The Poetic Past as Democratic Prologue: Robert Penn Warren's Democracy and Poetry

Political scientists have long recognized Robert Penn Warren's work as a fruitful means of exploring American political life. Indeed, All the King's Men has justly been called one of the greatest American political novels. Despite this attention, however, Warren's most overtly political work-Democracy and Poetry-has yet to receive anything but a cursory treatment. This lacuna in the literature is even more surprising given the work's theme; Warren's Democracy and Poetry can and perhaps should be read as a defense of democracy, especially in its distinctively American formulation. This article will assess Warren's defense of democracy by attending to the argument of Democracy and Poetry, thus providing scholars of American politics with two opportunities otherwise unavailable: a modern prognosis of American democracy by one of her more prominent and perspicacious poets, as well as a poetic prescription for democracy's future in light of contemporary political, social, and economic challenges.