Born in Chile on July 12, 1904, we recognize Pablo Neruda 112 years later as a political activist and eclectic poet. As a Communist holding several Chilean governmental posts, Neruda faced danger when Radical Party presidential candidate Gabriel González Videla turned …
Tag: Poetry
April is National Poetry Month! Here Are 14 Ways to Celebrate
These days, it seems like so many arbitrary things now have their own “National Day” (or week, or month—National Candied Orange Peel Day*, anyone?), but Poetry Month is a celebration that has been going on for twenty years! Regardless of …
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Shakespeare on Love: A Love for Modern Times?
For one often hailed as the Bard of love stories, Shakespeare sure has a weird way of showing/telling it. Even his most famous tale of romance, Romeo and Juliet, is a little…off…in the love department, at least for modern times. Romeo and Juliet isn’t …
Edgar Allan Poe Un-Masqued: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Gothic Writer
You’d be hard-pressed to find a student that doesn’t enjoy (or, at the very least, find interesting) one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories—even if you polled the most literature-hating students, they’d still be able to quoth the raven everslightly. Poe’s stories …
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Are You Listening? Poetry Slam and Social Commentary
For National Poetry Month we were tempted to pay homage to classics like Poe, Whitman, Neruda, and all the other greats. But much of the buzz in the poetry world is not around words on a page, but rather the voice and …
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Five Shakespeare Lines You’ll Want to (Surprisingly) Avoid This Valentine’s Day
Dusting off your Shakespeare for Valentine’s Day sounds like a great idea. The Bard’s famous words are tried and tested — they’ve been working for four hundred years. But are you sure you know what they mean? And are you …
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Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Dies
Nobel prize winner Seamus Heaney, “The most important Irish poet since Yeats,” passed away in Dublin early this morning. He was 74. In the short time since his death, tributes have poured in from all over the globe. But all …
Guerrilla Poetry Projects
T.S. Eliot once observed that “genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” This is a sentiment that “guerrilla” poets embrace. Guerrilla tactics, whether in war or in art, often rely on hit-and-run assaults, leaving the subjects of their surprise …