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American Cycle

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Ten long poems that try to do for America what Shakespeare did for turn history and legend into poetry.

American Cycle , a sequence of long poems inspired by our folklore and past, was written over forty-seven years. Its themes are love, local mythology, history, justice, memory, accomplishment, time. "The books are extraordinary, sustained explosions of authentic American language and energy. Each is entirely different from the others in style, voice, form and narrative content; each so rich in imagery and nuance and texture and event and so finely crafted. . . " —Paul Williams, author of Bob Performing Artist . Its styles are connected to our Spanish words loaned from Old California, rough colloquialisms in Paul Bunyan, the power of African-American vernacular English in John Henry, bare oratory in Chief Joseph, old west phrases in Wyatt Earp, circus ballyhoo in P. T. Barnum, aviation jargon in Amelia Earhart, backwoods dialect  in Blue Ridge. As Walt Whitman says, "I hear America singing, the varied carols. . .”

770 pages, Hardcover

Published August 16, 2022

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About the author

Larry Beckett

11 books1 follower

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