Category: Poetry
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Innovation, Rhyme, and Feel in Robert Pinsky’s Poetry
The first U.S. Poet Laureate for three consecutive years (from 1997-2000), Pinsky has succeeded in much more than poetry. In 1984, for example, he was the author of an interactive fiction game called Mindwheel; today, he is the poetry editor for the irreverent online Slate magazine. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that his poetry embraces…
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Discovery and Reassessment in The Poetry of Robert Gray
Through the discovery of new values and places, individuals may reject socially construed ideas as they come to new perceptions of their broader society. However, some individuals may remain indifferent. It is these individuals that pose the biggest risk to society, as they are unaware of the imposition of their actions to the natural world.…
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Aberrance in Two Poems by Robert Browning
As scholars often note, the Victorian Period was known for its didacticism, especially the struggle between faith and moral decrepitude. Whereas the Romantics idealized their world, the Victorians questioned their surroundings, choosing to politicize their literature so as to be reactionary against the societal norm. Although the polemics of Victorianism were prevalent in poetry, fiction,…
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Lost in The Rockslide of History: Toward an Understanding of Robert Lowell’s “History”
“History” is a title fraught with dilemma. There is, to begin with, the ambiguity inherent the word: there are nine entries listed in the OED, three of which are of primary concern here. “A relation of events” is the first; “A written narrative constituting a continuous methodical record, in order of time, of important or…
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The Imagery of Landscape in The Poetry of The First World War: from Rupert Brooke to Edward Thomas
At the turn of the nineteenth century, and the start of the ‘War to end all Wars’, there was a rise in an exclusive kind of poetry, born in the suffering hands of the ‘War poet’. He is often seen in a state of despair, and combines the peaceful scenes of the preceding century with…
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Rumi’s Ghazal and The Mevlevi Sama: a Dynamic Dichotomy of Movement and Stillness
The flowing white tennure, the rotating sikke, the twirling spin of the right foot, the turning hands – one pointing towards the heavens, one towards the earth- the revolving mass of the flesh, and the spiral gyrating of the spirit; nothing seems to be still. The entire world is lost in the spontaneous revolving movement…
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Sama’ in Rumi’s Poetry
The Sufi musical tradition, or Sama’, has been used as a way to connect with the divine for hundreds of years by incorporating poetry, song, and dance to praise God. For many mystics, this blend is the single most powerful link to God, and is considered an even more elevated form of worship than prayer.…
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Prophetic Voice in William Blake’s Poetry
In “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (1793), Blake writes with a strong prophetic voice, bringing forth a new set of proverbs, a new poetics, twisting and flipping traditional wisdom. Blake challenges the status quo, questioning stagnant, conventional thought. As if standing before a gathering crowd, he cries out “All Bibles or sacred codes have…
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Beauty is in The Eye of The Beholder – a Commentary on Sappho’s Fragments
It is easy to love something that is beautiful. It is easy to see beauty in the things you love. What is difficult at times is seeing the distinction between these two ideas. In Sappho’s “Fragment 16,” she says that the most beautiful thing in the world is the thing that you love. A question…
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The Honour in Courage: an Explication of ‘requiem for The Crappies’
“Requiem for the Croppies”, written by Seamus Heaney in 1962, describes the Irish Rebellion of 1798 as seen through the eyes and narrative voice of one random, deceased Irish soldier. The term “croppies” refers to the rebels, attributable to their short hair – a style adopted from French revolutionaries of the same period. In this…