A discussion of the American Poet Laureate Robert Hass, his poetry and his efforts in making American English a language in its own right.
This paper evaluates the effort being made by American Poet Laureate Robert Hass to lift the European impact from American English ,thus making the latter a truly original and authentic language. It examines how, even though there are several great examples of prose in American English, there are very few truly American poetry collections present and thus Hass efforts are likely to go a long way in eradicating this serious dearth of genuine American poetry. The paper also cites examples from his collection, “Sun Under Wood” and shows how the poet accentuates simplicity to reveal the beauty of American version of English language.
“In the Sun Under Wood for example, Hass used his views on English language to express the emotions of various men and women and explored their psyche using simple everyday American terms. This is an effort worth praising as Gail Wronsky (1997) writes, “what is profoundly revolutionary than the giving up of space on the page to these female voices is the fact that Hass has given the anima psychic space as well – has explored, as a poet, subject matters and emotions traditionally the provinces of women writers; he risks sentiment, for crying out loud! In “Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer,” for example, among so many other things, we find “children’s crayon drawings on the wall.