Generally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, “The Odyssey” is considered one of the most important works of classical antiquity, an epic poem about the events at the end of the Trojan War which is generally thought to have been written near the end of the 8th century BC. The story centers on Odysseus and his ten year journey to reach his home in Ithaca. Because of his long absence, Odysseus is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope an ...
In response to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s call for the United States to have its own unique poetic voice, Walt Whitman rose to the challenge to create what would ultimately be his most profound work. Taking its title from the colloquial term “grass”, meaning a work of minor value, Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is anything but that. Over his lifetime Whitman would continue to expand and revise his most famous work up until his death in 1892. The first e ...
Loosely based on the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King, “The Waste Land”, which first appeared in 1922, is a landmark work of Modernist poetry. Containing hundreds of allusions and quotations from other works, “The Waste Land” is marked by a disjointed structure which moves between voices and imagery without a clear delineation for the reader, a hallmark of Modernist literature. Arguably Eliot’s most famous work, the theme o ...
Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” or “The Flowers of Evil” was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book’s publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire’s work but ordered that six poems in particular should be ba ...
Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” or “The Flowers of Evil” was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book’s publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire’s work but ordered that six poems in particular should be ba ...
Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats is considered one of the most important figures in the second generation of English Romantic poets. Born on Halloween in 1795, John Keats lived a very short life, dying at the age of twenty-five from tuberculosis. In 1814 John Keats began an apprenticeship with Thomas Hammond, a surgeon and apothecary and by 1816 had achieved his apothecary’s license, which allowed him to practice medici ...
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), the reclusive and intensely private poet saw only a few of her poems (she wrote well over a thousand) published during her life. After discovering a trove of manuscripts left in a wooden box, Dickinson’s sister Lavinia, fortunately, chose to disobey Emily’s wishes for her work to be burned after death. With the help of Amherst professors, Lavinia brought her sister’s gifted verse into print. “The Collected Poems of E ...
English poet John Milton’s 17th century epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” is the work for which he is best known and which would solidify his reputation as one of the greatest poets of all time. A classic retelling of Biblical legend, the poem relates the stories of the war in heaven, the fall of man, and the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. First depicted in Revelation, Milton portrays the angel Lucifer’s denial of God’s authority ov ...
Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry, Robert Frost is best remembered for his depictions of early 20th century rural New England life and for his command of American colloquial speech. Criticized by some as being out of touch with the Modernist movement in poetry exemplified by contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings, it is probably in fact his adherence to traditionalism that so endeared him to his fans. Literary critic R ...