By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Langston Hughes (1901-67) was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance in New York in the 1920s. Over the course of a varied career he was a novelist, playwright, social activist, and journalist, but it is for his poetry that Hughes is now best-remembered. But what are the best Langston Hughes poems? Below, we introduce ten of his finest.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Poetry moves us; it can make us think, see the world in a different way; it can even make us laugh. But can poetry send a shiver down the spine? We think so. Below, we have selected ten of the scariest and most chilling poems. We introduce each of the poems and provide a link to the full poem. So if you’re ready to have your spine tingled, read on …
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Poets are often writing about historical events, from wars and battles to key political moments. But what about poets who turn their thoughts to the past and write about not the present day, but history from hundreds of years ago?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Missing someone can take many forms: we might miss an absent loved one, or miss someone we’re close to but who will never love us; we can miss someone we loved and lost to someone else, or someone we loved and mourned when they passed away. The following poems are by turns romantic, elegiac, and moving, expressing as they do the emotions we feel when we miss that special someone.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Previously, we’ve gathered together some of the best poems about the colour red and some of the best poems about the colour white. But what about if we put those two colours together? What are the best poems about the colour pink, whether they’re poems about pink flowers, being ‘in the pink’, or other ‘pink’ things?