Mid-American Chants

Originally published in 1918, Mid-American Chants is Sherwood Anderson's first book of poems. Undeniably influenced by Walt Whitman, Anderson seeks in this collection to sing of the "heart" (geographically) of the United States, and to sing of the rising age of industrialism. The lines are long, and the rhythms almost prosiac; in fact, some view these poems as prototypical American prose poems.