American Language Poetry

Around the 1970s, there were two groups of poets who reacted vigorously against the then dominant free verse: New Formalist Poets and Language Poets. The difference between them lies in the fact that they take a different path in poetry writing. While the former looks back to the past, the latter looks forward to the future. When compared with the New Poetry Movement that arose in the 1950s and 1960s, the Language Poetry Movement is more radical in language use. So far, the Language Poetry School, compared with other schools of poetry in the United States, is a school of unprecedented unity and collaboration among the poets, taking a most avant-garde stance. There are indications that the language poets are actually making a silent revolution in the field of American poetry. Having published more than 150 books of poems and literary criticism in a decade, they have gradually arisen as a great curiosity and interest for college teachers and students as well as readers in general.