I sometimes wish every long poem could exasperate like Paradise Lost or The Aeneid, since the exasperation of either is … More
Category: 19th Century
401. (Charles Baudelaire)
How to explain the presence of Baudelaire as a defining presence for modernist poetry in English? He is felt, directly … More
399. (Christina G. Rossetti)
The first time we encounter the parenthetical “(Men sell not such in any town),” we might want to hear the … More
398. (William Wordsworth)
In this series of posts, I proposed to myself to read the best short narrative poems from the nineteenth century. … More
397. (Robert Browning)
“He was a poet of misconceptions (the title of one of his poems), of failures, of abortive lives and loves, … More
396. (John Keats)
Keats’ “The Eve of St Agnes” places an unusual strain upon Keats’ distinct genius, while also offering it an opportunity … More
395. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” though it would seem to belie, superbly confirms Coleridge’s critical principle: “nothing can permanently … More
393. (William Blake)
When it is reduced to a formula, Blake’s mythology in the masterpiece Jerusalem conveys one of the most plausible and … More
392. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The contrast between Hopkins and Shelley is so perfect in so many respects—atheist and Jesuit; a seeming see-saw of reputations; … More
391. (William Blake)
Blake’s Milton might have been called, at least as a second title, “The Lark and Wild Thyme,” since these are the objects … More