Poetic Forms: Structure, Pattern, and the Art of Making Poems
A guide to poetic forms, from sonnets, blank verse, villanelles, sestinas, and haiku to free verse, prose poetry, and experimental structures.
Essays
Fireside Poets: Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, and Bryant
The Fireside Poets were five major nineteenth-century American poets known for rhyme, meter, narrative verse, public themes, and poems widely read aloud and memorized.
Language Poetry: Poets, History, the New Sentence, and Experimental Form
A guide to Language poetry through Lyn Hejinian, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman, Rae Armantrout, Barrett Watten, the New Sentence, little magazines, reader participation, and experimental American poetics.
Immigrant Poetry: Migration, Language, Memory, and American Voices
A guide to immigrant poetry in the United States through migration, bilingual and multilingual writing, family memory, exile, citizenship, translation, and poets including Li-Young Lee, Richard Blanco, Ocean Vuong, and Ilya Kaminsky.
Feminist Poetry: History, Major Poets, Themes, and Forms
A guide to feminist poetry through Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Muriel Rukeyser, political lyric, sexuality, gender, formal experiment, and contemporary feminist poetics.
African American Poetry: History, Major Poets, Movements, and Forms
A guide to African American poetry from Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar through the Harlem Renaissance, Gwendolyn Brooks, the Black Arts Movement, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and contemporary poets.
Native American Poetry: Poets, Traditions, History, and Contemporary Voices
A guide to Native American poetry, Indigenous literary traditions, major poets, oral and written forms, sovereignty, language, land, history, and contemporary practice.
Dissecting Illusion in Jonathan Swift’s “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed”
In his satirical poem “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” Swift stages a surgical expose of cosmetic artifice through Corinna’s nightly rehearsal. He charts …
The Patriarchy of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
The transformation of Katherine in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ from an assertive and outspoken woman to a subdued wife is often presented as a …
Creating a Tapestry of Verse: How to Curate a Diverse and Engaging Poetry Collection
Diversity is the spice of life, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of poetry. As a vibrant tapestry of thoughts, emotions, …
AI Poetry: Can ChatGPT Replicate the Styles of Famous Poets?
In the labyrinthine corridors of human creativity, poetry stands as a testament to our deepest emotions, thoughts, and experiences. It’s a divine play of words, …
The Influence of Nature on Romantic Poetry
The Romantic period, spanning the late 18th to the early 19th century, was a reaction against the industrial and societal shifts of the time. The …
30 Poetic Devices with Examples from Song Lyrics & Poetry
Poetic devices are tropes, figures of speech, and other literary techniques used by poets and playwrights to create unique effects in their works. In this …
5 Main Sound Devices in Poetry & English Song Lyrics
Sound devices in poetry are one of the artistic means for creating images. Sound devices appeal to the reader’s audial imagination, making poems more real …
10 Famous English & American Poems About the Moon
The moon was clear as half a crescent Three nights ago, but now it’s gone… D. Rudoy — “The City Dark“ Poems about the …
rob mclennan: Poetry, Small Presses, and the Literary Life of Ottawa
A critical profile of rob mclennan, tracing place, serial form, literary reference, small-press publishing, and the literary life of Ottawa.
Richard Kostelanetz: Writer, Artist, and Experimental Literature
A critical profile of Richard Kostelanetz, tracing his cross-media experiments with visual language, performance scores, procedure, compression, and repetition.