Guest columnist Beth Ann Fennelly analyzes Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 for its enduring relevance. The sonnet describes a speaker's journey from self-pity and envy to finding joy through love. Shakespeare ...

So, if we may not let the Muse be free, She will be bound with garlands of her own. With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of ...

Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered some of the literary genius' most popular works, with some - such as Sonnet 18’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day” - becoming the best-known works in ...

Commonly, auditions require contrasting one-minute classical and contemporary monologues. Shakespeare’s well-known speeches remain stalwarts of dramatic literature, and for good reason. However, how ...

Oliver de la Paz’s poem is part of a series of “diaspora sonnets,” in which this one, along with others, create a whole, while each sonnet can still operate on its own. These sonnets don’t have all ...

Our critic A.O. Scott marvels at the power and paradox of a sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks. Isabella Cotier By A.O. Scott Here’s a poem about patience, about self-control, about the need to conserve your ...

Recently we challenged listeners to write an American Sonnet: A non-rhyming, free verse, 14 line poem. We got a number of contributions, but it also ignited a debate over whether sonnets without a ...

Love poems? Let's see how well you know them. Do you know the difference between a ballad and an elegy? Can you tell what a lyric is? Or can identity what a five line witty poem with a distinctive ...

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875–1935) figured significantly in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s. Though prominent as a diarist, journalist, and activist for ...