The Writer's Thesaurus
By Dr Oliver Tearle
‘So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!’ This quotation is one of the most famous lines associated with the American Civil War, and is up there with ‘Four score and seven years ago’ – which, coincidentally, was spoken by the same person, Abraham Lincoln. Continue reading “The Meaning of ‘So You’re the Little Woman Who Wrote the Book That Made This Great War!’”
By Dr Oliver Tearle
‘Cold Pastoral’ is a phrase from one of John Keats’s best-known poems. But the meaning of this two-word phrase is somewhat enigmatic, so we need to look more closely at the poem, and the relevant stanza containing this expression, to understand its meaning fully. Continue reading “The Meaning of Keats’s ‘Cold Pastoral’”
By Dr Oliver Tearle
‘Negative Capability’ is one of the key ideas associated with the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821). But what exactly did Keats mean by ‘Negative Capability’? Let’s take a closer look at this theory, which made its first appearance in a letter Keats wrote to his brothers. Continue reading “The Meaning of John Keats’s ‘Negative Capability’”