Wang Bo’s “Farewell:” An Exemplar of Classical Chinese Poetry and a Lesson for Today
China’s uninterrupted literary tradition of three millennia is truly one of the world’s cultural wonders. Among its long history, the...
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By Adam Sedia
- Jul 18
- 4 min
Beyond the Lines: Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night"
Robert Frost’s talent radiates best from his shorter poems. His poetic voice, naturally laconic, finds its most expressive mode in his...
By Adam Sedia
- Apr 29
- 16 min
Francisco de Goya: Master Critic of the Human Condition
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) is one of Spain’s best known painters. Heir to the tradition of El Greco, Velázquez, Murillo,...
By Adam Sedia
- Apr 17
- 1 min
Crocuses
You meekly poke your purple heads Through stubborn clumps of snow That yet persist in fallow beds Though balmy breezes blow; First to...
By Adam Sedia
- Mar 5
- 3 min
Behind the Lines: Nothing Gold Can Stay
Even though Robert Frost was born in California, he is known as a quintessentially New England Poet. His family roots were there and he...
By Adam Sedia
- Feb 10
- 11 min
The Parable of the Red Sky
After crossing the Great Mountains, I saw before me, to the west, a vast and sprawling plain. Many great rivers crossed its fertile...
By Adam Sedia
- Feb 1
- 27 min
Yeats and the Occult
Modernism produces obscure poetry because it denies the existence of absolute truth. Without a fundamental truth to reveal, poetry is...
By Adam Sedia
- Dec 19, 2022
- 5 min
Beyond the Lines: “Mont Blanc” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
In his essay “A Defence of Poetry,” Shelley described a poem as “the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.” His sweeping...
By Adam Sedia
- Nov 6, 2022
- 1 min
The Chrysanthemums
When torrid Summer’s greenery, Its vibrant hues and spiced perfume Lie far, fast-fading memory, Your flowers bloom. When all the world...
By Adam Sedia
- Oct 29, 2022
- 32 min
From Modernism to Subversion: William Carlos Williams and the Beat Poets
Although shocking for its time, Beat poetry was not unanticipated. It developed from modernist antecedents it readily acknowledged, most...
By Adam Sedia
- Sep 15, 2022
- 2 min
Sestina: Mushrooms
Metamorphosis Up from the shadowed forest floor you rise, Grim undertakers in the train of death From whose smashed, stinking remnants...
By Adam Sedia
- Aug 12, 2022
- 23 min
Clarity and Obscurity:The Essences of Classicism and Modernism Compared
Classical and modern poetry are inarguably different. Indeed, modernism’s chief boast is its break with classicism and tradition more...
By Adam Sedia
- Jul 7, 2022
- 5 min
Beyond the Lines: Shelley's "Ozymandias"
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...
By Adam Sedia
- Apr 2, 2022
- 9 min
Why Amanda Gorman Is Not a Poet
Amanda Gorman became something of a phenomenon, fêted as a celebrity from the moment she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” amid the...
By Adam Sedia
- Feb 22, 2022
- 1 min
Windmills (Benton County, Indiana)
The thunder departs. Its withdrawing boom Calls to a beam of angling light That strikes the titan towers through the gloom And sets them...
By Adam Sedia
- Dec 31, 2021
- 1 min
The New Year
The fields stretch out, bare, icy: __Wide, blank, yet-unetched slates, Tabulae rasae, waiting __The chisel of the Fates, But deep beneath...
By Adam Sedia
- Dec 12, 2021
- 1 min
Incense
A hundred tongues of smoke— Translucent wisps, lithe specters— Rise, snaking languidly, Curling, grasping like tendrils At the light they...
By Adam Sedia
- Oct 29, 2021
- 23 min
Whitman’s Curse: Contemporary Poetry as Solipsism
Contemporary poetry is plagued by several characteristic vices: obscurity, banality, nihilism—each a topic for examination in its own...
By Adam Sedia
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1 min
Autumn Leaves
Flecks of yellow gold in bright cascades, Less like the hurried rain than lazy snow, Twirl downward, throwing out their warming glow As...
By Adam Sedia
- Jun 8, 2021
- 1 min
Two Rains
The Two Rains On Yorkshire’s moors, on Wiltshire’s plain, On Cornwall’s sea-sprayed craggy cliffs, the rain Hangs limp, immobile, from...
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