Here in April, celebrated annually as National Poetry Month, I’ve been wondering: Is there a truly great poem about the Mississippi River? The question first came to mind last December when a copy of ...

“Luminous Great Mass” is from_ Peter O’Leary’s collection, “Watchfulness” (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001). His most recent book of poetry is “Depth Theology” (Georgia, 2006). His critical study, “Gnostic ...

A framed poster of a stamp depicting Langston Hughes, who wrote some of the best poems in American history. Poetry provides the perfect way to indulge in the escapism of reading without the commitment ...

The following essay is adapted from Clive James’ Cultural Amnesia, a re-examination of intellectuals, artists, and thinkers who helped shape the 20 th century. Slate is publishing an exclusive ...

Seamus Heaney died this morning, but his poems continue to be very much alive — and in them, he is first and foremost a poet whose poems you feel in your mouth. Pronouncing the words as he describes a ...

In November of 1963, A. R. Ammons, known to family and friends as Archie, the author of a single, privately printed book of poems and a manager at his father-in-law’s glass factory, picked up a roll ...