Wise Poets

Ralph Waldo Emerson: America’s Most Influential Essayist Emerson may have been an ordained minister and the son of an ordained minister, but he was anything but a Christian. He was the, in fact, the man credited with being the primary leader of the American transcendentalist movement and the father of it. Actually though, transcendentalism was … Read more

Francis Scott Key: On The Fence in Freedom’s Defense Some poets are famous for only one poem, and Francis Scott Key, a Fredrick, Maryland lawyer is the amateur poet who was famous for writing the immortal words of America’s national anthem; The Star Spangled Banner. He had boarded an English warship during the War of … Read more

Mary Oliver and Her Wise Connection to the Natural World Mary Oliver was such a natural born poet that she started writing by the young age of 14, eventually winning the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. And the New York Times said of her “that she was by far this country’s … Read more

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sweet Lady Poet of the Love Sonnet Elizabeth Browning was the proverbial child prodigy who began writing at the early age of 11, and her lifetime body of work boasted of the largest collections of childhood poetry in existence. Then after being accepted as an adult into some of Britain’s most prestigious … Read more

Sonnets Are the ‘Little Songs’ of Wise Poets Form. Form. Form. Form is what the sonnet is all about. All types of sonnets are written by the same basic rules of being a total of fourteen lines written according to a strict rhyme scheme and meter of certain common patterns employed at discretion of the … Read more

Excilia Saldaña: La Latina Matriarch of Cuban Poetry Award winning Cuban poetess Excilia Saldaña is the Wise Poet of this week. Born in on August 7, 1946, she was raised in Havana by her grandmother and her young teenage mother, and being raised in a matriarchal family like that, Saldaña became the poetic voice of … Read more

Writer William Faulkner: The Free Spirit of the South William Faulkner, he was the legend the English class who was known as the writer whose intellect was so big that his mind could not be contained in a formal classroom or in a regular nine to five job. He started out in the lower elementary … Read more

Erza Pound: The Wise Poet Arrested for Treason Ezra Weston Loomis Pound, born in the rural Idaho on October 30, 1885, was a pioneer in the early Imagist movement in which poetry was characterized by succinct language and exact detail in visual images. And the man influenced such greats as Elliott, Robert Frost, James Joyce, … Read more

Dr. Seuss: The Pied Piper of Children’s Poetry Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904, was the author who spirited away a generation of children from their parents into a world of mesmerizing rhymes, strange characters, and free thinking. And with personified characters such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas he imparted … Read more

Mark Twain: The Man of the Mighty Mississippi The stock advise for aspiring writers is to “Write what you know,” and Mark Twain did just that. He was born, with the given name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in the town of Florida Missouri, but was raised in the town of Hannibal … Read more

They Kissed the Blarney Stone: The Wise Bards of Ireland With the advent of Christianity and monasteries in Ireland came the commencement of a new age of literacy and alphabet in the nation; then, naturally, a tradition of highly structured syllabic and lyrical poetry followed, a tradition in the two languages of Gaelic first and … Read more

Ernest Hemingway: The Paradox of a Full and Empty Life Ernest Hemingway was what you call a “Man’s Man”, and he did just about everything. He was a traveler, a soldier, a sportsman, a fisherman, a great adventurer. And he made his living as a daring young dashing foreign correspondent living as an ex patriot … Read more

T. S. Eliot: A Tale of Two Countries  Today’s distinguished poet T.S. Eliot wrote such intellectually challenging verse that it is difficult to read his poetry without cross-referencing some of his imagery, He was a forefather of the modernist movement in poetry with it’s plain language, stark imagery and pessimistic tone as opposed to the … Read more

Charlotte Bronte With secret rooms in looming towers and gloomy mansions nessled in the countryside Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily set the stage for the classic Gothic novel with their books, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, respectively. In both books the heroin is an innocent, young, penniless woman of low estate who goes to … Read more

Slave Girl Phillis Wheatley and Her Amazing Life and Works Phillis Wheatley, born in 1753 in Senegal, West Africa, was a woman of uncanny talent and intelligence, Kidnapped in her homeland and sold as a slave in 1761 while still a child, her wit and talent garnered her special attention by her owners, John and … Read more

Mother Teresa: The Sainted Secret Bard Not wanting to garner too much public attention for her writings, Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote her diary and poems in secret as part and parcel of her own private spiritual self-discipline, But it was this kind of self-discipline that propelled her into India’s worst slums to care for … Read more

OLes Murray: The Great Poet of the Vast Outback The magnitude of the open landscape of Australia can be beyond a man’s imagination, but was deftly captured by Australia’s leading modern poet, Les Murray, who was also known as his country’s Bush-Bard. Inspired by observing a hovering cloud of fireflies on the riverbank at age … Read more