Echoes Across the Atlantic: Comparative Studies in English and American Poetry

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamic conversation between English and American poetry from the Romantic to the modern period, emphasizing how shared language and cultural exchange have shaped the poetic imagination across the Atlantic. By examining the works of Wordsworth, Tennyson, Whitman, Dickinson, Eliot, and Frost, it investigates how each tradition developed distinctive yet interconnected approaches to nature, selfhood, and nationhood. English poetry’s moral introspection and formal restraint found a counterpart in the expansive freedom and democratic vision of American verse. Through comparative analysis, the study argues that the transatlantic relationship is not one of imitation but of mutual transformation—each tradition reframing inherited ideas to address new historical and cultural realities. The paper concludes that English and American poetry together constitute a living continuum of influence and innovation, where echoes of shared language become vehicles for new expressions of artistic and national identity.