Who killed American poetry?: from national obsession to elite possession

Introduction. "The Expression and Stimulant of National Feeling": Poems, Critics, Contexts

Chapter 1. "National Ideas Shall Take Birth": Beginnings

Chapter 2. "Flattering the Prejudices of the Multitude": Poe, Longfellow, and the Problem of Popularity

Chapter 3. The Weapons of Poetry: Negotiating the Civil War Era

Chapter 4. "Perfect Simplicity and Self-Control": Larcom, Piatt, and the Critics

Chapter 5. Scarlet Experiments: Dickinson's New English among the Critics

Coda: Stopping by Woods.