In order to avoid being labeled a communist sympathizer, King needed to publicly distance himself from the controversial poet. Privately, King found ways to channel Hughes' prose.
Edward Hopper’s ‘Office in a Small City’ (1953).
Gandalf's Gallery
On his bush block in the WA wheatbelt, poet John Kinsella attempts habitat restoration and reflects on the responsibilities of the writer as a witness to species loss.
Fresco showing a woman called Sappho holding writing implements from Pompeii Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Wikimedia Commons
Sappho sang of desire, passion and love – mostly directed towards women. As new fragments of her work are found, a fuller picture of her is emerging, but she remains the most mysterious of ancient poets.
How will our children view this period in Manus in the future?
Michelle Rooney, 2017
The detention centre for asylum seekers generated some economic benefits for Manus Islanders. But how would their forefathers have reasoned with the incarceration of men in exchange for development and money?
Rebecca Watts, Rupi Kaur, Kate Tempest – the world of poetry is up in arms again. Here's why.
Dorothea MacKellar’s My Country, with its paen to a sunburnt landscape, excoriated Australians for their nostalgic love of English ‘grey-blue’ countryside and English weather.
Mark Wassell/flickr
There's a fine tradition of Australian poetry harnessing the corrective power of insult. In doing so, it prompts us to face hard questions about our history and identity.
Tommy Wiseau clutches a football in ‘The Room,’ the 2003 film he wrote, produced and starred in.
Wiseau Films
Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid documents the founding of Rome by a Trojan hero. As with other ancient epics, our hero has to remain resolute in the face of significant divine hostility.
John Keats, by Joseph Severn.
National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia
Keats's Winchester walk was no idyllic stroll – he had espionage on his mind.
Art and Seek Workshop participants examining locks of Keats’s hair and the painting P.B. Shelley in the Baths of Caracalla by Joseph Severn.
A. Frances Johnson
Was John Keats a refugee in his day? A workshop for refugees, migrants and artists took place recently at Keats-Shelley House and the story of the great Romantic poet's life and death hit a nerve.
James Gillray’s ‘Scientific Researches! - New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! - or - an Experimental Lecture on the Powers of Air’ from 1802.
The Royal Institution of Great Britain
Sir Humphry Davy was the Professor Brian Cox of the 1800s.
Gord Downie, the poetic lead singer of the Tragically Hip whose determined fight with brain cancer inspired a nation, has died. He was 53.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Good songs are like good poetry. Literature professor Robert Morrison reflects on The Tragically Hip's best song, "Ahead by a Century," and explains the politics of hope within the tune.