Edgar Allan Poe's life was plagued by melancholy and disaster, which is evident in all of his writings. Among the many other poets of his generation, his solitude and individuality set him apart from the rest. He gave the Gothic genre a completely new meaning, making it both dark and significant at the same time. First, as an overview is given, of…

The Nobel Prize winning poet Tomas Tranströmer was born and bred in Sweden, a remarkably Scandinavian country. Topographically, Scandinavian countries are locations of extreme cold and snowing. This distinguishing climatic condition has had a dominant influence and impact on almost all Scandinavian art and literature, including Tomas Tranströmer's…

Carol Ann Duffy's three volumes of children's poetry are important and interesting because they emerge from the work of a writer whose adult poetry has persistently associated childhood with dark and difficult areas of experience. This article explores what happens to such challenging material when a poet of major significance changes the focus of…