Whistling Past the Graveyard in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Robert Frost is a bad bad man. But the poems have suffered most for it. Leaving aside the many scholarlyContinue Reading
Category: Literary Criticism
Poetry and Literary Criticism
Robert Frost: Allegory, Spiritual Crisis and Punxsutawney Phil in “After Apple-Picking”
Prior to his death the great Japanese poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) wrote this haiku (per Robert Hass’s translation): deepContinue Reading
Some Modern Versions of Pastoral
Pastoral, Pragmatism, and Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Ann Marie Mikkelsen My Goodreads rating: 4 of 5 stars Ann Marie Mikkelsen’sContinue Reading
Notable Poetry Books of 2016
In no particular order, here are the notable books of poetry published in 2016 that are, in whole or inContinue Reading
Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Poetry in the Pastoral Mode i Scholars believe pastoral poetry began with Hesiod’s Works and Days (700 BCE), an oral poem ofContinue Reading
A.R. Ammons – “Cascadilla Falls”
Though A.R. Ammons (1926-2001) had a late start at it, he eventually produced nearly thirty books of poetry, twice winningContinue Reading
Notes on Ange Mlinko’s “Cottonmouth”
I was bedeviled by Ange Mlinko’s newest published poem, “Cottonmouth” (Poetry Feb. 2016), a dense linguistic tour de force that wedsContinue Reading
