Andrew Marvell’s detached melancholy accommodates skepticism towards the idea that melancholy is suitable for the world (even as it admits … More
Category: 16th and 17th Centuries
299. (Mary Sidney)
Mary Sidney is among the greatest Elizabethan poets in English, her translations of the psalm an achievement of a style … More
298. (John Donne)
John Donne’s “Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day” is one of the most beautiful poems in English. Below is a discussion … More
292. (John Donne)
Of the true metaphysical conceit, the critic James Smith (in “On Metaphysical Poetry”) says, hesitating before his extravagant language, “it … More
290. (Edward Taylor)
Edward Taylor’s poetry affirms the divided, fallen self differently from other poet in the broad metaphysical tradition. Here is “The … More
284. (Andrew Marvell)
If we take Andrew Marvell’s Damon the Mower as an avatar for the poet himself, there is something peculiar in … More
259. (John Dryden)
It seems necessary that, if poetry is not to effect synthesis by way of the elaborate similes and coaxed metaphors … More
258. (John Dryden)
For John Dryden, the world tends towards fusion and confusion and it is for the poet to establish distinctions and … More
228. (John Donne)
Among the tissues of judgments that compose a poem will be a judgment about what a poem plays at doing … More
192. (Mary Sidney)
Renaissance translations of the Psalms are maybe the closest English poetry comes to what we encounter in the religious paintings … More