National Portrait Gallery
Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets
October 12, 2012 – April 28, 2013
Beginning with Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and his invention of free verse, through the 1970s with such poets as Yusef Komunyakaa, this exhibition features portraits and extensive quotations to chart how American poets contributed to the making of American literature by following Ezra Pound’s injunction to “make it new.” Some of the key “makers of modernism” included are Ezra Pound, Robert Frost, Marianne Moore, Langston Hughes, and Allen Ginsberg. Also included are audiovisual clips showing selected poets reading their own works.
