Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. From those decades, we have fewer than two poems a year, many, like most of his sculptures, unfinished. From his ...

In 1852, the March and April issues of La Revue de Paris carried an essay by Charles Baudelaire (1821–67), “Edgar Allan Poe, His Life and Works.” This was the first version of Baudelaire’s preface to ...

Our perhaps forgivable tendency to group the Romantic tribe of early 19th-century poets under a single collective title is a disservice both to history and to literature. Byron opened his Don Juan ...

To welcome National Poetry Month, we take a listen to former Poet Laureate Billy Collins read his poem, "Introduction to Poetry." Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem 'Introduction to ...

The poems of Philip Larkin have had a curious publication history. He produced just three mature collections, The Less Deceived in 1955, The Whitsun Weddings in 1964, and High Windows in 1974. No ...

Imagine that your class had been studying William Shakespeare’s famous poem ‘Sonnet 18’ as a National 5 Critical Essay text. For an essay question on theme, you could write this basic introduction: ...

An inventory of some of the themes included in his huge collection Hesperides, this is also a winning celebration of sheer abundance The Argument of His Book I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and ...