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

We don't know whether or not Homer wrote his poems down. Nor do we know if he alone composed them. The author of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" may have been more than one person, or he may have been only one -- it may even be the case that the distinction, when applied to the ancient Greeks, is meani

Classical & biblical literature, Dramatic, Epic, Lyrical, Monumental, Mythic, Overflowing

John Ashbery has influenced more poets than almost any other author since 1950. Dean Young, Jane Miller, David Shapiro, and many younger poets take up the pen from within his tradition of shifting tone, quirky imagery, and timeless narratives. His innovations seem to have arrived simultaneously with

Absurd, Fleeting, Improvised, Loose, New york school poetry, Overflowing, Sprawling

Stockton, California, is generally known for producing seed hybrids, not literary ones. But that all changed in 1940, when the town saw the birth of author Maxine Hong Kingston. Stockton would remain the same, but Asian American literature would be changed forever. Kingston was the third of eig

Bright, Eclectic, Lyrical, Overflowing, Sensual, Women's literature