A Geographical Tour of Literary America

The Grand Tour of Literary Landmarks resulted from my students' success with another project that we called "Poetic License with THE AMAZING RACE." This new journey also begins and ends in my students' hometown. Chosen writers are specific to our curriculum and texts; however, teachers can adapt new selections to their students' needs. Side images are their original work. Photo images at each destination go directly to official sites or to the slideshows of my own travel photos. The main sources of written material here are www.Poets.org and Adventures in American Literature, Heritage Edition and Pegasus Edition.

Pulaski, Tennessee


On the literary map, travel from Nashville to Pulaski, Tennessee.

Calculate:

# _____________ Miles to Pulaski, Tennessee

$ _____________ Cost for Gasoline to Pulaski, Tennessee

Visit John Crowe Ransom at www.Poets.org and fill-in-the blanks.

"John Crowe Ransom was born in _______ in Pulaski, Tennessee. He received an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1909, studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and served in the __________________. He became a professor at Vanderbilt and later accepted a position at Kenyon College, where he became founder and editor of The Kenyon Review, and remained there until his retirement in 1959."

"Ransom published three slim volumes of ______________, but after 1927 principally devoted himself to ___________. He was a guiding member of the _________, a group of writers who were wary of the social and cultural changes they were witnessing in the South during the early part of the twentieth century. The Fugitives sought to preserve a traditional aesthetic ideal which was firmly rooted in classical values and forms. As a critic, he had an enormous influence on an entire generation of poets and fellow academics, who subscribed to the doctrines he laid out as the "_______________."

"His ideals were _____________________ and the English metaphysical poetry of the 17th century. He believed in the poetic virtues of ________ and ____________, and the importance of adhering to ______________prosodic techniques of meter, stanza, and rhyme. His own poems are marked by irony and a spare classicism, and a concern with the ______________________________________."

Read “Blue Girls” and "Janet Waking"

This poem gains much of its effect by juxtaposing the innocence of the little girl Janet with her sudden experience of death. What do such words as beautifully, dainty-feathers, and curl suggest about the kind of world Janet understands?







Toward the end of the poem, Ransom moves away from the two earlier worlds to feeling to an attitude of detached, calm wisdom. What does Janet think has happened to Chucky? What do the last two lines tell us about Janet?