Date: 2014"The happiness I feel in offering these to you is vast as a savanna," Pablo Neruda wrote his adored wife, Matilde Urrutia de Neruda, in his dedication of 100 Love Sonnets. Set against the backdrop of his beloved Isla Negra, these joyfully sensual poems draw on the wind and tides, the white sand with its scattering of delicate wildflowers, and the hot sun and salty scent of the sea to celebrate their love. Generations of lovers since Pablo and Matilde have shared these poems with each other, making 100 Love Sonnets one of the most popular books of poetry of all time. This beautifully redesigned volume, published by University of Texas Press, presents both the original Spanish sonnets and graceful English translations.
Literary Journals
University of North Texas
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The Green Fuse byCall Number: TxD Z N700.6 G837Publication Date: 1971-1990Literary journal of North Texas State University. This annual print publication showcases art, poetry, and prose created by NTSU students. In 1977, according to a letter by alumnus Douglas Ray published in The North Texan, the journal was almost not published because of a lack of funds, but enough funds were raised privately to publish a limited edition entitled Shadow of the Green Fuse. The following year a major effort was made to secure funding from the Student Service Fund, and in the spring of 1978 publication of The Green Fuse was renewed. Continued by North Texas Review.
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North Texas Review byCall Number: TxD Z N700.6 N811NTRPublication Date: 1991-presentContinuation of The Green Fuse. This annual print publication showcases art, poetry, and prose created by University of North Texas students.
Sam Houston State University
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The Texas Review byCall Number: TxD Z S200.6 T312revPublication Date: 1980-presentLiterary review showcasing fiction, poetry, scholarship, reviews, and creative nonfiction. The Texas Review partners with Texas Review Press and SHSU's MFA in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing to publish two issues per year. UNT has issues in paper from 1984 to the present.
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The Texas Review [online] byPublication Date: 2003-presentLiterary review showcasing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, short plays, and comics/art. The Texas Review partners with Texas Review Press and SHSU's MFA in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing to publish two issues per year. This online version includes issues from 2003 to the present.
Bibliographies and Catalogs
Library of Congress
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Francesco Petrarca: Musical Settings of His Works from Jacopo da Bologna to the Present, a Checklist
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Call Number: LC 29.2:P 44Publication Date: 1974This brief checklist, offered on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the poet's death, provides just a taste of the many musical settings of Petrarca's poetry composed over the centuries. The greatest interest occurred in the Renaissance, especially among the Italian madrigalists of the cinquecento; after the death of the composer Monteverdi, Petrarca's poetry shows up only occasionally, in works by Haydn, Schubert, Liszt, and Schoenberg. In addition to works based on his poetry, four operatic works inspired by Petrarca himself are included. -
Sixty American Poets, 1896-1944
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Call Number: LC 2.2:P 75/4/896-944/REV., c.2Publication Date: 1954In 1945, while he was a poet in residence at the Library of Congress, Allen Tate compiled this bibliography of sixty of the most important American poets of the previous 50 years (not leaving himself out), listing the chief works, recordings of works, and major criticism or biographies of each poet, and providing his own highly opinionated commentary on each. A decade later, Kenton Kilmer of the Legislative Reference Service revised and expanded the content with more recently published material while adhering to Tate's original list of sixty poets. -
Walt Whitman: A Catalog Based upon the Collections of the Library of Congress
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Call Number: LC 29.2:W 59Publication Date: 1955During the 100th anniversary of the first edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, the Library held an exhibition of the poet's work. This accompanying catalog goes beyond the ambitions of a typical exhibition catalog—it lists all the varied wealth of the Library of Congress in Whitman holdings: manuscripts, published writings, critical and biographical works, pictorial materials, and musical settings of Whitman's verse. Also includes the essay "Notes on Whitman Collections and Collectors," by Charles E. Feinberg.