Warm-up (课前准备)：

American poetry, the poetry of the United States, arose first as efforts by colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the thirteen colonies (although before this unification, a strong oral tradition often likened to poetry existed among Native American societies). Unsurprisingly, most of the early colonists' work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form, diction, and theme. However, in the 19th century, a distinctive American idiom began to emerge. By the later part of that century, when Walt Whitman was winning an enthusiastic audience abroad, poets from the United States had begun to take their place at the forefront of the English-language avant-garde.

An Overview (本章概览)：

In this chapter there are going to be three poems – O Captain! My Captain! from Walt Whitman, Because I Could Not Stop for Death from Emily Dickinson and The Road Not Taken from Robert Frost.

These three distinguished poets are the typical representatives of American Poetry. In this Chapter, we will learn the background of the poet and the time. Then we will go deeper and learn the significance of the poems.

Objectives (学习目标)：

Through textual analysis and learning, the students should

1. Get the theme of the poems.

2. Comprehend the social significance of the poems.

3. Acquire relevant rhetorical devices used in the poems.

Knowledge Structure (知识结构):

Every poem will be introduced and analyzed from six parts, which are

1. Information of the poets;

2. History Background;

3. Reading Guide;

4. Poems;

5. Notes;

6. Translation.