The "Chicago School" of poetry
Three Midwestern poets who grew up in Illinois and shared the
midwestern concern with ordinary people are Carl Sandburg, Vachel
Lindsay, and Edgar Lee Masters. Their poetry often concerns
obscure individuals; they developed techniques -- realism,
dramatic renderings -- that reached out to a larger readership.
They are part of the Midwestern, or Chicago, School that arose
before World War I to challenge the East Coast literary
establishment. The "Chicago Renaissance" was a watershed in
American culture: It demonstrated that America's interior had
matured.
