Poetry

Recordings of the poet Sharon Olds, with an introduction to her life and work.

Includes links to poetry, articles, and live readings, and discussions of the authors works.

Features articles and multimedia discussions of the author's life and work.

In the following essay, Jacobs uses a discussion of Auden's poem "Stop All the Clocks" as the starting point for an examination of the writer's ideas regarding the public role of literature in society.

On this episode of Camera Three, W.H. Auden discusses the changing role of the hero in poetry and recites excerpts from The Shield of Achilles and In Memory of W. B. Yeats.

The following essay opens with a close reading of Dickinson's poem, emphasizing its imagery, its ambiguities, and its thematic development. The essay then sets the poem within a variety of contexts. The essay concludes with a list of questions designed to provoke further thought about the artistry and meaning of the poem.

Essay deconstructing Dickinson's style of poetry as well as the message of her poem "Tell the truth but tell it slant".

PoetryFoundation includes full-text version of the poem plus source material for citations.

In the following essay, Latta examines domestic, familial, and spiritual bonds in Bradstreet's poetry, arguing that the poet's focus on the distinction between the spiritual and the physical expresses a "modern" understanding of the physical universe.

In the following essay, Schilling argues that Bradstreet's marriage poems are rooted in Renaissance literary conventions and that modern critics who see a dichotomy between Bradstreet's "imitative" and "original" poetry misrepresent the poet.

Includes links to poetry & guides, articles, live readings, podcasts, and discussions of the authors works.

Background: T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and A. Ginsberg’s Howl are two landmark poems of the 20th century which have a unique way of dealing with emotional suffering. Aims: (a) To explore the interplay between emotional suffering, conflicting relationships and societal perceptions; (b) to show the therapeutic effect of the writing process; (c) to analyse the portrayal of ‘madness’; and (d) to discuss, in contemporary psychiatric terms, the ‘solutions’ offered by the poets. Method: Qualitative research with a narrative, hermeneutic approach. Results: Against the background of wartime/genocide and postwar disillusionment, close relationships are projected onto societal perceptions. Concepts of (self-)control, compassion, empowerment and self-efficacy are offered as solutions to overcome feelings of despair. Conclusion: In a time of perceived societal and environmental crises, both poems help us understand people’s fears and how to counteract them. Besides biological approaches, the narrative approach to the suffering human being has not lost its significance.

Eliot breaks all the rules of epic poetry in The Waste Land. For an epic poem it appears to be too short; it does not have a unifying voice; and it lacks the primary characteristic that defines this genre--a hero. (1) Eliot, nevertheless, employs an epic structure that necessitates the presence of a pilgrim, of either gender, who has the opportunity to become a hero in the poem.

In the essay below, Brooks presents a detailed, section-by-section explication of The Waste Land, but cautions that a prose explanation of its symbols and metaphors is not the equivalent of the poem itself, for its meaning emerges gradually through Eliot's sometimes confusing use of symbol.