When Abraham raised his sword to slice off the head of his son Isaac, he did so with absolute faith in God. Dante Alighieri, on the other hand, was not so convinced. Dante was a devout Christian who believed that divine love required a journey towards, not a blind acceptance of, religion. Unlike Abra

Dramatic, Epic, Medieval fiction, Medieval poetry, Mythic, Pathos, Religious, Sublime

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

Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, an ancient, stony, half-industrialized town. His father, who worked as a carpenter and shopkeeper, was one of only 17 soldiers in his regiment to have survived the battle of Gallipoli during the First World War. From the bleak landscape of his hometown,

Dark, Dramatic, Mythic, Violent