Poetry


Feature Writer: Linda Sue Grimes
Linda Sue Grimes, Ronald W. Grimes

Poetry fascinates readers for many reasons, from its unique language use to the varied subjects that poets have dramatized down through the centuries.

The Ancients, including Homer and Vergil, captivated audiences with their ability to spin a memorable yarn. Ancient Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were so easily memorized that it was centuries before anyone wrote them down.

From the Ancients to Middle Eastern and Western Eurpoean bards to early Americans like Phillis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman to the most contemporary poets such as recent poets laureate, Louise Glück, Ted Kooser, and currently Charles Simic the journey through poetry remains a colorful and enticing one.

Thank you for visiting. I welcome questions, comments, and/or suggestions.

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feature articles
Linda Sue Grimes

May 20, 2008

Shakespeare Sonnet 56

In: British Poetry

Love is the most important subject for this speaker/poet of the sonnets. The "little songs" do consistently sing of it-not ordinary or romantic love but soul love. more...

May 19, 2008

Heaney's Hugging Destiny

In: British Poetry

Seamus Heaney's "Whatever you say, say nothing" consists of four parts. The poem is roughly free verse with an irregular rime scheme. more...

May 15, 2008

Stevens' 'The Death of a Soldier'

In: American Poetry

Wallace Stevens' use of the imagination in poetry reveals the unchartered territory that readers have come to expect from the modernist mindset. more...

May 14, 2008

Shakespeare Sonnet 55

In: British Poetry

The poet/speaker again lauds his own ability to immortalize his subjects. In this sonnet, he addresses the sonnet itself in order to praise it. more...

May 13, 2008

Shakespeare Sonnet 54

In: British Poetry

In sonnet 54, the speaker avers that beauty is only beautiful when it represents the truth of the soul; outward beauty is truly only skin deep. more...

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Linda Sue Grimes

May 21, 2008

Kooser Column 164

Ted Kooser’s most recent column in American Life in Poetry features California poet Ellen Bass’s “Dead Butterfly.”
Former U. S. Poet Laureate (2004-2006) Ted Kooser introduces the poem: “How often have you wondered what might be going on inside a child's head? They can be so much more free and playful with their imaginations than adults, and are so good at keeping those flights of fancy secret and mysterious, that even if we were told what they were thinking we might not be able to make much sense of it. Here Ellen Bass, of Santa Cruz, California, tells us of one such experience.”

Here’s a sampling:

For months my daughter carried

a dead monarch in a quart mason jar.

To and from school in her backpack,

to her only friend's house. At the dinner table

To read the rest of the poem, please go to American Life in Poetry: Column 164.

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