The Believer Reveals Something We Did Not Already Know About Ezra Pound And Walt Whitman May 17, 2013: -the story of Sadakichi Hartmann, a bohemian artist who befriended both Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound! Who the heck is Sadakichi Hartmann? Well friends, The Believer's Michelle Legro has done the legwork here and if you thought you knew all the crazy anecdotes there are to know about the great and powerful poets Ezra Pound and Walt Whitman, [...] by Harriet Staff

On Depression, Poets, & Candy April 10, 2013: In high school a friend of mine, who was suffering through the relentlessly miserable alienation of a suburban public education, was diagnosed with “Emotional Disorder.” Emotional Disorder! She is, no surprise, a poet and artist. Don’t all poets suffer from Emotional Disorder? Paisley Rekdal so wittily describes the difficulties of [...] by Camille Guthrie

NYT Looks to Walt Whitman as U.S. Centers on Immigration Reform February 4, 2013: The New York Times's City Room blog reflects on the words of Walt Whitman in its consideration of the immigration reform at hand: City Room was reminded that more than 100 years ago one of America’s greatest poets, Walt Whitman, offered his own reflection of the nation’s shifting population and in particular the role of people of [...] by Harriet Staff

Natasha Trethewey (SRO) on Whitman and the Civil War January 31, 2013: The Washington Post reports on PLOTUS Natasha Trethewey's recent lecture at the Library of Congress, in which she argued that "One hundred and fifty years later, Americans are still fighting the Civil War... The field of battle is now historical memory, and gatling guns have been replaced by symbols, but the contest over what sort of nation this [...] by Harriet Staff

Walt Whitman Manuscript at NYPL: ‘Go, said his soul to a poet’ July 26, 2012: Ah wow: The New York Public Library just added a scan of a Walt Whitman manuscript to their Tumblr: "Go, said his soul to a poet." From the Berg Collection. More info: The manuscript is comprised of two unequal-sized sheets of paper pasted together. Note in ink in Whitman’s hand running along upper left says: “Scrap of Rough Draft / [...] by Harriet Staff

Robert Pinsky Discusses Ben Jonson’s Speaker at Slate July 17, 2012: Slate posted a nice bit of poetry criticism by Robert Pinsky today. Using poems by Walt Whitman and Elizabeth Bishop as launchpads, Pinsky dives in to Ben Jonson's "On My First Son" to bring out the virtues of the poet as speaker: I'm moved by Jonson's “On My First Son” in what might be called a personal way: The first-person [...] by Harriet Staff

President Obama Quoted Dickinson and Whitman in Awarding Rita Dove and John Ashbery February 14, 2012: Well, the 2011 National Medals of Arts and Humanities ceremony took place last night at the White House--President Obama honored Rita Dove with the National Humanities Medal, and John Ashbery received the National Medal of the Arts. As Coldfront notes, a combined 15 artists were awarded medals at the ceremony, including actor Al Pacino. Turns out [...] by Harriet Staff

Walt Whitman and the Civil War’s human toll February 17, 2011: In an excerpt of From Battlefields Rising published in this month's Humanities, Randall Fuller examines the role that the Civil War played in transforming Walt Whitman's poetry. Whitman made his first attempt to capture the realities of war after the battle of Bull Run. He would later refer to the battle as a "crucifixion" that would haunt his [...] by Harriet Staff

Does poetry need its own Glee? January 13, 2011: On The Moderate Voice, Michael Silverstein proposes an unusual solution to restoring the place of poetry in civic discourse. The problem isn't with poetry itself, rather the medium for delivering it to the masses. Silverstein has had it with the Op Ed pages of newspapers which are now as overrun with "spin doctoring" and "hype" as any other [...] by Harriet Staff

Don’t Wax the Poem April 1, 2010: Maybe all poets are nerds or they wouldn’t be poets. But not all poets write nerdy. Some are suave, which can be a good thing. Some are elegant in an elegant way. Nerds can be elegant in a backwards way, by retaining their bumps and inelegances, bumptious idiosyncrasies, a being-in-life at least as much as in-literature. There’s plenty to [...] by Daisy Fried