Robert Penn Warren, Charles Olson, J.V. Cunningham, Robert Hayden, and Jean Garrigue Summary

Robert Penn Warren was the nation's first official poet laureate in 1986 and had already been dean of American letters. He has many varied and well-respected achievements and has received every possible prize. His early poems deal with the delicate profundities of the metaphysical style. Later he focused on writing novels and returned to poetry in the 1950s. His later poems were quite narrative and thematic with his last two poems being his best. The poems included in his section are "Masts at Dawn," "Birth of Love," "Rattlesnake Country," and "Evening Hawk."

Charles Olson referred to himself as an archaeologist. He sought to create myths by studying a place's history. He also sought to break traditions. He believed in poetry...