ONE would feel happier about the future of poetry on the stage were it not for the defensiveness of those who proclaim it. Poetry had used the theatre and the theatre had used poetry for thousands of ...

IT is probably safe to say that since the days of Shirley, that is, since the experience of men who might have known Shakespeare, the present is the first occasion upon which two dramatic poems, of ...

Songs are canvases for emotions. Depending on the mood of the composer, a song can be flirty and fun, dark and brooding, or any other kind of tone. That’s the beauty of music—it’s not about the notes, ...

Poetry on stage — or poetic drama — is a natural extension of poetry on the page. The ancient Greeks wrote their great tragedies and comedies in verse, as did the Romans. Medieval morality plays such ...

Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. Despite the ubiquity of the usage, it was not always so: John Dryden and Alexander Pope did not speak of a poet’s ...

The 1980s were so dramatic! The decade was like a friend who goes out for a school play—everything is either the end of the world or the greatest thing to ever happen. The swelling highs and lows can ...