On one of Hardy’s best-known poems Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a prolific poet, with his Complete Poems running to 1,000 pages. Yet he’s not generally known for being a satirical poet. ‘The Ruined Maid’, one of his earliest and best-known poems, is a rare example of Thomas Hardy’s satirical verse. […]
George Bernard Shaw held All’s Well That Ends Well in high regard, having what Frank Kermode described as a ‘perverse’ admiration for it. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Helena, the heroine of All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s ‘loveliest character’ while the Victorian actress Ellen Terry called her ‘despicable’ and a […]
‘Take, Oh Take Those Lips Away’ is a song from Shakespeare’s ‘problem play’, Measure for Measure. It’s not as famous as some of the Bard’s other songs, but it’s been praised and singled out as among the best of them, notably by the poet A. E. Housman. Here’s the text […]