Author: Angharad Rhiannon
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Andrew Marvell: lover or predator?
Traveller, tutor, diplomat and spy, Andrew Marvell, one of the finest poets of the 17th century, has seduced readers for almost 400 years. But the truth behind one of his most famous poem leaves us asking whether his carpe diem entreaty is fuelled by passion or manipulation.
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Gertrude Stein: Poet, Modernist… Fascist?
Gertrude Stein’s name echoes through the modernist canon – a self-proclaimed literary innovator, avant-garde poet and patron of the arts. She hosted salons that drew the likes of Hemingway, Picasso and Fitzgerald, and coined the term ‘Lost Generation’. Her legacy, at a glance, seems firmly entrenched in the cultural revolution of the early 20th century. But…
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William McGonagall, the World’s Worst Poet?
Ah, William McGonagall. A name spoken with equal parts bewilderment and fond mockery among literary enthusiasts. Best known (and worst known) for his bombastic ode The Tay Bridge Disaster, McGonagall has earned his place in history as perhaps the most famously terrible poet to ever put pen to paper. But is he truly bad –…
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Swinburne: Can Art Ever Outweigh Wickedness?
Literary history is littered with scandalous figures, but few rival Algernon Charles Swinburne for sheer gothic excess. A poet of unmistakable musicality, Swinburne combined lush lyricism with a personal life straight out of a nightmare – one soaked in brandy, monkey carcasses, and unnerving erotic perversions.