198. (Robert Browning)

For Keats, the question of whether it is enough to receive this world on its own terms. For Stevens, as … More

141. (Robert Browning)

In most lyric poems of the nineteenth century, the pressure exerted on the language derive from the intense self-consciousness of … More

What to do with meter? The question for poets is simple: employ it, reinvent it, or leave it alone. For … More

This post will open with George Eliot and then drift, possibly to return. For a starting point, consider one of … More

Nowadays, Christopher Smart is best known for his “Jubilate Agno”—“Rejoice in the Lamb.” That poem smacks of the modern, even … More

Apt that an Italian would assist with placing Browning plain before the eyes. Franco Moretti (once again), but this time … More

Judge the bar to be set where you will, what follows is going to be worse than what I usually … More

Tennyson, haunted by the memory of Arthur Hallam, must look down from atop that long staircase to the stars (the … More

In “The Bishop Orders His Tomb,” it is difficult to believe that the Bishop’s children are listening attentively to all … More

Something happens to attention in works of literature during the early stages of the Victorian era—I had wanted to say … More