Articles By RUTH GRAHAM

• A ‘Poetry-Fueled War’
  During the Civil War, poetry didn’t just respond to events; it shaped them.
• Lettering the Stage
  Sarah Ruhl on her latest play, ‘Dear Elizabeth,’ why the Bishop-Lowell correspondence is so compelling, and what poetry can accomplish that theater cannot.
• Nuptial Matters
  How did poetry become an essential part of American wedding ceremonies—and why is it so hard to choose a poem of one’s own?
• Opening Up
  Mary Karr on writing country music, why Ashbery is a bad influence, and how her father was like Chekhov
• To the People
  Richard Blanco on being chosen as the nation’s fifth inaugural poet.