Sylvia Plath, one of the best-known names in American women's literature, signed her first and her last books with pseudonyms. A poet since childhood, she published her debut volume "A Winter Ship" relatively late, in 1960. After studying at Smith College and later at Newnham College in Cambridge (a

Confessional poetry, Death, Feminine, Grotesque, Melancholy, Primal, Voluminous, Women's literature

American poet Anne Sexton could tell a story that would elicit tears. And yet, her words hold the ring of truth as well as the hollow toll of misery and despair. Just when the sense of her lines seems unbearable, the poetry of them hooks into the reader's veins and persists there. Sexton, a Confessio

Anxiety, Confessional poetry, Dark, Death, Feminine, Melancholy, Moody, Visceral, Women's literature

The English language has been forced to jump through many hoops over the past century. One of the most delightful ringmasters in the circus was the American poet, novelist, and painter E.E. Cummings. His lowercased name can scarcely prepare the reader for the punctuational and syntactical oddities fo

Collage, Improvised, Modernist poetry, Playful, Profane, Quirky, Sexy

T. S. Eliot looked out on the landscape of the modern world after World War I and saw a place of disillusionment, shattered community, and lost spirituality. His poems describe the greyness of this sterile terrain and summon the traditions of the past -- both literary and religious -- to transcend t

Bloomsbury, Death, Elegant, Existentialist literature, Melancholy, Modernist literature, Modernist poetry, The lost generation