John Milton
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Fighting the Weightiness of Metaphors: A Conversation with M. Leona Godin
Dr. M. Leona Godin discusses her new book, THERE PLANT EYES.
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The Last Poem I Loved: “The Hell Poem” by Shane McCrae
I’m fascinated that the speaker’s harm disappearing is a function of being in Hell.
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Frenetic, Excitable, and Direct: Sylvie Baumgartel’s Song of Songs
This poem lets her—the speaker and Baumgartel—be too much.
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Any Day Now: A Conversation with Anjali Sachdeva
Anjali Sachdeva discusses her debut story collection, ALL THE NAMES THEY USED FOR GOD.
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The Way That Poetry Works: Holdfast by Christian Anton Gerard
In his searing, soulful second collection, Gerard uses the language that is poetry to invite the reader in to the experience of his darkest and brightest moments.
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How to Survive as a Villain in Literature
On NPR’s All Things Considered, Petra Mayer offers advice to those who she describes as the “unpunished” villains of literature (O’Brien from Orwell’s 1984, X-Men’s Magneto, Milton’s Satan): win over the audience with your cause and relatable personal faults, and you’ll…
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Paradise Lost and Scurvy Found
Sudden sounds, such as the report of a musket or a cannon, were well known to kill scorbutic sailors. Even pleasant stimuli such as a drink of fresh water, or a long-awaited taste of fruit, could provoke a seizure and…
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Brief Inner Happiness
Writing requires sustained attention to what figures, disfigures, and refigures our imaginations and includes a vision that takes every experience into account.
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Authors’ Pet Words and What They Reveal
How much do an author’s most-used words reveal about his or her thought process? Quite a lot, according to this New Yorker essay on pet words both common and uncommon, both consciously selected and inadvertent. One of many deeply interesting examples:…
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Tips for Poets Inspired by Another Dead White Male
In order to become an epic poet, Milton believed he must also refuse “lustral waters.” In other words, aspiring artists must remain chaste.