Lives of the Poets and Friends: First Post

Alexander Pope

In a long poem titled "An Essay on Criticism", the English poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744), defines wit in poetry as "What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd."

This blog will be a forum in which we will discuss the nature and elements of poetry and the lives of poets.

The idea for this blog grew out of a discussion on February 23, 2015 between Nancy Sutherland and Chris Booth after class (ENG 574) at Western Connecticut State University. Initially, our discussion will be centered primarily on Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets and the works of poets Dr. Johnson wrote about in that great work...but poetry is a vast subject and we'll be discussing much more than Seventeenth-Century versification.