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American Poetry

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Rich's Diving into the Wreck: Myth-Making

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Louis Zukofsky and the Objectified Poem: Semantic Properties of Formal Poetic Structure

By: Jim Benz

Masters' Hod Putt: Morally Equivalent at Last

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Kooser's Tattoo: Sagging Dagger-through-Heart

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Masters' The Hill: Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Dickinson's Two Butterflies went out at Noon: A Mystical Flight

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Garrison's "Bach in the Subway": Drowning in Imagination

By: Matthew Birdsall

Bryant's The Gladness of Nature: As the Day Smiles

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Frost's Acquainted with the Night: The Neutrality of Time

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Richard Wilbur's Mind: Flying Through the Dark

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Joseph Brodsky's "A Polar Explorer": Making Decisions Without Choices

By: Matthew Birdsall

Oliver's Reckless Poem: Reincarnational Intimations

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Hayden's American Journal: The Quiddity of American Exceptionalism

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Donald Hall Chronicle of Causality: Coital Consequences

By: Matthew Birdsall

Levine's "Animals Are Passing From Our Lives": Who Has Dignity?

By: Matthew Birdsall

Angelou's Touched by an Angel: We, unaccustomed to courage

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Kunitz's "The Portrait": Father, Mother, Son are One

By: Matthew Birdsall

Kinnell's Blackberry Eating: Delicious Words on the Tongue

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

William Bronk – Oh What a Relief He Is: The Poet’s Life Work Goes Against the Grain of Much Recent Poetry

By: Douglas Nordfors

Ted Kooser's "Tattoo": Even Ink Comes out in the Wash

By: Matthew Birdsall

Character Development in "The Mountain": Robert Frost Paints the Narrator as a Keen Observer Though His Story

By: David Todd

The Mountain by Robert Frost: What is the Farmer Hoping to Accomplish?

By: David Todd

Auden's The Unknown Citizen: Scathing Satire of Conformity

By: Matthew Birdsall

When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd: A Short Commentary on Walt Whitman’s Poem

By: Paul-John Ramos

Kay Ryan's Home to Roost: A Clever, Little Ditty

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath – Layers of Meaning: A Detailed Look at Layered Allusion in This Pregnancy Poem

By: James Parsons

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath is a Riddle Poem: Plath's Light-hearted Intention is Flagged by Genre Choice

By: James Parsons

Analysis of Robert Frost's The Mountain: A Blank Verse Poem From North of Boston Demonstrates Many Techniques

By: David Todd

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath Not Bitter and Gloomy: Plath's Fun Riddle is the Best of Pregnancy Poems

By: James Parsons

Neruda's Sonnet 73: You will perhaps recall that pointed man

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Brooks' the vacant lot: A Joyful Absence

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Edgar Allan Poe – Two Life and Death Poems: The Conqueror Worm and "Alone"

By: Martin G. Wood

David Kirby's "Monte": The Solution in the Mistake

By: Matthew Birdsall

Louise Gluck – Two Poems: Gretel in Darkness – Mock Orange – A Fable and an Ill-Fated Union

By: Martin G. Wood

Two Poems by George Washington: Young Love

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Collins' The Golden Years: Musing for Amusement

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Yogananda's Luther Burbank: A Tribute to Accomplishment

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Carl Sandburg – Four Autumn Poems: Under the Harvest Moon Through Autumn Movement

By: Martin G. Wood

Jack Myers's "Blindsided": Saving Face in the Face of Adversity

By: Matthew Birdsall

Hughes' Night Funeral in Harlem: A Question of Love

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Inseminating the Elephant is a Risky Business: Lucia Perillo's New Book of Poetry Has Its Ups and Downs

By: Douglas Nordfors

Frost and the Versanelle: Master of Form

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

James Wright's "Beginning": Lean on What You Know

By: Matthew Birdsall

Dickinson's Color—Caste—Denomination: The Futility of Human Classification

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Winch's Social Security: No Safety Nowadays

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Tony Hoagland's "Leaving Yourself Behind": The Humor of Gravity

By: Matthew Birdsall

Frost's The Freedom of the Moon: The Greatness of Human Free Will

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Billy Collins's Aubade: Who's Listening at Dawn?

By: Matthew Birdsall

Dickinson's I measure every Grief I meet: The Way of Suffering

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Dickinson's After great pain: A Sculpture of Suffering

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

The Mind-Body Problem is a Joy: Katha Pollitt's New Book of Poetry is a Must Read

By: Douglas Nordfors

Charles Simic's Fork: Portrayals of Violence in Contemporary Poetry

By: Matthew Van Cura

Stephen Dobyns's Uprising: A Call to Harms

By: Matthew Birdsall

Elegy and Celebration in the Napa Valley: A Reading by Inaugural Poet Elizabeth Alexander

By: Michael Waterson

The Death of the Hired Man – Good Blank Verse: Robert Frost Shows Skill With Non-Rhyming Poetry Using Other Devices

By: David Todd

The Moose by Elizabeth Bishop: Analysis of Figurative Language in Bishop’s Poem

By: Jeris Swanhorst

Dickinson's As imperceptibly as grief: Musing into Beauty

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Review – The Notebooks of Robert Frost: Insight Into his Character, Poetry, and Thoughts

By: David Todd

Dunn's "Tucson": The Fate of Desire

By: Matthew Birdsall

Johnson's Mother Night: God as Divine Mother

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Self-Publishing in the Early Twentieth Century: William E. Dimorier Was High School Principal and Unknown Poet

By: Ann Silverthorn

The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Robinson Jeffers: His Unusual Legacy From Tamar to The Double Axe

By: Paul-John Ramos

Rules of Sleep: Do Bodies at Rest Ever Stop?

By: Matthew Birdsall

Character Development The Death of the Hired Man: Robert Frost’s Poem Shows How Blank Verse Can be Effective

By: David Todd

Ferlinghetti's In Goya's Greatest Scenes We Seem: The Art of Exaggeration

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

The Death of the Hired Man – an Overview: Robert Frost Shows His Skill in Conversational Blank Verse

By: David Todd

Frost Joins Form and Meaning in Into My Own: Rhyme and Meter and Form Work Together to Enhance Reading Enjoyment

By: David Todd

Simic's My Shoes: Post-postmodern Trivial Nonsense

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

How Robert Frost Wrote His Poems: Observation and Internal Processing Resulted in Frost's Compositions

By: David Todd

Wilbur's Mind: Flying Thoughts

By: Matthew Birdsall

Book Review – Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town: A Classic Book of Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing

By: Ryan Werner

Dickinson's There is another sky: Another World Created by Art

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Whitman's Song of the Banner at Daybreak: The Patriot’s Symbol

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Word Choices Distinguish Into My Own: Robert Frost Demonstrates Mastery of More Poetic Devices

By: David Todd

Imagery and Metaphor in Into My Own: Robert Frost's Poetic Techniques Enhance the Eternal Message

By: David Todd

Delmore Schwartz is Worth Another Look: The Once Famous Poet Seems to Have Disappeared – Why?

By: Douglas Nordfors

Robert Frost's Into My Own: An Overview of One of Frost’s Early Poems

By: David Todd

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: T.S. Eliot's Imagery and Use of Description in His Poetry

By: Margaret Langner

Scary Movies – A Poem: Kim Addonizio's Chilling Homage to Cinema That Haunts the Soul

By: Martin G. Wood

Understanding Frost's Imagery and Naturalism: Examples From Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By: Margaret Langner

Charles Simic's Empire of Dreams: Character Without Compromise

By: Matthew Birdsall

Simic's Empire of Dreams: Resilient Character

By: Matthew Birdsall

Sandburg's Chicago: A Hulking Man of Steel

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Robert Frost's Acquainted With the Night: Imagery, Themes, and Meaning in Frost’s Poem

By: Jeris Swanhorst

Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee: Death Rimes With Love

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Turner's Here, Bullet: Fear and Transformation

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Poet for June – James Weldon Johnson: Listen, Lord A Prayer

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Frost's A Girl's Garden: Memory Lane

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Pictures From Brueghel: Ekphrastic and Other Poems by William Carlos Williams

By: Theresa Ann White

Williams' Proletarian Portrait: Capitalizing on the Marxist Mystique

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Ginsberg - A Study of the Footnote to Howl: A Brief Look at the Final Part of the Beat Writers Apocalyptic Poem

By: Holly Thacker

Dobyns' How to Like It: After Outliving One’s Enthusiasm

By: Feature Writer Linda Sue Grimes

Tony Hoagland: American Poet and Writer

By: Sarah Scott

Understanding the Poetry of Robert Frost: An Introductory Guide to Analyzing Frost’s Poems

By: Jeris Swanhorst

Monica Youn – Two Poems: Stealing The Scream – Venice, Unaccompanied

By: Martin G. Wood

Mark Strand's Prediction: We Are Mortal

By: Matthew Birdsall

Bad River Road Follows Tradition: Debra Nystrom's Skillful Autobiographical Poetry

By: Douglas Nordfors

Book Review – Ultramarine by Raymond Carver: Subpar Poetry by the Late, Acclaimed Short-Story Writer

By: Ryan Werner

Updike's Evening Concert: Light and Sound Creatively Commingle

By: Matthew Birdsall

Dorothy Parker – Four Poems on Death: The Audacious Poet Harbored a Morbid Fascination

By: Martin G. Wood

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