8 GREAT AMERICAN POETS

The Pilgrim Fathers set foot on American soil in the 17th century, but it was not until the 19th that American could claim a place of importance in the development of English Literature.

The group of poets familiar to all readers of literature are  

H.W. Longfellow, 

 Whittier,

 Poe,

 Holmes,

 Lowell,

 Emerson,

 Thoreau

 and

 Whitman.

  Of these, Longfellow, Whittier, and Whitman are the only three poets whose verse is of greater importance than their prose.

With the others, prose proved the more effective medium, and their verse is considered in connection with it.