• Blog - Literature - Poet

    Alfred Lord Tennyson: The Victorian Voice and the Man Behind It

    October 13, 2025 - By 

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) is often thought of as the quintessential Victorian poet: solemn, moral, deeply religious (or spiritually conflicted), and a poetic voice enshrined in the nation’s imagination.   But behind that public persona lies a more turbulent, restless, and fascinating inner life — one that has lately received renewed attention from biographers and literary historians. In 2025, Richard Holmes published The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief, which re-casts Tennyson’s early years through the lens of scientific upheaval, existential anxiety, and emotional intensity.  In doing so, Holmes teases out lesser-known details and contradictions that complicate the familiar myth…

  • #artanddesign - Literature

    John Donne: The Metaphysical Master of Love, Death, and Divine Longing

    July 7, 2025 - By 

    For this week’s blog post, I’d thought I’d detour a bit into the art of writing. As a writer, I have an interest in writers and their skills with the written word, including poets of the past, and wanted to incorporate writers and poets into my blog posts. John Donne is one of English literature’s most enigmatic and enduring voices. A poet-priest who explored the extremes of passion and piety, Donne’s work traverses erotic longing, existential dread, and divine transcendence. His legacy rests in his dazzling metaphysical conceits—those unexpected, often startling comparisons that stretch thought and language to their limits.…