The middle years of John Milton's career were devoted to prose. Caught up in the Puritan movement and the English Civil War, he penned political pamphlets and idealistic treatises on religious freedom and the glory of the new Commonwealth. True, a peculiarly personal sensibility revealed itself in th

17th century poetry, Epic, Lyrical, Mythic, Overflowing, Religious, Sublime

Poe once wrote that all worldly things contain "the germ of their inevitable annihilation." Pretty cheerful stuff -- clearly this was a man obsessed with ruin and with death. His characters typically suffer from various forms of mental and physical deterioration; their minds seem to have a predilecti

Anxiety, Dark, Death, Gothic fiction, Grotesque, Intense, Lyrical, Sublime, Symbolist poetry, Violent

Some works of art effortlessly draw the core of their subject to surface. William Blake, the great predecessor to the Romantics, understood this well. Whether in a lyrical, allegorical poem like "The Echoing Green" or in the almost futuristic engravings for "The Book of Urizen," he exemplified the ar

18th century poetry, Lyrical, Pathos, Sensual, Sublime

Bei Dao is a dangerous man. After long days working his state-assigned construction job outside Beijing, he would spend his nights writing poetry. While other citizens slept, he and his friends would secretly meet to discuss poetry and then sneak out to paste up their poems throughout the city. Bei h

Angry, Dystopic, Lyrical, Misty poets, Spare, Spiritual