William Blake, born on November 28, 1757, transformed English poetry through visionary imagery, symbolic language, and prophetic intensity. His fusion of lyric clarity and mythic imagination reshaped Romanticism, expanded English’s expressive power, and left a linguistic legacy that continues to influence literature, art, philosophy, and modern cultural discourse.
Birth of William Blake (1757–1827) – The Visionary Poet Who Transformed the Imagination of English Literature
The Wife’s Lament is an Anglo Saxon poem from the Exeter Book. There are numerous articles on the poem and scholarly analyses—including the linked Wikipedia article—so I won’t go into it; but the poem has a fascinating history.. My own version is not a translation but is based on the original. There are a variety […]
Song of Sorrows (or The Wife’s Lament)
Born on November 26, 1731, William Cowper reshaped English poetry by replacing Augustan formality with plain, humane language. His gentle humor, emotional candor, and conversational style bridged the gap to Romanticism, proving that poetry could speak quietly, personally, and in the natural rhythms of everyday life.
Birth of William Cowper (1731–1800) – The Poet Who Gave English Verse Its First Modern, Conversational Voice
Born on November 9, 1928, Anne Sexton redefined modern poetry by turning confession into art. Her fearless voice transformed private anguish into public language, reshaping English verse with intimacy, rhythm, and raw emotion. Through her candor, she gave pain eloquence — and vulnerability, its own poetic form.
Birth of Anne Sexton (1928 – 1974) – The Confessional Voice That Redefined English-Language Poetry
A woman recently reached out to me after finding the snippets of my translation of Alexander Voloshin’s Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood. Attached to her email was the photo above. Her parents, who had gone through German DP camps and settled in Los Angeles in 1949, befriended Voloshin and his wife, Helen, in the ’50s, frequently […]
Face to Face with Alexander Voloshin
John Hollander (born October 28, 1929) taught English to hear itself. A poet, critic, and scholar, he united intellect and melody, proving that poetry’s structure is not confinement but creation. Through form, rhythm, and reflection, Hollander revealed that English verse thinks musically — every echo a renewal of meaning and sound.
Birth of John Hollander (1929–2013) – The Architect of Form and Sound in Modern English Poetry
by Charles Baudelaire Two brand new translations of works by Charles Baudelaire. His seminal, controversial poetry collection, The Flowers of Evil, now acknowledged as one of the most important and influential poetry books ever – and Fanfarlo, Baudelaire’s only sustained work of prose fiction, an ironic self-portrait of a young man, a novella which shines […]
The Flowers of Evil and Fanfarlo
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