Articles

Poem Guide
Geoffrey Hill: “On Reading Crowds and Power” 
A poet’s poet investigates the power of his readers.
By Ange Mlinko

Poem Guide
John Donne: “A Valediction: of Weeping”
Reality and representation mix in this classic poem.
By Joel Brouwer

Poem Guide
Juan Felipe Herrera: “Blood on the Wheel”
Tracing the many conflicting meanings of the word "blood"
By Stephen Burt

Poem Guide
George Herbert: “Love (III)”
A 17th-century poet’s project invites its readers to the table
By Hannah Brooks-Motl

Poem Guide
Rae Armantrout: “Our Nature”
How did you become who you are?
By Stephen Burt

Poem Guide
W.S. Graham: “Dear Bryan Wynter”
How a poem brings language to loss and speaks to the dead.
By Hannah Brooks-Motl

Poem Guide
Elizabeth Alexander: “Race”
What can we assume when we read a poem?
By Stephen Burt

Poem Guide
John Keats: “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
Beyond self-expression.
By Martin Earl

Poem Guide
Elinor Wylie: “Wild Peaches”
An escape leads a young poet to confront her impulses.
By Caitlin Kimball

Poem Guide
Philip Sidney: Astrophil and Stella 63 (“O Grammar rules…”)
An Elizabethan plays a Modernist language game
By Ange Mlinko