For Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the road that began at age twenty led inexorably to the consolations of wombats, whiskey, chloral, and the culmination of the grave. From our vantage point, this poem falls ...

For Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher, poetry was simply writing that “fails” to reach the end of the line. For W.H. Auden, a poet, poetry was that which “makes nothing happen”. Arnold Bennett, a writer, ...

"I only like poems that rhyme." Or, more drastically: "If it doesn't rhyme, it's not a poem." These declarations of allegiance to end-rhyme sound traditional or even daringly reactionary—fearlessly ...