Of course, a writer is cut considerable slack when his work includes such poems as “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1742) and the inescapable “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751) ...

In a book before her, Gray’s ominous ode is splayed open. Cat elegies were, oddly, quite popular in the Enlightenment, and perhaps got a boost from Gray’s poem (he only published about 14 ...

You want Yusef Komunyakaa to write your poems for you. A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Komunyakaa has mastered the ability to turn the mundane into memorable. I remember reading this cat in prison ...