Essays
on Poetry

Anne Boleyn wasn’t just a queen—she was a literary device, a poetic muse, and a political scapegoat wrapped in a flirtatious smile. In this essay, we explore how courtly poetry in Tudor England became a playground for ambition, desire, and manipulation—and how Anne, with her wit and daring, found herself both idolized and destroyed by the very verses she inspired. It’s love poetry with a body count.

After losing all four daughters in a shipwreck, Horatio Spafford penned one of history’s most enduring hymns. But his story didn’t end there. From unimaginable grief rose a legacy of compassion that continues to impact lives across the world. This episode dives deep into the heartbreak, resilience, and enduring faith that shaped “It Is Well With My Soul.”

In a world obsessed with fitting in, Edgar Allan Poe gave us a poem that embraces the opposite. Alone is more than just brooding lines and sad-boy energy—it’s a brutally honest look at what it means to live on the edges of experience. In this essay, we unpack the poem’s haunting imagery, its autobiographical layers, and how Poe’s outsider voice still resonates with anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t quite belong… even under a blue sky.

This isn’t your average moonlit sonnet. This is poetry with a pulse in the dark—where the sublime meets the sinister and the soul gazes into its own abyss. In this deep dive into Dark Romanticism, we explore the obsession with death, madness, and the unhinged beauty of the human mind. Expect Gothic drama, self-destructive musings, and a few candles flickering ominously in the background.

Swooning over a stranger? Writing deathbed love poems before the second date? Welcome to Romanticism in full melodramatic bloom. This essay dives into the emotional fever dream of Romantic poetry—complete with full-length examples from the likes of Byron, Shelley, and Moore—and explores why these over-the-top declarations of passion still hit us right in the heart… even if we also kind of want to mock them.

Romanticism wasn’t just about flowery poems and wistful stares into the distance—it was a full-blown rebellion against logic, Enlightenment ideals, and the tyranny of tidy reason. In this essay, we dig into the roots of the movement: why it happened, what it worshipped, and how it redefined poetry as a raw, emotional outpouring rather than a polished, rational craft. Expect nature. Expect drama. Expect feelings—lots of them.