The Chained Muse

P. B. Shelley and the Motivführung Principle in English Poetry

In honor of the 200th anniversary of Percy Bysshe Shelley's death, The Chained Muse is proud to present a month-long celebration of life...

"Roots" & Other Poems

Roots An iron fence holds back the cluster of daisies from falling over the stone wall, though I have never known daisies to fall when...

Al Poco Giorno e al gran cerchio d'ombra by Dante Alighieri

To the short day and the great arc of shadow I've come, alas, walking over the pale hills Where all the colors have vanished from the...

Ode to Icarus

Oh, Icarus, son of sons, orphan father of civilized man, you’ve a right to take heart at least in that dream analysis begun with you,...

The Endless Vitality of “Ode to the West Wind”

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the poet's death, The Chained Muse is proud to present a month-long celebration of Percy...

Beyond the Lines: Keats' "Ode on Indolence"

Throughout the ages, scholars, academics, and scientists have wondered, “What is creativity?” In the spring of 1819, John Keats...

I Marvel

I marvel at the way elderly couples can walk together with such delicateness that it’s like they’re holding the fate of the world in...

Three Traditional Haikus by Daniel Leach

The branch seems to float In sky’s image in water— Both are reflections. The desolation, To one with a quiet soul, Is like a refuge. Like...

Listening to "Dry Salvages"

T.S. Eliot protested at the critics’ tendency to interpret literary works through the lens of the writer’s biography, but hypocritically,...

Three Stages Squared

After Christina Rossetti’s "Three Stages" 1. I fastened all my wishes on a star, Although the physics that it satisfied Presumed the...

Late Imperial Woes

I anxiously wait by the phone, My favourite villa’s up in smoke, Barbarians are nearing Rome. I’m rich in titles, yet I’m broke. Great...

Falling Through Water & Mountain Stream

Falling Through Water Your eyes face a fading light, searching the sway of a young man whose footprints are shadows on a dark sea. You...