Recent posts

Eugenio Montale Poems

 

Poet, writer, editor and translator Eugenio Montale was born October 12th 1896 in Genoa, Italy as the youngest of six sons. When he was given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975 the Swedish Academy called him: ‘one of the most important poets of the contemporary West.’ His translator Jonathan Galassi said: “his poems have, for thousands of readers, expressed something essential about our age.” Montale ...

Georg Trakl Poems

 

Austrian poet, writer and pharmacist Georg Trakl was one of the expressionist poets. Expressionism gained momentum with 20th century European poets. It draws on raw emotion; sometimes dramatic, apocalyptic even, dealing with the tragedy and darkness of the human condition. It rejected the previous romanticism, eroticism and religious idealism in favour of death, loneliness and catastrophe. His writing was said to be ...

Adam Mickiewicz Poems

 

The Polish-Lithuanian Adam Mickiewicz is still regarded by many Polish people as their national poet even though he died in 1855. Such was his reputation throughout the Slavic countries that monuments were erected in his honour in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. He is also known as Adomas Bernardas Mickevicius which is the Lithuanian equivalent. He was a prolific writer of poetry ...

Alan Seeger Poems

 

Alan Seeger had only a short life. He was an idealist with, some might say, an unrealistically romantic view of death. He wrote a poem, which has become his most famous piece of work, called I Have a Rendezvous with Death. We will never know if he really and truly believed these words at the time that he wrote it but ...

Kathleen Raine Poems

 

Born in Essex in 1906, Kathleen Raine was a poet and critic whose work had a profoundly spiritual sense that encompassed all forms of belief including Plato, Jesus and Buddha. Her time spent in Northumberland during World War I was a formative part of her life, as were the Scottish ballads and poems that were handed down to her by her ...

Mihai Eminescu Poems

 

Romanian poet and writer Mihai Eminescu was born in 1850 in Moldavia. He was one of the most prolific and popular poets of his age, publishing his first poem when he was only 16. His enduring masterpiece is considered to be the work Luceafărul or The Evening Star. Born into a wealthy family, Eminescu attended school in Cernauti and wrote a poem ...

Aphra Behn Poems

 

In 17th century England, coinciding with the Restoration of the monarchy, there were a number of artists and writers around and Aphra Behn stands out in this company.  She was, most certainly one of the first female writers to make her mark in English literature.  She wrote a number of plays, poems and novels and, perhaps shocking to society at that time, ...

Donald Justice Poems

 

Regarded by some as ‘the poet’s poet, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Donald Justice was revered by fellow writers for his mastery of precision and his ability to make every piece of writing vital. His poems tended to be short – forty lines or less. Justice once said: “one motive for much, if not all art is....to keep memorable what deserves to be remembered.” He was ...

Charlotte Mew Poems

 

If ever a poet could truly be described as ‘tortured’ then perhaps Charlotte Mew is that poet. She undoubtedly was the product of a family mired in mental illness. Two of her siblings were committed to mental institutions while another three siblings died in early childhood and so Charlotte and the only surviving sister, Anne, each decided to never marry for fear ...

Yunus Emre Poems

 

Yunus Emre was a simple, devoutly religious Turkish poet and Sufi mystic whose life spanned both the 13th and 14th centuries. He made a point of writing, singing and speaking in the true Turkish language of the day rather than adopting the Persian or Arabic speech that was prevalent in his own country, particularly amongst the sophisticated. Sufis were Muslim mystics and ...