“Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America.” There are many assumptions, questions and provocations in the title of an essay in Harper’s Magazine by poet Tony Hoagland, who clearly has a thing for ...

Although Rita Dove has won most of the honors available to an American poet — she was the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her 1986 collection “Thomas and Beulah,” ...

As a child at the White House, Caroline Kennedy got early lessons in the power of words. Her father, President John F. Kennedy, was famously eloquent. Her mother Jacqueline adored poetry and kept a ...

Known for short, compact writing and for living a very quiet life, Kay Ryan has taken on a big and very public role as the nation’s Poet Laureate. For more than thirty years, Ryan has lived and taught ...

SEPTEMBER 1, 1939: A Biography of a Poem. By Ian Sansom. Harper. 341 pages. $27.99. The subtitle for Ian Samson’s book “September 1, 1939: A Biography of a Poem,” is such an unexpected combination of ...