319. (Anton Chekhov)

On “Ward No. 6” This post belongs mostly to a good friend of mine, whose specializing in Victorian literature enriches … More

316. (Anton Chekhov)

Some Notes on Chekhov: –The doubleness of the short story as he writes it: amazement at the vista of a … More

There is the occasion and there is the utterance; there is the condition and there is the judgment; there is … More

Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a remarkable work of one of the few (only?) … More

William Empson thought Tennyson’s “Flower in the crannied wall” an example of a poem whose supreme simplicity must nonetheless weld … More

Of the many wonderful poems by Baudelaire is “La Squelette laboureur,” available in a number of translations online: Le Squelette … More

Yvor Winters, who was as intense in his conviction of Dickinson’s greatness as any could be, thought “There’s a certain … More

So much poetry is, on the surface even, about responses and responsibility, that it is possible to understand it as … More

She is metaphysical in that her poetry seeks to resolve, and is a novel means for resolving, a fundamental tension … More

To make some attempt at getting at what Hardy’s poems grasp, I’ll look at one of the most famous later … More