As resolutely canonical as they seem to us now, the “Holy Sonnets” of John Donne (1572–1631) flicker with some uncertainty in the imaginary museum hall of English literature. We think we know them.

Though almost all of Emily Dickinson’s famous poems, from the morbid “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” to the uplifting “‘Hope’ Is the Thing With Feathers,” were published after her death, she’s ...

Elisa Gabbert’s collections of poetry and essays include, most recently, “Normal Distance” and “Any Person Is the Only Self.” Her On Poetry columns appear four times a year.

Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it. In his native Ireland, he’s known as “Famous Seamus,” ...

For nearly 15 years, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has written a poem a day. When she got home Friday, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death heavy on her mind, she hadn’t penned one yet. She began to read news ...