John Brown's Body (poem)
John Brown's Body is an epic poem by American poet Stephen Vincent Benét.[1]
History[change | change source]
In 1925 Stephen Vincent Benét decided to write a long poem. With this proposal he approached the Guggenheim Foundation.[1] He asked for 2 500 dollars and got it.[1] Then he went to France. He settled in Paris and began to write. The poem was published in 1928.[1] At once it became very popular. No American poem gained such popularity earlier. Ever Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's works were not so widely read.[1] 130 000 copies of the book were sold during two years.[1] For this poem the poet received the Pulitzer Prize in 1929. Many years later he got the second Pulitzer Prize for the poem Western Star.
Form[change | change source]
The poem in written in many measures. The poet employs both regular blank verse,[2] free verse and different stanzas. This fragment is an example of classical blank verse.
- Jack Ellyat had been out all day alone,
- Except for his new gun and Ned, the setter,
- The old wise dog with Autumn in his eyes,
- Who stepped the fallen leaves so delicately
- They barely rustled. Ellyat trampled them down
- Crackling, like cast-off skins of fairy snakes.
- He'd meant to hunt, but he had let the gun
- Rest on his shoulder.
From time to time the poet uses alliteration.[3]
- Where the skyscrapers lift their foggy plumes
- Of stranded smoke out of a stony mouth
- You are that high stone and its arrogant fumes,
- And you are ruined gardens in the 'South
The story told[change | change source]
John Brown's Body is a poem about Civil War in America. The story begins with John Brown and his deeds.[4] It ends with general Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. In this work historical and fictional persons are presented together.[4] In 1953 Charles Laughton turned the poem into a play.[5] It was performed in many theatres in America.[5]